As a former photojournalist, this is the way we covered an event. An overall shot, then a series of close ups showing individual parts of the event. For some reason, I quit doing this for a long time but in the last few years I have started doing it in my landscape work.
Hi Mark, thank you for sharing your experience. In addition, I appreciate that you don"t use stupid intros and also don"t apply distracting background music.You are a true professional.
Mark, your videos bring more thought to my own work than most other channels I subscribe to. The way you immerse the viewer in the topic always gives me pause as to how I can be better at my own craft. Thank you for all that you put into these videos, I love this.. Tim
Wow Mark, light bulb moment, thank you for taking the trouble to share this mindset/workflow. I've been missing the point for years now LOL, gonna be taking that 17-40mm out the bag again for my first shot. I've been carrying it round for years and I guess haven't used it for at least 2 years. Going on a shoot a week on saturday and will be using your wisdom from the get go. All the best Russ
When I saw one of your older videos, where you already talk about that story board thing, that was kind of an eye opener. I use this now all the time. It's great!
Regarding storyboarding, when I'm doing street photos with my 50mm I find myself thinking about an old book I read as a child called 'How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way'. Composition in comics is fun, clean and dynamic, so it fits well.
Oh, how I love this location. We had nothing but blue skies, but I have to pat myself on the back. I was able to capture images that told the story, as you recommended. One of my faves is a grouping on 3 boats.
Maybe also add a close up or macro of a flower or similar in front of the lake. Sometimes there's a resistance to changing lenses when out in the field taking pictures, which is why I kept my a7R3 instead of trading it in when I bought my a7R5. It's easier to grab the second camera and lens instead of changing lenses on one camera.
Great stuff, Mark! I've had a hard time understanding story telling through still photography, and I've been a hobbyist for over 40 years, and you've enlightened me on the subject! Thanks so much for your excellent presentation.
I love this statement.: Photography is Visual Storytelling This will change how I look at every scene and shot moving forward. Mark, Thank-You Very Much
This is a great topic/video. Not many people talk about getting the most out of a shoot like this and utilizing a storyboard approach. Also super impressed that you edited on a plane and recorded this RU-vid video the day after travel. Superstar! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Great video Mark, and remarkable timing. I have just got back home after a morning sunrise shoot here in Australia. I have probably 30 frames of the same image to go through tonight with the hope of one keeper. When I walked away from the scene this morning I knew there was probably something I was missing and now I get it. Can’t wait to go back out soon with a different mindset.
I've used this storyboarding idea for some time now, and it was one of your previous videos that got me started using this process. For my photography, it has been transformative. Thank you for this and all of your content.
Loved hearing about your thought process of making and getting the most out of a shoot, telling a better story about it, and even better, making the most of your time at a beautiful location. By getting 3 magnificent shots here just captivates your's and others attention so well.
Excellent as always. I will now start wide as always, work to mid-range, and finally a long lens to capture the full essence of the story. Great reminder.
This is a great idea, but the technique suggests that all three images need to be shown together in order to convey "the story". Do you attempt to show all the images involved in creating a story together?
Very nice, It's funny and I'm sure you learn this all the time from other photographers.... It's great even if you are a working photographer, to think outside the box... We can always learn and see different perspectives from other photographers. Thank you for the quick insight and lesson ❤️
Excellent explanation of a complex subject. As a newer photographer, I’ve watched hundreds of videos on purpose and composition and got lost in the words. You’ve explained how and why in one video. Priceless.❤️
Great tip. I recently started using this approach. Particularly with my 24-200 lens it is quite easy to quickly carve out the intimate details of the broader scene.
good tips. long telephoto images is one of the most under-pursued type of landscape photography IMO. It's so often I see people walk up to a popular location like the Maroon Bells, slap on the 16-35, get the morning light, then go home. There's a lot of powerful compositions that can be found using a 70-200 (or longer)
Thanks a lot for this video. I've been stuck in my photography for a long time and this might be exactly the tip I needed. I'm new to you channel but I will definitely be staying. Thanks again! 😃
Absolutely fantastic images! Capturing the full scene and multiple frames is something I tried in my most recent trip as well, and I must say I was surprised at how many additional photos became keepers.
Great video. The best way to tell a story better than have a series of unconnected images that present a disconjunct mess. A few yrs ago I watched a video where the person ran with the theme of rock concept album. The opening theme, the middle tracks, the anthum and then the end track which draws everything together. It is like the old addage that the journey is every bit as important as the destination
Super tutorial Mark!!! I'm going to start doing this. Especially since I do 90% wildlife photography, and am learning to improve my landscape photography. This also makes a LS outing far more interesting, for each location! Excellent!
This is a great tip! I currently only have a 28-75mm, but this suggestion may impact future lens choices because this makes a lot of sense and seems like it would be very fulfilling to see the photos come together as a story. I'm in the path of the total eclipse next spring and this has me thinking of how to tell that story with a series of photos. Here's hoping for a clear day!
I've almost the same lens only. I get the point of a wide and tele lenses and i know maybe I should get those in time but it bothers me having to change lenses out there to follow this approach
Wow I've never thought about it this way!! Also amazing photos! Really cool how you kept the edit so close to how it actually looked like! That's how you know you're a good photographer!!
Great video. Sometimes you have to see big and focus small. There are elements within the scene that are, by themselves just as or more inspiring to look at. Understanding how we focus, with our eyes, helps us to see an inner beauty within many scenes. Thanks again
I love this idea! You've touched on it before but I'm glad you went more in depth with it. When I go for sunrise, I have my 24-70 on one camera and the 70-200 with the 2.0 TC on with the other camera. Fantastic work Mark!!!
Great tip. As a matter of fact, I tried to do this last week when I was in the Smokies. Lots of times I don't think about this until I'm processing, then I spot something in a wider shot I'd like to crop into. Trying to be more aware of it when I'm shooting now.
I've been in the practice of making multiple photos at the same location for many years now. It can be not just using different focal lengths, but also different areas of the same general location that can be used to tell the story. It never made sense to me when people talk about one photograph telling a story. For me, storytelling requires multiple photos.
Hello Mark, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Great sample photos that speak for themselves. You make it so obvious why the "story" isi better than the single image. - I also enjoyed it because it strenthens the concept that we have been using in our PhotoClub: We don't show single photos at our exhibitions, we show "series" of 3 or 4, sometimes 5 photos that have certain elements in common and that make the series more valuable than any one of them. Talking about value: I enjoyed many of your videos that are often dealing with editing techniques or processes. But I do encourage you to share more contributions that do not (only) focus on technical stuff, but on the artistic and creative side, like you did here with the "storyboard".
Hi Mark, after the wide shot, the zoomed in shot appeared in the beginning to be out of proportion, rather asymmetrical, but I guess this is influenced by the wide shot. Was it a windless morning? Because the close up with the boat came out extremely well. Many times I tried to shoot a long exposure of boats in the water. Everything came out as desired, except the boats appeared to be “ghost-boats”😊. Even a slight breeze ruins such a shot. I guess, I am a little lazy with post-production & merging of 2 shots was too much of a ”work” for me😏! All your 3 shots brought out 3 different characters acting on this huge stage.
It would be helpful if you could share what lens, f stop, shutter speed, & ISO for us beginners. I really loved this video and am excited to start implementing this in my photography.
Great video Mark , I like the way you work a shoot . Looking for elements in the sense to tell a story from different perspectives using different lenses.
Echoing the kudos and appreciation for your efforts here. I also have two additional applications to pile on. First, in architectural practice we need to tell a relatively exhaustive story of how our building designs will be assembled. And we always start with the large view: the site plan, overall floor plans, elevations, building sections and make our way into the details. We have two audiences: owners and builders, each with different needs. But I found your presentation here to resonate in a way a couple years of YT videos hadn’t quite delivered. What I have found on YT is the second case: the 9-shot framework for scenes in video production: 2 establishing, 2 wide, 2 medium, 2 closeup and 1 odd angle. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2N4hEbcX2N8.html I’m still asking a lot of questions about how this works and what both the world and I want from photography. But as a student of storytelling in a variety of contexts I find your broaching of this subject without pretension quite refreshing.
Great storytelling, Mark. Lovely photos. Good advice. I was wondering, however, about how you put the white boarders around your photos? Perhaps you could do a video in the near future showing us how you do that. Thanks.
Hi! If you use Photoshop, head to the Image header then scroll down to Canvas Size and from there you can pick/adjust the width and height for your canvas... and the colour too. Hope this helps you!
I’m wondering how you would present this story in print format. I like printing my better photos, but don’t know how you would go about presenting the prints.
Great video! I was just wondering how you approach allocating your time, especially when there is a finite amount of time for sunrise/sunset. When do you decide that "okay I've got my wide shot, let's move on"? How do you balance between getting the"optimum conditions for a single shot vs being able to get good enough conditions for a small series?
Mark, your words ring so true. I many times after taking a shot at a location, I will sit back and look 'deeper' into the scene to see what is hiding from me. Sometimes nothing, and sometimes there is magic. Thanks for this eye opener of a tutorial.
For a long time all you saw in landscape photos on instagram were sunrise and sunset shots and I beleive it was very overdone. I prefer your last 3 shots in particular the closer versions and I often do this on landscape photos deliberately not including the sky.
I will take one or two shots from a spot and then I will move I never stay in the one spot and continue to take the same photo over and over for me that is a complete and other waste of time and lacks creativity because the better light or better composition might be to the left or right I find this grandiose scene of the mountains just in the middle it's a beautiful scene but my goodness it's been done to death so I will be looking at what other compositions could I find in that area it's a great photo I love it don't get me wrong divorce saying these types of photos over and over and over after a while you go I've seen that before I will be trying something different I would be looking at could I step in the water could I try different angle. I like the view that you are trying to tell a story if you think about it photography is just a visual storage coming method that we want to use different techniques to create that story but I think I'm just overseeing the big grandiose mountains with the wide angle shot and I was probably guilty of shooting a lot of that when I started. I often post photos in sets now usually sets of three one wide angle one zoom and one drone shot it is definitely more inviting an interesting when you tell the story from different angles thank you for your video
