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Improve your landscape images tenfold by using these storytelling tips

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“If you focus on this instead of getting the latest and the greatest camera gear,” says Mike Smith, “you will get so much better than you could have ever imagined.” By ‘this’, he means storytelling. It’s an elusive but valuable skill and one that any photographer benefits from. It’s the difference between a nice image and a compelling image.

But it’s not easy. Including any kind of narrative in a still image is hard. It takes practice. “Sometimes I get it and other times I completely miss the mark,” says Mike. In this excellent video, Mike walks us (literally!) through his ideas on how to tell better stories through your photographs.

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The story of the iconic Copa long shot from Goodfellas as told by the man who shot it

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It’s the most iconic scene from what is arguably the most legendary gangster movie of all time. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about that 1990 classic, Goodfellas. And more specifically, I’m talking about that three minutes and twelve seconds long take where Henry brings Karen into his world. It’s a fantastic piece of storytelling, but it’s not something for which Scorsese alone can really take credit.

The whole process of walking from Henry’s car on the street to sitting in front of the stage three minutes later and how it appeared on screen was largely down to Steadicam operator, Larry McConkey. And not just because he shot it, but because he provided so much creative input into how it was shot and transitioned from place to place. This video from CineFix walks us through the story of its creation, as told by Larry McConkey himself.

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Guidelines for ethical photography and storytelling in the post-George Floyd era

The death of George Floyd this May sparked protests across the USA and even internationally. These events make us reevaluate many things, including the ethics of storytelling and photography. In this week’s episode of Impact Everywhere’s podcast, Benjamin Von Wong spoke to Danielle Da Silva. She is an award-winning photographer, and a founder and CEO of Photographers Without Borders (PWB). Danielle spoke with Ben about her own experience with discrimination, and elaborated on PWB’s guidelines for ethical photography. If you’re a photojournalist, this is something you must listen. But honestly, I recommend it to everyone.

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Wedding photography needs to tell a story – here are five ways to make sure it does

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Someone’s wedding day is one of the most important days in a person’s life. This entire day is one big and beautiful story, and it’s your task to tell it with images. In this video from B&H, wedding and portrait photographer Cliff Mautner shares five quick but powerful tips for telling a story with your wedding photos.

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The impact of low-angle shots on your photos and videos

High-angle shots can make your subject appear weak or vulnerable. But what about low-angle shots? Do they help you achieve the exact opposite effect? Well, they can, but not necessarily. In this video from Studio Binder, learn more about low-angle shots the effect they have on your photography or video.

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How misconceptions affect travel photographers and how to avoid them

There is a particular obstacle that stands in the way of almost all travel, documentary and cultural photographers alike and, for some reason, no one seems to be willing to talk about it – so I’m going to.

The way I see it, that obstacle could be best described as ‘Misconception’. No matter how hard I try to prepare for what may lay ahead in my photography projects, it never ceases to amaze me how much of a difference there is between what I think I’m going to find and what is really out there. So many times places I thought would be completely isolated from the outside world were overrun by travelers, and cultures I thought would be extremely protective of their arts turned out to be some of the most hospitable and welcoming people I ever met. My last photography journey in Ethiopia was a perfect example of just how these misconceptions can affect a photography project.

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Gear really doesn’t matter, its all about the story

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Photography is a wonderfully dynamic form of expression. It is technical, artistic, timeless, evolved. We are in a phase in the industry where cameras and lenses are being designed to take images of mind-blowing quality. They are getting sharper and producing better color than ever before. Autofocus systems are to a point where you can tell the camera which eye to track. The focus of the industry has undoubtedly shifted toward technical perfection.

However, amidst the ever-improving image quality, we often lose the emotional connection that images from generations past have. The more we focus on how sharp the lens is and what settings someone used, the more we forget about why we started taking photos in the first place.

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Use these 10 camera tricks to tell better stories in your videos

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Shooting video usually isn’t as simple as just pointing a camera at something and hitting record. Sure, sometimes it is, but if you want to try and tell a story with your films, you need to think about how the camera can help you to tell that story. In this video, Jordy from Cinecom shows us 10 tricks to help tell better stories in our films.

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Create your best videos by learning how to plan

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Planning videos might seem quite obvious, especially for bigger productions. You need to sort your location, your script, how many people you are going to be in it and what gear you’ll use. You’ll also usually block out your shots and have your talent rehearse.

But what about when it’s not a big scripted production? What if it’s a vlog? How do you plan one of those when you’ve no idea what’s going to happen? In this video, Matti Haapoja explores this topic and talks about how he plans out his vlogs to try to create some order amongst the chaos.

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5 ways to tell better stories with your drone footage

I might’ve mentioned this before, but a lot of drone videos are starting to look kind of samey. It’s always the “cinematic” (basically a 2.4:1 aspect ratio) slow flyby over some landscape or other, with no real story. Just a bunch of vaguely connected clips of a location. A few people are pushing themselves and trying to come up with something different and interesting.

One such person is filmmaker Chris Castor, winner of the narrative category at the Los Angeles Drone Film Festival with his short film, Cardboard Cadet. Since then, the New York City Drone Film Festival caught up with Chris to have a chat and find out his 5 top tips for helping to tell a better story with your drone.

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