Types of ShotsFor Your Photo Essay

Visual Ideas to Consider as you Create.

1. Hook ShotThis shot is sometimes called a Lead Shot. It’s the shot grabs you or hook you and draws you into the essay. Sometimes it’s the first shot of the essay. Other times it appears somewhere inside the photo essay, but is used as the essay’s cover or thumbnail image. It is and image that is often very creative and leaves the viewer wanting information about the topic. The literary equivalent to a Hook shot is the first few words that grab you in a novel. EX: “The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.” – Peter Benchly, Jaws. Those first few words grabbed readers and sucked them in and they where hooked. Your Hook shot should do the same.

2. Establishing ShotThe establishing shot does pretty much what it sounds like it does; It lays the visual context for the story. It is often a wide shot that shows the setting or the environment where a story takes place or a subject lives or works. The shot often is the very first shot of the essay. If it’s not the first, it will be included in one of the first few shots. The literary equivalent of this is usually found on the first page of the novel, when the author paints a written description of where things are taking place. “It was a dark and stormy night…”

3. Medium ShotThe medium shot serves to inform the viewer who or what the subject is and what they are doing. The shot should include both the subject and it’s surrounding. If your essay has people in it, the shot might have two or three people interacting in some way. You might have an individual working with some equipment or doing some job. But the image should be wide enough to see the environment. It’s not a detail shot.

4. Detail ShotAs the name implies the shot has to do with the details. These shots add flavor to the essay and create intimacy with the viewer. Can you imagine a story where characters walk through nondescript hallways and streets? It would leave readers without any sense of time or place. And so it is with a detail shot in a photo essay, it gives our viewers a sense of place. A detail shot anchors the story.

5. Portrait ShotOften a tight portrait or head shot, but can also be tight environmental portrait. This shot gives a face to your characters. It make the essay personal to someone. Even if your subject is not a human, a portrait can be important. Let’s say you’re doing a story on a racehorse. He would still want a portrait of the horse.

6. The GestureOthers have called this the Exchange Shot. I like that title as well. But I use the word gesture because I feel like it’s more than just an exchange. It can be someone shooting basketballs or running. But, as the term exchange shot implies, often times it is interaction between two subjects in the story. There’s usually movement involved in some sort of interchange between the subjects. By having this shot in the essay we keep the essay from becoming a series of portraits. The gesture shot allows us to experience life within the essay.

7. ClosureExcept for the establishing shot which should always come at the first of the photo essay, the only other shot that has a definite place within the essay is this one. The closure, as the name implies, it is the parting shot. It draws things to an end. It’s the “ride off into the sunset” photo. This shot provides resolution for the story and puts it to bed.