Photojournalism and Photoshop

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin Having a Chat With Kerdau Folks

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Sharing a Light Moment With The Resident of Kampung Ketam in Kerdau After Performing Asar Prayer.

Just a quick post here after a hectic assignment covering Kerdau State By-Elections in Pahang. Most people who have been following me in this blog know that I like playing around with Adobe Photoshop editing software, in fact, I have an eBook about how to play around with tones and texture in Photoshop just in case someone interested to buy.

I work in Photojournalism line, most of my assignment involved with politician, from The King of Malaysia, The Prime Minister and his Deputy and also other cabinet ministers. As many people already know, there is a limit to what we can do in Photoshop for Photojournalism purpose. Only minimal editing can be done, we cannot manipulate the pictures, we just record or captured the moment as it is and in Photoshop only minor editing is done if we really need it, like cropping or to adjust a little bit of colors or brighten it a bit if our picture is a bit too dark but if we get everything right on the camera, the exposure is spot on, the composition is spot on and we are happy with the colors then we really don’t need the Photoshop. Just send the pictures to the editors straight away.

In Photojournalism, it is all about capturing moment, telling stories with picture as it is. It is the quality of content within the frame that matters, not how good you are at Photoshop. Speed is everything here, we have a deadline to meet, we have no time to make our picture look beautiful by making heavy Photoshop work, by making the colors super duper rich or by making Dave Hill or HDR kind of editing.

The hardest part in Photojournalism is to get the picture, usually we are not alone doing this kind of coverage especially during elections, we have to struggle with more than ten or twenty photographers including videographers at a time to get the best picture, the best angle, that is the hardest part and sometimes we really don’t need Photoshop for our work if we get everything right on the camera. Some photographers use Photoshop to add captions while other Photographers use another software like FotoStation, Aperture or Lightroom for their editing before sending their pictures to the clients or editor desk.

For those of you who like to get involved in Photojournalism line, don’t worry so much if you don’t know about Adobe Photoshop or just know some basic stuff only, just get the picture right, get everything right in the camera as possible, try your level best to captured the right moment which can tell the story about the event that you cover and that’s it. Write few captions and you’re done with your assignment.

Depending on the organization or the papers that you work for, most of the times they will provide you with a laptop with basic editing or media organization software for you to use and if you are a freelance photographer  you can use Photoshop for some minor editing or if you don’t have a Photoshop, there is a lot free image editing software on the internet where you can download for free to do the job and like I write previously, if you get everything right or spot on in the frame, then you really don’t need to edit your picture ( I mean cropping or color adjustment/brightness or contrast ), just add a captions and send the files to the editor, that’s it.

Get The Secret HERE