You don’t need to be a professional photographer or have any special equipment to capture powerful images that can either stand as stories on their own, accompany written work, or be posted on social media with informative captions.
The best practices shared here apply for photography with any equipment, from a smartphone to a powerful digital camera.
Taking photos
Choosing what to photograph
Consider what photo can I add that is supplementary to the story?
If the photo is accompanying text: What doesn’t exactly restate the text, but contains elements contained in the text, encouraging a reader to go back and forth between the image and text?
Framing
If you intend to share photos on social media, vertical rotation tends to look better because of how these platforms maximize images to fit the shape and size of most smartphones.
If the photo is for a website or to be integrated into some kind of written media (blog post, article, etc.), horizontal rotation works best, because it maximizes space on a laptop or computer screen.
Site/Setting
Consider getting people out of the office. Put your subject in environments relevant to your story.
Lighting
¾ lighting works best for portraits. You don’t want your subject lit head on—you want some shadows on their face—but you want to be able to see their eyes clearly.
Natural light is always best.
Even if the background is important to a photo, good lighting is more important. It’s important to prioritize good lighting to make sure a photo is usable, and it’s worth choosing your background around your lighting to ensure usability.
Posing
Make sure the photo or video reflects the content. Particularly when there’s heavy subject matter at hand, for example, you might avoid telling your subject to smile. However, a smile might be appropriate for a “meet the team” headshot or introductory video. If you’re posting about a difficult setback or challenge, you subjects should reflect the seriousness of the situation.
Candid images often look a lot better than posed ones. Ask somebody for their consent to be photographed and then wait a while to capture candids, ensuring they return to natural movement.
Consider trying semi-posed photography. Get your subject in the space or setting you want to photograph them in and ask them to move around naturally. You can ask them to pause if they land in a position that makes for a great photograph or try to take candids as they move through the space.
Anonymity
Capturing somebody’s hands, for instance, can be a great way to get a personal photograph without compromising someone’s identity.
Try asking your subject to lay out some of their belongings on a table or the floor and take a photograph of the pile from above. You can capture somebody’s identity in a powerful but faceless way with this method.
You can always consider taking a photo of someone through a screen or through a window with a reflective gaze.
Consent
Generally, the First Amendment affords you the right to photograph in public spaces (see this guide for any exceptions to this rule). However, just because something is legal doesn’t always mean it is appropriate. It is important to always ask for consent when taking photographs in private spaces, and important to try as best as you can to get the consent of anyone you photograph in a public space.
Especially at a public event or on the street with lots of people in the background, there will be so many people moving through a space that asking everyone in all of your pictures for their consent is impossible. When choosing whether to use a photograph for which you were not able to obtain consent from everybody pictured, think about the following:
- Who is pictured? Is it a layperson, or someone in law enforcement or politics? Using photos of people who have, in choosing their career, chosen to put themselves into the public eye requires less consideration, so long as it was taken in a public space.
- If it is a layperson, consider:
- Is there anything about the content of this photograph that would put someone in it at risk? For instance, was the photograph taken at a protest?
- Are there any faces or other identifying personal details that might put a subject at risk?
- Can I get their consent?
- Is there a way I can use a photo that doesn’t reveal the identity of my subject that will have the same impact?
Editing
You don’t have to edit your photos – for example, using filters, editing lighting, or cropping for composition. But if you want to, there are plenty of programs out there to help you do that.
Adobe’s Lightroom is the most popular photo editing software, but there are also plenty of free options out there, including the editor built into your phone. Another free option is Adobe Express Photos (formerly Photoshop Express).
