Photo Composition – Data Interactive Journalism

Shooting tips

Composition

Avoid static images, look for peak action:

A protester being pepper sprayed. The image won an award for breaking news photography.

Survivors carry religious images, ten days after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines.

Rule of thirds:

– This technique draws the viewer’s eye into the entire composition, instead of just the center.
– Off-centered images often feel more dynamic than centered ones.
– If the central subject is small, use an intersecting point of the grid. If it is large or long, put it along a grid line.
– In a landscape, place the horizon on one of the horizontal lines, not in the center.
– If a subject is looking or moving in a direction, leave the empty space in that direction.
– Right placement is a popular choice to draw the viewer into the image.

Working the layers:

Scott Jones gives his girlfriend Alex Thomas a kiss after being knocked down to the ground as riot police clear the streets of downtown Vancouver, Canada after the city broke out in riots when the Vancouver Canucks lost Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, on June 15, 2011.

After punching a hole in his bedroom door, Scott panics in his living room. “My PTSD comes from long exposure to combat trauma,” Scott said. “I think it comes from the fact that I survived. That wasn’t my plan. It’s an honor to die for my country, but I made it home.” Scott said that being diagnosed with PTSD “means I have nightmares every night. It means I’m hyper-vigilant — It means I have no fuse and if I get attacked, I’m going to kill. ÉI don’t want to feel this way.”

Sara King, left, walks past her boyfriend, Trinidad Rodriguez, in the van they live. At right is her child Rylan King. The three can’t afford to find a stable home now.

Big weddings costing up to $10,000 have become more common as young people feel safe enough to plan for the future. Some 300 guests celebrated for two days when bride Heelan Muhammad, 23, married Husham Raad, 30, last October. They are saving for a house. Daily life isn’t always easy, says 24-year-old Raad Ezat-Khalil (with baby), the groom’s cousin and matchmaker, but “the most important thing is how strong and determined people are.”

Point of view:

Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a prayer as they gather in the religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim to protest against summer events organized by the city council, Jerusalem, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. “Prayers for Protest”

KONA, HI – OCTOBER 8: A general view of competitors swimming over a school of fish at the mass swim start for the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship on October 8, 2011 at Kailua Bay in Kona, Hawaii. Considered one of the most grueling races in the world, nearly 2,000 competitors must brave 95 degrees temperature and 90 percent humidity to complete a 3.86 km swim, 180.2 km bike, and a 42.2 km marathon with in an 17 hour time cutoff to be called an “Ironman”. (Photo by Donald Miralle for LAVA)

In Tripoli, at the 32th Khamis Brigade head quarters, rebels forces found 53 carbonized bodies inside a warehouse supposedly used as a detention facility by soldiers loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Some bodies showed signs of execution. .Rebels arriving at the warehouse.

NPPA winner — Joesphine Mpongo, 37, practices the cello in the Kimbanguiste neighbourhood of Kinshasa, DR Congo. The Kimbanguiste Symphony Orchestra practise here 5 days

Light and shadow:

A doctor cries when four of his friends (one doctor, an ambulance driver and two nurses) were killed by a NATO air strike in the road between Ajdabia and Brega.

Evacuees cast their shadows on tents as they arrive at a UNHCR refugee camp fleeing violence in Libya near the border crossing of Ras Jdir March 5, 2011. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (TUNISIA)

Patterns:

March 14, 2013 - Lovozero, Russia - Reindeer herd together on a breeding co-operative farm. — March 14, 2013 – Lovozero, Russia – Reindeer herd together on a breeding co-operative farm.

Framing:

Todd Heisler’s “Final Salute” was named one of the most influential photo essays of the past ten years. While a staff photographer at the Rocky Mountain News, Heisler (now at The New York Times) spent a year documenting the work of Major Steve Beck and the Marine Honor Guard who handle family notifications and the funerals of Marines killed during the Iraq War. At a time when the Pentagon barred photographers from covering the return of military caskets to Dover Air Force Base, Heisler’s “Final Salute” provided a rare and intimate look at the dignity of military funeral rites.

The Great Empty

Rawalpindi, Pakistan. No standees, and few seat takers.

An example of “framing:” The 18th floor toilet in the Boom Boom room in the Standard Hotel offers a bird’s-eye view and exposes patrons to the elements.