Photo editor gives three elements of great business news photos

Bloomberg writer David Evans took this photo as part of the Reynolds Center workshop on how to take compelling business news photos.

Carlos Chavez, deputy photo editor for The Arizona Republic, told a Reynolds Center workshop that these three elements are the keys to great business news photos:

• Lighting: The best lighting is outdoor lighting on an overcast day. Strong sun creates harsh shadows.
• Composition: Follow the rule of thirds. Draw imaginary lines both horizontally and vertically one-third of the way across a photo, and place the most important elements at the intersection of those lines.
• Action or moment: “A lot of time your (persuasive) personality is going to make or break your assignment,” he said because many people don’t like to be photographed and you have to coax them into it.

Other tips:

• When shooting portraits, if you are getting glare off a subject’s glasses, either move the person to stronger light or have them tilt their glasses down slightly.
• You never want the eyes of the subject dead center.
• A professional photographer will have no problem getting in your face. Don’t be afraid to get closer.
• A wide angle will give more of a scene setter. “When you zoom in,  you’re eliminating the background.”
• To achieve headshots with a studio look, shoot high and down.  The flash needs to be eye level or higher. Have a tall person sit down. The person then looks up and loses his or her double chin, if he or she has one.
• Shooting someone straight on makes them look wider. Turn the person to his or her side.
• The problem with the red-eye setting on a point-and-shoot camera is that it’s often too slow for fast-moving subjects.
• Shoot a lot of photos; a professional news photographer would shoot 100 to 150 photos for a feature on a restaurant and then edit those down to 10 for his or her editor to review. If the subject asks, tell him or her you just want to get a nice shot.
• If you get up too close with a wide angle for a headshot, you’ll distort the face.
• Don’t crop off the tops of subject’s heads.
• When a subject asks, “What do you want me to do?” The answer is “If I weren’t here, what would you be doing?” Tell subjects to pretend that you — the photographer — are invisible.
• If you’re using shutter-priority setting, don’t use anything lower than 1/30th of a second. For sports, use 1/250th of a second and higher.
• Be aware of the photo’s background, and avoid busy backgrounds.

Carlos Chavez

After classroom instruction, the 13 participants went to nearby small businesses to shoot photos. Chavez critiqued their work when they returned.

The workshop was part of the multimedia track at SABEW’s annual conference in Phoenix, which concluded today. Previous sessions taught participants how to produce a business news video and podcast and how to look natural on air.