The photo essay project and critique

A single photograph can be powerful, but many of the most influential works of photography are groups of pictures that together tell a story or explore a theme: the photo essay. Making one draws on everything in this course, from exposure and focus to viewpoint, timing, light, workflow and ethics, and adds new skills: choosing a subject you can access over time, planning coverage, editing ruthlessly, sequencing, writing captions and presenting the result. This final lesson explains what a photo essay is, how to plan and shoot one, how to edit and sequence it, how to write captions, how to critique your own and others' work, and the course project, with a technical checklist and how the project is assessed.

What a photo essay is

A photo essay is a set of photographs, usually with captions and sometimes text, that works as a whole. Essays take two broad forms:

• Narrative essays tell a story with a beginning, middle and end: a day in the life of a nurse, the restoration of a canoe, a family preparing for a wedding, a season on a farm.
• Thematic essays explore an idea through related images that may not form a sequence in time: solitude in the city, the colour of a neighbourhood, how people use one park, traces of industry in a landscape.

The modern photo essay grew up in picture magazines such as LIFE in the mid-twentieth century. W. Eugene Smith's "Country Doctor" (1948), which followed a rural physician in Colorado for weeks, showed how a sequence of images could build character, place and drama. Documentary photographers, photojournalists, and today many social media creators and brand storytellers use the same principles.

Choosing a subject

The best subjects for a first essay are close at hand, accessible repeatedly, and interesting to you. Access matters more than exotic locations: a local bakery that opens at 4 a.m., a community garden, a sports team's season, a grandparent's craft, a building under construction, a bus route, a market. Ask:

• Can I photograph this several times, at different times of day?
• Will the people involved agree, and can I get their consent and releases where needed (Lesson 11)?
• Is there change, activity or emotion to photograph, or a clear idea to explore?
• Can I do it safely?

Write a one-paragraph proposal stating the subject, why it matters to you, what you hope viewers will understand or feel, and how you will get access. A focused question ("How does a small bakery prepare for its busiest day?") makes a stronger essay than a broad topic ("food").

Planning coverage

Picture editors have long described the kinds of pictures that make an essay work. A shot list based on them keeps coverage varied:

Plan the light too (Lesson 9): when is the place at its best, and what light will each part of the story have? Plan technical settings for difficult situations in advance, such as high ISO and fast lenses for dim interiors, a fast shutter for movement, and manual exposure for steady artificial light (Lessons 5 and 6). Be flexible: the plan is a guide, and the most telling pictures often come from things you did not expect.

Shooting

Spend time. Return several times so people get used to you and forget the camera; the most natural pictures usually come after the first hour, or the third visit. Work each scene (Lesson 9), and anticipate moments. Vary focal length, distance and viewpoint so the final edit has variety. Keep notes of names, roles, places and what was happening, which you will need for captions. Check focus and exposure regularly on the screen at magnification, and back up each day (Lesson 10).

Respect the people you photograph throughout: explain what you are doing, ask before photographing sensitive moments, and offer to share pictures. An essay made with its subjects, rather than about them, is usually both more ethical and more revealing.

Editing: choosing the pictures

Editing, in the photo-editor's sense, means selecting, not adjusting. It is where many essays succeed or fail. Typical essays use 8 to 15 pictures chosen from hundreds or thousands. A process that works:

• Cull technical failures and weak frames (Lesson 10).
• Rate the remaining images and gather the strongest candidates, perhaps 40 to 60.
• Print small copies or arrange thumbnails on screen, and group them by type and part of the story.
• Choose the signature image and the opening and closing images.
• Remove duplicates: keep only the best of similar frames, even when you love two.
• Ask whether each picture adds something new; if a picture could be removed without the essay losing anything, remove it.
• Get fresh eyes: another person often sees the essay more clearly than its author, who remembers how hard each picture was to get.

Be honest about weak links. One mediocre picture lowers the reader's opinion of the whole set; ten strong images are better than fifteen uneven ones.

Sequencing

The order of the pictures shapes the experience. Principles of sequencing:

• Open strongly, with an image that establishes the subject or intrigues the viewer.
• Vary pace and scale: alternate wide, medium and close pictures, and busy and quiet ones, as a film alternates shots (VIS-101).
• Build toward a climax, often the signature image, and give the essay a clear ending.
• Pair pictures that speak to each other, through shape, colour, gesture or contrast, especially when they appear side by side in a layout.
• Keep a consistent treatment: similar colour handling or consistent black-and-white toning, so the set looks like one body of work.

Captions and text

Captions turn pictures into documents. A documentary caption answers who, what, where, when and why in one or two sentences, in the present tense for the action in the picture, and adds context the picture cannot show: "Marie Tremblay, 62, shapes the first loaves at 4:15 a.m. at Boulangerie du Coin in Moncton, N.B. She has baked here six days a week for 31 years." Check names and facts with your subjects, and never caption a staged moment as candid (Lesson 11). A short introductory text of 100 to 300 words can set up the story; an artist's statement does the same for a thematic essay, explaining the idea and approach in plain language.

Critique

Critique is how photographers learn: analysing what works and what does not, in your own pictures and in others'. VIS-101 introduced a method for analysing images. For a photo essay, a structured critique asks:

• Story or idea: is the subject clear? What does the essay make you understand or feel?
• Coverage and variety: does it include establishing pictures, people, details and moments? Are there redundant images?
• Individual pictures: are they technically sound (focus, exposure, white balance, sharpness) and well composed? Is the light used well?
• Sequence: does it open and close strongly, and does it hold attention?
• Captions and ethics: are captions accurate and informative? Are the subjects treated with respect?

When giving critique, describe before judging, be specific ("the bright sign at the top left pulls my eye away from the baker's face") rather than vague ("it's busy"), balance strengths and suggestions, and focus on the work, not the person. When receiving critique, listen, ask questions to understand, take notes, and decide afterwards what to act on. You do not have to agree with every comment, but the comments that sting are often the most useful.

Technical checklist

Before submitting, check every picture against this list:

• Focus on the intended point, checked at 100 % (Lesson 7).
• Shutter speed fast enough to avoid unintended blur (Lesson 4).
• Exposure with no unintended clipped highlights and with detail in important shadows (Lesson 6).
• Noise appropriate to the subject and output size (Lesson 5).
• White balance consistent across the set and appropriate to the mood (Lesson 8).
• Horizons level and verticals controlled unless deliberately tilted (Lesson 2).
• Raw processing consistent, with no over-sharpening, halos or over-saturation (Lesson 10).
• Files exported in sRGB at the required size, correctly named, with captions and copyright in the metadata (Lesson 10).
• Releases and permissions on file where needed (Lesson 11).

The course project

Your project is a photo essay of 10 to 12 images on a subject approved by your instructor, photographed over at least three separate sessions. Submit:

• A one-paragraph proposal, early in the term.
• A contact sheet or selection of 40 to 60 candidate images showing your process.
• The final sequenced essay with a title, captions for every image, and an introductory text of 150 to 300 words.
• A technical note listing the camera settings for three of the images and explaining why you chose them.
• A one-page reflection on what you learned, what you would do differently, and how you handled consent and ethics.

The essay is assessed on storytelling and coherence, technical quality, use of light and composition, editing and sequencing, captions and text, and ethical practice. It is also the beginning of a portfolio: many photographers' first strong essays come from subjects within a few kilometres of home.

Continuing to learn

This course has given you control of the camera. PHOT-102 builds on it with light: natural light, reflectors, flash and simple lighting setups. Keep photographing every day, even with a phone; study the work of photographers you admire, in books and exhibitions as well as online; join a club or critique group; and revisit your old pictures to see how your eye has developed. Technical skill becomes automatic with practice, leaving your attention free for what matters most: seeing, and having something to say.