Storytellers

All images tell a story. Whether they're produced as works of art, on assignment for National Geographic, or as part of a family vacation, each image says more than just a shutter speed and aperture setting. We make images for a reason.

There are plenty of books on lighting, Photoshop, composition, and vision, but what's easy to forget is the reason people use these tools to construct a story. This goes beyond just knowing how to change the aperture, or feather the light emitted from a soft box, but to really knowing why certain apertures or shadow characteristics work well within a given or created context of your story.

This book focuses on storytelling, and how knowledge of our gear, our vision and attention, and our experiences and environments can be used for aid in that activity, ultimately creating more unique, stronger images. This close examination on storytelling connects the HOW-TO with the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, and WHY.

It's the story that necessitates the use ofcertain lenses, apertures, or light modifiers. The story, in essence, that holds everything together. This guide will help photography students make sensible choices with these mechanical elements so that storytelling remains at the forefront of the work.