Feature Photography

A feature photo simply captures a nice moment within the culture, or a happening that illustrates quality of life in some sense.  Photo feature was frequently misunderstood and was defined as, “an image depicting a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation, excluding sports action”. It should be noted that a shot fitting To know how to write a photo f this definition, even if taken in a sports environment, is eligible as human interest, whereas a traditional sports winner usually shows the peak of action or captures an exciting moment, hopefully with a story telling face expression.

While doing photography we have to be careful. A photographer should use his talent during photography, because after taking photos you can not move, clone, add, delete, rearrange or combine the elements of photograph. A photographer is not allowed to manipulate or modify a picture as he/she can only resize, crop, can brighten a picture or can darken it. A photographer is not allowed to apply special effect filters; any kind of sharpening must appear natural. In present times we have got all kinds of photo editing software’s where we can change anything in photograph. A photo editor can give any look or mode to a photograph as he would like and it has happened in past, happening in present which is a great threat to photo journalists of world.  One of the major problems in photojournalism is the fact that the public is loosing faith in this profession. The viewers no longer believe everything they see. All images are called into question because the computer has proved that images are malleable, changeable, and fluid. In movies, advertisements, TV shows, magazines, we are constantly exposed to images created or changed by computers.

There has been many cases of digital manipulation over past 20 years or so, the first of note being the famous pyramids coverof National Geographic in 1982. National Geographic had a horizontal photo of the pyramids in Egypt and wanted to make a vertical cover  from it. They put the photo in a computer and squeezed the pyramids together, a difficult task in real life but an easy task for the computer.they reffered to it as the “retroactive repositioning of the photographer”. By this photograph NATIONAL GEOGRHIC demaged their credibility, taste issues have a short life span, ethics issues do not go away. Here we are almost 30 years later and we are still talking about what Geographic did. There are a no of such caese.

How to take pictures for photo feature

To produce a photo feature we must know how to take a photos .we do not need to become an expert photographer. There are some tips on taking photos.

 1. We should ask for permission and introduce our self before taking a photo of any personality. Never take a photograph of a child without the permission of parents.

2. Be sensitive when to take a photograph. Never take the photograph that would hurt anyone as it is the matter of ethics.

3. Watch for detail that would diminish the effectiveness of your photos. Do not pose the subject in front of a bush so it looks as though leaves are growing out of his head.

4. Take candid photos not posed ones as much as possible. Candid photos are much interesting.

5. Watch the lighting. Do not pose the subject with a strong light source behind them. The light whether sunlight or artificial light will wash out the subject.

6. Whenever we submit photo with a manuscript, we must provide caption for the photo.