Telling A Story

In our Photography 101 workshop, I discuss how composition helps us to tell the best story in our images. One of the ways we achieve great storytelling is through the usage of cropping. In this video and article, I want to show you guys how cropping can be a powerful way to compose a picture and tell a great story.

Cropping helps us to decide what story to tell in the image by dictating what is included and what is excluded. The difference between composition and cropping, however, is that cropping is more focused on the overall story and theme and allows us to focus in on more specific details of the story.

For example, we created a cute picnic scene with a couple shown in the image above. However, if I had just taken wide shots, capturing only the wider context of the scene, then you lose focus on the overall details of the story.

I love the strawberries in the picnic scene, and I think that their feet dangling off the wall looks cute. The power of cropping lies in capturing the details of an overall scene which contribute to the over-arching theme of the shoot. So I focus in on some detailed shots of the overarching scene and utilize the power of cropping to tell a great story.

Conclusion

In the end, what we produce is a collection of pictures that highlights different components of an entire story, resulting in a stronger and more elegant product.