The news in focus

To find out about the news photos that appear in the Bangkok Post, we visited Sombat Raksakul, our photo editor. He is in charge of a team of 18 people who take the photos and get them ready for publication. Khun Sombat works closely with the editorial staff and each day he assigns where the photographers are to go.

More importantly for this lesson, Khun Sombat also helps choose the photos that appear in the Bangkok Post and decides how they are presented. For example, he decides how to "crop" (edit or cut down) the photos to give them the maximum impact. (See the picture below.)

It should be obvious that news photos are generally not chosen for their beauty. Indeed, many – like those of accidents or war scenes – can be quite ugly. With few exceptions, news photos are chosen first because of their content – their "news value" as we say in the newspaper business.

Khun Sombat gave us a list of the five main factors he considers in choosing a news photo for publication. Obviously, he put content on top, but he said he gave equal weight to the remaining four. Here is his list:

Content Photos are chosen primarily because of the events they portray – the news that they illustrate. Notice how well the picture below illustrates the rising level of the water in the Chao Phraya River.

Action Photos are most interesting if something is happening – if there is movement.

Expression Photos attract attention if they show people (or animals) displaying strong emotions. Notice how powerful the photograph below is because of the emotions expressed. This, incidentally was the scene outside the US school where 15 people died in a shooting incident in April. It clearly meets the content condition for picture selection as well as expression.

Composition There is also "art" in good news photos. Sombat always looks for unity in the pictures he selects. He wants to see a good, harmonious relationship between the various elements in the picture. Notice the excellent composition in the picture above. Notice how the line of students draws your eye from left to right and how the photo centres on the girl with her hands covering her face.

Lighting Finally, the lighting can add drama and impact to a photograph. Notice in the photo below how the lighting – the bright sun and shadows – work together with the composition to increase the drama.

Obviously, not every picture will be strong in all five elements. Usually only two or three elements will dominate.

Khun Sombat explained that news photographers use three basic techniques to take their photos. First, if they are caught up in a fast-moving situation like a riot or a brief visit by a world leader, they have to snap their photos as quickly as possible, hoping to get one or two that are useable.

Typically, however, they will have more time. That allows them to plan their composition and you will often see news photographers moving from place to place to get the best camera angle. Sometimes they see a good shot before it happens. Then they choose a good location and wait for things to happen. The photo of the lightning on this page is an example of such a planned shot.

Sometimes, the photographer will take the planning one step further and actually stage the shot. This often means telling people exactly where to stand or sit.

Most news photos accompany a news story. Some of the most interesting photos, however, stand by themselves, accompanied only by a caption. In such cases, the photo tells the story mainly by itself.

In the middle section of this page, there are a number of news photographs. They are accompanied by their captions to give you an idea of what they are about. Look carefully at each photo and then analyse them by considering the following:

• Consider why each picture was selected for publication. Apart from the content, which one (or more) of the remaining four elements of news photographs was most involved in the choice? Explain your reasoning.
• With each photo, think of how the photographer got the shot. In other words, what method did the photographer likely use? Was it a quick shot, a planned shot or a staged shot?