Storytelling, Copywriting, Script and Narration
Telling a Story is Talking
To create a story with one or more photos, you need to understand and know the meaning of these 4 words:
- Storytelling.
- Copywriting.
- Scenario.
- Narration.
Once you've assimilated their meaning and application to photography, you'll really be able to shout out interesting photos that make sense.
To tell a story is to speak. Telling a story with photos means expressing words with visual words. You need technique.
Using Storytelling to Create your Photos
The word storytelling means "the action of telling a story".
Storytelling is a technique that consists in promoting an idea, a product, a brand, etc., through the story it tells, in order to arouse attention, seduce and convince through emotion rather than argument.
To apply storytelling to your photos, you need to think about the story you want to tell, considering all the elements I detailed in the first part of this article.
Whether it's a book, a film, a TV series or a play, storytelling always comes before staging or explicit creation. Everything is prepared upstream. The entire creative process takes storytelling into account.
In the field of photography, studio photography is well suited to storytelling. The photographer sets up his story well in advance of the photos. He will arrange his scenes, models and lighting according to the story he has prepared.
In nature photography, you have two options. Either you prepare a story before your photo project, or you write it as you take photos in the field.
In nature photography, we are totally dependent on natural elements such as animals, wind, rain, clouds and the seasons. Even if everything is predictable, everything is random. We never know how the elements will work together. Sometimes, though, everything happens just as you'd hoped. This is the famous concept of the alignment of the planets.
But this is very rare. If you want to tell a story with your nature photos, I recommend that you prepare well, adapt and make compromises.
Preparing yourself properly means defining a photo project. You need to have an idea of the story you want to tell. Even if it's difficult, try to be as precise as possible.
Tell a story by imagining what you'll experience in the field. Then, when you create your photos, you'll adapt to the situation. But preparation will give you the rails to guide you.
Storytelling in nature photography is a special alchemy of rigorous preparation, adaptation in the field and compromise with the natural elements.
Correctly defining good storytelling is important because it's the story you'll be telling viewers.
You must always have a basic story, otherwise you'll get lost in the field.
As conditions change rapidly, you'll miss out on interesting opportunities.
Using Copywriting to Create your Photos
Copywriting is the process of writing words with the aim of getting the reader to act.
Whatever the artistic activity, copywriting involves titling works of art.
In my case, for example, copywriting is an activity that allows me to title my collections and each of my art photos.
It's an essential activity, because thanks to this title, I encourage viewers to understand what I meant when I created my photos.
This is a very important first step.
Even if sight is the first sense I call upon when showing a photo, the title facilitates interpretation and understanding.
Copywriting is important for a story because you give it a title.
Have you ever considered going to a movie or reading a book that didn't have a title? I'm sure the answer is no.
You need to do the same when telling a story with one or more photos. You need to come up with evocative titles. They'll be read once the photos are seen. They reinforce the message you want to convey with your images.
Copywriting - in other words, titling your photos or series - can be done at any time.
It can happen before the project is created, during it, or even once you've got all your photos ready.
It's highly variable and you can change it several times. It's a process that can be iterative. This is normal.
But in any case, copywriting is essential to the creation of a story.
Using the Script to Create your Photos
The script is a tool used by authors to immerse the audience in the story they want them to experience.
The script introduces time and space.
The viewer experiences the sequence in a certain order. Each chapter has its own tone and rhythm. In photography, the scenario is constructed from all the photographic elements available to the photographer.
To build your photos, you need a scenario. You'll be using photographic elements.
Script is writing.
The script is a fiction. Even if we recognize the photographed scene, it's only a framing, a composition.
A script is not objective. It's only a reconstruction. It is not a science. In a scenario, the photographer brings his phrasing, his voice, his style, his tone, his judgment.
Even if the themes of the stories are universal, the way they are staged is unique. It depends on who's telling it.
The scenario is unfolding.
As you've probably gathered by now, the scenario for each photo is to assemble the photographic elements.
To compose your photos, you need to master the language of photography. Scripting is essential to tell a story.
For each of your photos, you need to locate the photographic elements. When you're in a studio, it's quite easy, because you place them as you like.
In nature photography, you use the elements that nature provides. You can't change or move them. If you do, you don't have the ethical blade.
Never forget to respect the environment. We are only guests on earth. We must respect the natural environment.
If you can't move the natural elements, you can change your position and your point of view.
You can choose perspectives, vanishing lines, avoid mass imbalances, choose colors, and above all, choose light.
In the end, it's much more exciting and interesting to deal with the natural elements in photography.
Personally, these moments always give me a strong adrenalin rush.
What's more, these choices allow you to create photos that are uniquely your own.
Nature is all around us. But we all perceive it in different ways. The scenario in photography is an interpretation of what you see.
Using Narration to Create Your Photos
Narrative is what the audience perceives or receives.
For example, it could be a beautiful and moving story, an unforgettable adventure.
The narrative is the result of a pre-established script.
Narrative is what the audience feels. To create a narrative in a story you're going to tell an audience, you have to think about them.
When you take our photos, you have to put yourself in his shoes and imagine how he will perceive what you want to express. If you can't, how can you expect him to? A narrative should be simple, audible and understandable. Don't use complicated words; you'll lose your viewers.
When you're out in the field, speak up and explain what you're doing. That's the way I do it.
Even if we practice a visual art, the spoken word is very useful for describing. Thought is often insufficient to be complete.
Narration is an essential part of finding and giving meaning to your photos.
If you want to know what your audience will feel, feel it yourself.