Role of Photojournalist/ Peranan Wartawan Foto

Wartawan foto mempunyai peranan yang penting dalam menyampaikan mesej yang bermakna kepada pembaca melalui pengambilan gambar foto yang mempunyai nilai berita/ news value.

Peranan wartawan foto adalah berbeza dengan peranan jurufoto. Wartawan foto mengambil gambar yang mempunyai Verb/aksi manakala jurufoto mengambil gambar yang mempunyai nouns (something that about grip and grin).

Kriteria yang menggariskan peranan wartawan foto.

1. Wartawan foto perlu memahami situasi yang berlaku dalam cerita untuk menggambarkan cerita dengan cara yang paling berkesan. Oleh itu, wartawan foto merupakan orang yang selalu mendekati kepada isu utama yang berlaku di sesuatu kemunculan fenomena.
2. Wartawan foto juga perlu sentiasa mengikuti arus perdana yang berlaku mengikut kadar masa, mempunyai pemerhatian yang peka kepada kehidupan masyarakat, menyertai dalam kehidupan masyarakat supaya dapat menggambarkan cerita masyarakat dengan lebih dekat serta merekodkan dan mencerminkan kehidupan sosial dengan konsep kejujuran dan ketelusan.
3. Wartawan foto perlulah mahir dan komited kepada peralatan yang digunakan, sentiasa mengembangkan pengetahuannya dalam pelbagai bidang yang berlainan termasuklah falsafah, politik, ekonomi, sastera, estetika, drama televisyen, filem dan sebagainya.

Gambar yang berpengaruh, bernilai, dan bermakna memerlukan pemikiran seseorang wartawan foto yang matang. Wartawan foto yang memahami tentang situasi cerita secara keseluruhannya akan membantu dalam penangkapan gambar yang mencerminkan perkembangan masa dalam kehidupan sosial.

Kriteria sesuatu gambar yang bernilai berita:

(i).  Prominence/ Ketokohan (Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak )

(ii). Drama (accidents scene with someone standing nearby with an anguished expression)

(iii). Action (Pictures that suggesting movement)

(iv). Artistic or technical quality. (Sharp, clear focus, good framing.)

(v). Strange or bizarre, unusual subjects. (not likely to be seen by readers in their daily lives.)

(vi). Emotion (emotional qualities where pictures make readers feel something, to influence.)
(vii). Conflict (Quarrel nearby)

Tips: 

(i). Normally the action shot is shoot by using the TV mode which is determined about the shutter speed.

(ii). While the nouns or portraits and even landscape is shoot by using the AV mode which is determined about the depth of field in certain subjects.

Technical Value II. The shooting angle.

Finding fresh camera angle to shoot.
Angles can normally be separated into high angle, low angle AND eye-level perspective. 

Changing the angle of shooting will determine the size of the subject.
If you are shoot from the low angle, your subject will look a bit bigger than the normal size.
On the other hand, the subject will look smaller and tiny if the camera is put on the sky angle.

(i). A high angle is taking the photo from high to low and normally from the sky to the ground.
(Bird's-eye view)

The subject is more likely to be twisted and not according to the truth with the appears of varnishing point at the bottom. However, the high angle is needed when we want to create some unique angle of a picture that can grab people's attention.

(ii). Low angle is to take a photo from ground perspective to the sky.
(Worm's-eye view)

The subject in the photo is bigger and looks more gigantic.

The method of creating fresh angle.

(i). move around to pick the best angle for a photo.

(ii). pick a suitable height to convey the message that hidden in a photo: high angle, low angle or even in eye-level.

Tips: taking photos of children, pets or even plants are encouraged to shoot according to their height and thus capture the world from their point of view. If we are just shoot from own height, the subjects will literally look like they have been tossed on the ground.

The kids of the Village of Indigenous people in Hulu Langat, Selangor.

(iii). Get close, and even closer......

Robert Capa said: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." The great way to make your photos more intimate is to get closer to the subjects.

(iv). include some interesting reflection.

This can improve the photos by making mundane scenes exciting. The reflections can be found on various surfaces, water is perhaps the most obvious medium for interesting and unique reflections.

The reflection of an old-style building is helping to make the bottle into a more interesting scenes.

The reflection of "TangLung" is highlighting the issue of Chinese New Year.

(v). Tilt the photos for a more dynamic look.

The space in a dinner is tilt to build up some curiosity and uniqueness.

It's not necessary to always keep our view on the straight and perfectly horizontal photos. Tilting the camera will result in a far more interesting and unique photos.

Always keep experimenting with unique shooting angles to get more fresh and kick out all the stale-photos.

References:
(i). http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/11/03/perfect-angle-iphone-photography/

Importance of Caption - Helps in perceiving the photos.

Kapsyen didefinisikan sebagai keterangan gambar atau tajuk kecil. Kapsyen dapat mempengaruhi makna sesuatu gambar. Dengan Kapsyen, kekeliruan sesuatu gambar dapat dikurangkan dan makna gambar tersebut dapat diperkukuh. Sekiranya gambar itu adalah menarik, maka mereka akan terus membaca kapsyen yang terpapar di bawah gambar tersebut untuk mendapatkan maklumat selanjutnya.

Ciri-ciri Kapsyen:

•  merupakan perkataan yang akan mempengaruhi erti kata sesuatu imej
•  boleh mengubah maksud sesuatu foto
•  teks yang mengiringi foto
•  membantu pembaca memahami keterangan lanjut/ info yang terdapat pada foto
•  memberikan makna yang lebih
•  membantu mengurangkan kekeliruan
•  menjadikan foto lebih bermakna
•  mempengaruhi minat pembaca

Sekiranya tiada kapsyen pada gambar, pembaca mungkin akan tertanya-tanya tentang siapa dalam gambar itu, apakah yang berlaku, bilakah berlaku, kenapa berlaku dan berupa-rupa soalan yang lain. Gambar yang didapati hanya mungkin menjawab sebahagian daripada soalannya. Oleh itu, kombinasi antara gambar dengan kapsyen adalah lebih baik daripada gambar berdiri sendiri.

Perkara yang perlu dititikberat pada kapsyen:

• maklumat yang perlu ada adalah berdasarkan kepada 5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how)
• ejaan perlu dieja dengan betul dan tepat
• nama perlu didahulukan sekiranya orang itu mempunyai personaliti yang terkenal
• umur perlu ditulis untuk menjadikan gambar tersebut menarik
• ditulis dengan ringkas dan padat

Perbezaan antara kapsyen dan cutline

• Kapsyen- keterangan yang ditulis di dalam gambar
• Cutline   - keterangan yang ditulis di bawah gambar.

Contoh kapsyen yang baik

U.S first lady, Michelle Obama (R) greets Kermit the Frog as they introduce a showing of the new movie Muppets Most Wanted at the White House in Washington on March 12, 2014.

Contoh kapsyen yang kurang baik

Rahul Ghandhi: The Congressed vice president, Rahul Gandhi has been widely criticised for his silence over many national issues since he made his political debut. He will be contesting from Amenthi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Many in the Congress consider him to be the prime ministerial candidate, though it has not been announced formally by the party.

Rahul Ghandhi: The Congressed vice president will be contesting from Amenthi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. (edited)

References

http://in.news.yahoo.com/lightbox/crazy-yet-amazing-photos-1385433925-slideshow/crazy-yet-amazing-photos-photo-1395206628473.html

http://in.news.yahoo.com/lightbox/13-mps-who-didn-t-ask-a-single-question-in-lok-sabha-slideshow/mps-who-didn-t-ask-a-single-question-in-lok-sabha-photo-1395044718978.html

Technical Value I. Rules of Photo Composition/ Technical Qualities.

The rules that we can apply and consider before having some good photo.

LINES

A Symmetry shot to highlight the traffic in Taipei City.

The leading lines is used to emphasize the existence of the tourists.

The wood is used as the framing and border lines to highlight the kid.

Here are some tips about the Leading Lines. The leading lines such as symmetry shot is providing a platform to grab audiences' attention. A well composed photo will lead audiences about where to look by using the converging lines that give a strong sense of perspective and three-dimensional depth. Those converging lines is drawing audiences into an image and control the way people's eyes move around the picture.

Lines exist everywhere, in the form of walls, fences, roads, buildings and so on. Lines can also be implied and perhaps by the direction in which an off centre subject is looking to make audience follows to the guild lines.

BOKEH
The Bokeh is applied by using manual focus mode.
It is particularly created to perform the speciality of the core subject and try to ignore the background by using wide apertures.
Wide apertures correspond with small f-stop numbers, which is 2.8, 3.5 and etc.
Wide apertures offering more depth of field when focused on a subject far away than they do when focused on a subject that's close to the lens.

Bokeh night view of Xiao Wei in Taipei City.

SHUTTER SPEED
is separated into fast shutter speed (Exp: 1/25s and above) and slow shutter speed (Exp: >1s ).
The function of fast shutter speed is to freeze the action while the slow shutter speed is to show the continuity of an action.

The waterfall in ShiFen, Taiwan, by using the TV mode and slow shutter speed.

RULES OF THIRD

Rules of third/ point of interest.

Here are some point for rules of third, try to place your subject at the circle sites and avoid them in the middle part. This is because subject which usually placed in the centre of the frame will make the production rather static and boring. Therefore, one of the ways to counteract it is to use the Rule of Thirds, where we split the image up into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and try to place the subject on one of these imaginary lines or intersections.

The photo composition doesn't have to be complicated. There are some sorts of theories about the "Rule of Thirds" and more complex "Golden Mean".
But if we pay too much attention to strict formulae, the photos will lose any kind of spontaneity.

Reference:

(i). http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/12/10-rules-of-photo-composition-and-why-they-work/
(ii). http://digital-photography-school.com/5-elements-of-composition-in-photography/
(iii). http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/07/17/what-is-depth-of-field-how-aperture-focal-length-and-focus-control-whats-sharp/

Mugshot

Name: Dr. Firuza Begham Mustafa (45)

Designation: Professor of Environmental Studies

Name: Yee Sim Yi (22)
Designation: Dancer of Yao Lan Shou

Name:  Chew Chun Wei (23)

Designation: Vice President of  The 14th National Varsity Chinese Debate Competition

Human interest shot

Low Weng Hao, aged 3, is imitating his father by wearing big shoes and walk around to grab people's attention.

The brand new helmet dance performed by a group of youngster in church, Taiwan.

 Traditional ceremony performances by Taiwan’s Orang Asli at theme park in Culture Village.

The zoo keeper is feeding the Aldabra Giant Tortoise in National Zoo of Taipei. 

Action shot

 Four teammate of Ping Pong Club from left Lim, Chong, Leong, Raymond are practicing ping pong on every Sunday afternoon in Da-Yeh University.

Teenagers attending a charity run at Taiwan.

Cheerleaders of Da-Yeh University are preparing for the national competition.

A group of women performing their traditional dance in Jiu Zu Theme Park, Taiwan.