Friday, 24 August 2012

JOUR1111 Lecture 5


Picture stories are everywhere! There are pictures all over the internet, on TV, hanging on your wall at home and even on the back of buses. There is just no escaping them. Pictures have always seemed to be intertwined with human lives, dating all the way back to cave paintings, then stain-glass windows, movies and Instagram. So obviously, pictures mean something to people. In the lecture we were told the features of a good picture include:
·         Framing
·         Focus
·         Angle and point of view
·         Exposure (light)
·         Timing (shutter speed)
·         And most importantly in my opinion is capturing ‘the moment’
Regardless of the technical aspects of photography what really makes a good picture is summed up in the quote, “If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips your heart out, that’s a good picture”.

Rips my heart out! (To be honest, give me any sad photo with a dog in it and I get emotional. Or movie... have you seen Eight Below?)
 


A picture can often hold much more meaning and portray much stronger emotions than words. The same very much goes for film and moving pictures. There is really no other medium that can convey as much depth in emotion.  
Photos and film are wonderful tools for journalists to tell a story. With digital capture and upload it is becoming easier to capture a moment and present it to the world. News and live television even make it possible to witness the moment while it is happening. In addition, while articles in the newspaper may have a couple of images, online news can include a photo gallery for each story as well as related videos which can serve as evidence  or assist in telling the more emotional side of the story.

Digital manipulation is also a highly talked about aspect of visual journalism. Who hasn’t seen the airbrushed and manipulated photos of celebrities on the covers of magazines?
 
Digital manipulation certainly has ethical implications with regards to news as it is not right to falsify an image and then present it to the public. I am sure this will link in with the lecture on ethics in a couple of weeks.

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