Photographers are storytellers. Storytelling is about creating change. Visual storytelling requires creating visual change in a way that advances a story. (This I just picked up from Norman Hollyn, but we’ll get to him in a second.) Let me go on. . .
In moviemaking, something called a “logline” is used to describe a scene in a way that allows the moviemaker to focus on how to best tell the story of that scene in relation to the overall movie (which, it turns out, can also be defined by a logline).
As photographers, we can apply these concepts to still images, using a logline to clearly define the goal of set of images. We can then use that logline (as well as other concepts of film editing) to help us best select and order images to most effectively tell our stories. (This is my idea, although probably not new.) Let me move on. . .
I’m not yet 20 pages into “The Lean Forward Moment,” which is an amazingly engaging book by Norman Hollyn, a seasoned editing pro and a fantastic teacher, and these are some of the ideas that are racing through my head. The subtitle of his book, which Jay Kinghorn highly recomended to me, reads: “Create compelling stories for film, TV and the Web.” However, as I suggest above, the food for thought of this books seems totally applicable to still-only photographers.
(If you read this blog regularly, you probably know that I don’t even really believe in “still-only” photography anymore. Thanks to the Digital Revolution, visual media have gotten wonderfully mixed up, and stand alone still images are hard to come by in professional photography. Think: Flash presentations of still images = “motion” = not “still-only photography.”)
I’ll review “The Lean Forward Moment” in full for you once I’ve read it in full, but in the meantime let me share one reason the book has got me so excited: As photographers, we ALWAYS have the hardest dang time editing their own images. Then grouping them just right becomes a major bummer. Selecting and presenting images is fundamental to photography, yet who has got a true and comfortable hold on this process?
How to present one’s complete style (say, a general portfolio) in a mere 20 images from an archive of thousands? How to select and order 15 images in a way that best tells the story of a given assignment, a wedding, a portrait session, a nature shoot or. . . ANYTHING?
I don’t have a clear answer yet, but I know that my own thinking is being greatly helped by the first few pages of “The Lean Forward Moment.” This is not a how-to book in the button-clicking, program-using sense. It is a how-to book in the conceptual sense. For example, Hollyn explores how very different experiences can be created for the viewer using the same three shots in different orders. This creates a different dramatic reaction, which creates a different story.
Do you show the close up of Adam’s shocked expression first or rather a close up of the dead body he encounters? Different order, different effect on the audience. And as Hollyn points out, movie making (like all storytelling) is all about creating a desired reaction in the audience – the one that has been defined by that logline.
I’ll repeat that I don’t have any solid advice at this point, but I write this post because I think I’m onto something incredibly important for most, if not all, photographers. I’ve never thought about my image making and image presentation in this way, but I wish I had. Like many, I suspect, I’ve focused on trying to select the “best” images, or at least the “best images that show the full range of my story coverage.” But that’s fairly abstract, I now realize, and probably why I’ve found the task so frustrating.
When it comes to putting 15 or 20 shots in order, I usually fall back on the typical advice of showing the “strongest” image first (what’s that?), then trying to create some kind of rhythm (huh?), then ending with a winner. But have I ever really focused clearly on the mind of my audience and what I want them to feel or learn? Sure, of course I have, but only to a certain extent, and not in the manner that Hollyn is proposing. I realize now that I’ve been lacking the vocabulary and approach that Hollyn is bringing to light. . . and in less than 20 pages!
Hollyn opens his introduction by saying that the best filmmakers are those with the best editing skills. The best editors know how to craft the best stories, and therefore those who are able to best contribute to filmmaking are those who understand the deepest levels of editing, whether they are writer, directors or even actors. I get that point. And I think the point that as a photographer, my craft is going to get a major boost if I understand these editing principles as well.
As I say, I’ll be back with a “The Lean Forward Moment” review, and I’ll try to channel any image editing tips I pick up during the read. But at this point I’m writing this post to get a dialog started. So definitely drop a line to share:
• Your best editing suggestions creating a powerful group of images.
• Any editing problems that that plague you.
• Any great image editing resources.
I’m not the only one struggling with still image editing. Let’s help each get beyond merely ranking images and figure out how to best tell our stories with groups of still images!