Photo Essay and Visualization

We've started a photo essay project with Mrs. Fairbarn's grade 7 class.  Students are asked to choose a song, identify the message(s) of their favourite parts of the lyrics, and turn these 'words' into 'images' in their photo essays.

What is a Photo Essay?  We investigated this term at the beginning of the project, and decided on this explanation:

A series of photographs that illustrate a narrative, a statement, a purpose, using imagery and symbolism, with minimal text.

We also decided that in order to do this project, we will need to learn:

• Imagery/Symbolism: Visualization
• Basic composition 
• Basic photography techniques
• Basic post-production techniques (Adobe Photoshop)
• Understand copy right & fair use policies/regulations

During our investigation about basic photography & post-production techniques , we learned that there are many factors that can impact the message of a photo, thus altering the audience's perception of our work.  We learned that:

When taking the photo, consider:

• Angle(vantage point): it tells the story!

• Lighting & exposure

• Composition: Rule of Thirds

When fixing the photo, consider:

• cropping & ratio

• contrast, lighting, exposure (Level)

• effect (don’t over do it!)

Some of the examples are shown here:

We looked at how cropping and ratio can make a world of difference in photos (see landscape below)

We also briefly looked at how exposure affects your picture quality (and sometimes moods as well~)


We also took a shot at playing with levels and effects to 'change' the story a photo can tell:

nostalgic,  dream like, memory

joyful, good times, love of the game

haunting, tragic, scary

Here are two links used during our mini-lesson, focusing on Rule of Thirds as a way to frame your shots:

Rule of thirds from Jayne Whitelock on Vimeo.


What do you think about this project?  Any suggestions/feedback? Questions? 

Enjoy making your first (?) photo essay! We will be sharing some of our work in the next few weeks!