Lisbon, Portugal Scene Setters

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 800, ƒ/9, 1.3 sec

Who, What, WHERE, Why, When & How

In Journalism 101 the five Ws and H are taught as the questions whose answers are considered basic in information-gathering. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

Last week while teaching Multi-Media Storytelling Workshop in Lisbon, Portugal we covered getting images that help give context for their stories.

Below here are some possible scene setters that help address the WHERE for the storyline.



When you examine the Five Ws and H most of those questions can be captured visually. The adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. It also aptly characterizes one of the main goals of visualization, namely making it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly.

This is why visual storytelling can be extremely powerful. You can get across a lot of information to the audience in a very short period of time.

While one image can capture "WHERE" a series of photos in a multimedia can do even more. Depending on the sequence, some music and the human voice can pull you even deeper into the context of the story.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/13, 1/180

Here is a photo of Nazaré, Portugal where I am at Sítio (an old village, on top of a cliff) overlooking Praia (along the beach). This is how you as a tourist give context.  Shoot too tight and you could be anywhere in the world. Don't make that mistake or you could have just stayed home and taken photos in your backyard.

Depth-of-Field

Context photos are difficult when you use a shallow depth-of-field. Compare these two photos with where changing the aperture to gave a greater depth-of-field.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.7, 1/1000

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/10, 1/500

Wide Angle Lens

Personally I prefer to get close with a wide angle verses using a longer telephoto lens, but here in these photos it does work.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/500

Remember when you travel and you want to take establishing shots that capture where you were and not just photos of you that could have been taken anywhere.