Researching Editorial photography

Researching editorial photography

Before i carried on taking photo's i decided to research not only other peoples work in editorial photography, but what the job is itself and find out all the ins and outs. I've started with researching editorial photography as a job, i used skills set to gather information and i have come up with some notes on the subject which i am going to talk about now. 

http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles_and_stories/job_roles/373_advertising_and_editorial_photographer

Advertising and editorial photography

Industries: advertising and marketing communications | Photo imaging | Publishing

Summary of the jobs

• Taking photographs for advertising purposes is primarily to help describe and sell products and ideas. 
• Taking photographs for editorial purposes are primarily to go alongside an article in various media formats. 

To do the role

To do either role you need to be able to do and have the qualities listed below:

• Be willing to travel and meet people to solve visual challenges, not only that you have to want to do so and actually enjoy it. 
• Be able to interpret a story through original photographic images. 
• Understand the principles of compassion, appreciate shape, form, colour and tone. 
• Be organized practical and creative.
• Calm and friendly attitude you need to cope well with busy and stressful situations.
• In order to promote yourself you need to be very motivated and self driven as well as self confident.
• Good communication skills.
• Know how to use image manipulation and image management software.

What roles does an advertising and editorial photographer do?

• Advertising photographers want to capture well lit photographs that capture the essence of the product they are trying to sell and promote. Usually in a specific area such as food, furniture, engineering, cars or financial services. 
• On the other hand editorial photographers produce images that will accompany featured articles in newspapers, magazines, websites, chapters of book and also text in company brochures. They could be working both in studios or on location. The photographer is usually briefed by the publications editor or the picture editor. They are then expected to meet the brief or exceed the expectations. 

Any qualifications needed for the job?

Officially no qualification is needed to do this job, its all about having a strong portfolio, track record and a good reputation. 

You can get established in this work through selected college schemes that give you the technical grounds and also some work placement opportunities. 

What is the best route in?

You can either enter into this industry by becoming a photography assistant or even just learning on the job.

Working as an assistant photographer means you will gain invaluable experience like learning from and already established photographer, meeting clients, models and also art directors. 

First photoshoot

Initial photoshoot

At first with this project i instantly wanted to create portraits for the magazine, and as you can tell from my first initial ideas post i want to base it on my grand parents. Although it is not entirely obvious to most how extraordinary they are to the normal person to me they are. 

I spent a day at their house taking some photos and my main aim was to capture portraits which meant i didn't really get any other types of photographs just mid shot portraits. 

The ones around this text are the unedited copies i have of the photos.

I love how after this photoshoot i realised by looking at the photographs that they are both wearing the same coloured tops, this wasn't planned but i like the way it looks. 

Research into portrait photography

Research into portrait photography

As i am wanting to capture some portraits for some if not all of my 5 images for this editorial photography i wanted to research into different styles of portrait photography, I am looking at the book 'Creative portrait photography by Natalie Dybiz'. In this book Natalie gives you a step by step guide into portraiture using her own experiences to help others when approaching this style of photography. 

Below i am going to write my interpretation of some of what i have taken from her book.

Creating a portrait is in a sense capturing the essence of a person in a photograph. A portrait can mean many different things depending on the context in which it is used in, for example in documentary photography portraits can mean there was a chance encounter with a stranger resulting in a portrait, self portraits can mean capturing yourself in a moment for personal uses or a portrait for a client could be for friends or family or again personal uses. 

To make a portrait is to make a statement, show the person as they are in that moment. Be it candid or semi-candid. 

I have taken a lot of portrait photography throughout me studying photography from the age of 16, there is something that i like about taking photographs of people, capturing them in one photograph, i'll include a few photographs that show my progression from when i first started taking portrait until now.

Not all the portraits below were meant to be strictly portraits, some were transcriptions of photographs for my A Levels, some were from my narrative project i did and some are for friends for their projects.

Magazine research for editorial - Wonderland

Wonderland magazine

This Friday wonderland released their newest edition of wonderland, this one being based on one of the most influential youth films of my generation, mean girls. A lot of current females in the limelight feature in this edition such as pop start Charlie XCX, Lucy Watson from Made in Chelsea and the mean girl herself Lindsey Lohan herself. 

The images in this edition are amazing enough but to top it of the creators have separated parts of the magazine into segments with quotes from the film itself.

So what is wonderland? in the magazines creators words ''Wonderland is an international, independently published magazine offering a unique perspective on the best new and established talent across all popular culture: fashion, film, music and art. We entertain, challenge and inform both men and women with editorial and fashion shot by the most in-demand photographers working today – we want to represent the positive and the playful elements of the fashion industry. We’re about inspiring, rather than dictating to our readers.''

The mean girls edition

Wonderland's mean girls edition has 3 different front covers, this is the front cover of the edition i bought.

Examples of images used to promote famous brands

 Chanel, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana.

Examples of quotes used from the film to complement a series of photographs.

Lindsay Lohan's segment in the edition.

The majority of the images i saw seem very fashion based and although the magazine itself is considered a fashion and editorial magazine i found it hard to see images that weren't primarily fashion based, however i did find a few images within the magazine that appeared to be more than just fashion and were quite editorial in my opinion.

Editorial reseach

The fundamentals of creative photography

David Prakel, page 076

Editorial as a whole

The term 'editorial photography means 'Pictures for publication'. In other words to make public.

Editorial photography can be found in magazines and newspapers and isn't a picture that is advertising something but an image to tell a story or go alongside a story. Essentially the images are the reason those magazines and newspapers exist. A picture can draw the view towards the magazine or newspaper and then could potentially compel the to purchase it.

One thing that has compelled editorial photography into the new age is the internet, there is now a bigger demand for this kind of photography because the internet is a bigger platform which is filled with editorial opportunities it is no longer confined to magazines and newspapers. One things that is an issue with editorial photography on the internet is the increasing issue of copyright on images. As you know images online are literally there for the taking by literally anyone all around the world. Many people will use them for personal gain but in most circumstances they are used for harmless things like research etc which is something i do on a day to day basis. 

The editorial team

Being in the editorial field may mean that you may have to work as a team with other people. Although teams may be always together or just brought together for one issue, there are clear roles and responsibilities. 

Shooting for stock

Working only for one magazine now is very rare, as there is increasing amounts of freelance editorial photographers. Stock shots are no more widely used for magazine covers. 

In the past stock shots were images taken outside the terms of a commission and were a means of earning a little extra alongside a commission, once taken these 'stock shots; would be stored in a stock library. Once in the stock library they would be given to clients, for a fee on a loan basis meaning all rights to the photographs still belonged to the stock library but they can feature them in their magazines/ newspapers etc. 

Here we go again.. Editorial Photography

Editorial photography

Brief and initial ideas

Brief

When first looking at the brief and hearing what our project was based on i was excited editorial photography has always appealed to me although i am not well educated in the field and i haven't intentionally set out to photograph in this style. 

Our theme is around the 'extraordinary'. Everyone within my group are to produce 5 images each in any style, size, type of paper and camera used. It is completely up to us which is a new element for all of us as up until now there was always guidelines and a strict regime for us. The camera, paper and size of paper was always set for us from the start, although having free reign can be quite scary i am looking forward to the challenge.

Once we have all taken and got our final five images, an external editor will professional put together a collaborative magazine using all our images. 

Initial ideas

Initially i was at a loss for what i could do for this project, we got told to not over think and to not go far to get the images because quite often you can get great images that are closer to home.

Then this brought me to put aside thinking too hard into it and i just focused on what kind of style i wanted to do it in. I love portraits of people and they way they look especially in medium format. So from this i started thinking about who i could take a portrait of that was to me extraordinary.

For me after a little thought this brought me to look at extraordinary people that are already around me. My nana and granddad to me are both very extraordinary people from when they got together at 17, when they got married at 19 and through their children being born and through their many, many serious illnesses.