5 Tips to Improve Your Narrative Photos and Their Impact

Example of an underwater narrative photo taken in the Red Sea off Egypt.

Tip #1 for Creating Narrative Photos: Place the Photographic Elements Correctly

To build a narrative photo, you must place the photographic elements correctly in your composition.

The first step is to place three essential photographic elements.

The first is the introduction to your narrative.
The middle is called the theme. It is the development of your narrative.
Finally, you must construct the conclusion of your narrative.

Vous devez les placer de manière harmonieuse dans votre composition afin de raconter une histoire.

You must weave these pieces together harmoniously in your composition to tell a story.

The foreground, or introduction, should not take up much space in your photo. You should think of it as a step that invites the viewer into the picture. If you include a very large foreground, you will create an insurmountable obstacle. People will not be able to enter your story. Similarly, avoid foregrounds that are too dark. They give the impression of an impassable wall.

The foreground can be blurred or sharp. It depends on what you want to suggest. If it is blurred, you suggest uncertainty, lightness. If it is sharp, you suggest certainty; you know exactly where you are taking the viewer.

An introduction should be short, interesting, and pique the attention of the viewer. For example, in a landscape photograph, you can include a flower in the frame of your foreground. It will serve as an eye-catcher. It will suggest that it is a nature photo. Since it is small, it is just an invitation, not a grand display.

The middle shot, or development, should show the focus of your photo. This is where you want to take the viewer. It must be sharp, contrasted. This is where the strength of the photo lies.

The background or conclusion should close your story. Either you have for example multiple shots to take the viewer into the dream, or you enclose it with the woods. Regardless, you end your story.

Technically, the purpose of the background is to emphasize the intermediate plane by contrast. In the narrative, it concludes the image. Often, in narrative photography, the background must be sharp.

This comment leads me to point out that you should use very small apertures with your lenses. You should always have the greatest possible depth of field.

Tip #2 for Creating Narrative Photos: Prepare Your Story Well

I must remind you that storytelling is the action of weaving a timeline and characters together. The photo is your story about an experience you had.

In order to tell a story, you have to come up with a plot. It must be plaudible. If you have not thought about a plot and characters and setting, you cannot tell it. You will not be able to create a narrative photo. You will just make a descriptive or illustrative photo that is similar or nearly identical to one you have probably already made.

Eventually you will realize that you are wasting your time.

Personally, before starting a photo project, I list all the stories I want to tell. I use my tablet or sheets of paper to write. I write short sentences with a subject, a verb, and a complement.

For example, when I created my photo art project about Death Valley in California, USA, I listed phrases like:

a journey with a non-return.
Traveling alone in a barren and lost land.
To know loneliness without being able to call for help.
A world where nothing is possible.
And if this was the end of the world.
etc.

I created dozens of little stories for myself. I always had them with me in the field when I was shooting.

The advantage with this method is that I could easily find my points of view. I did not waste time. I had goals.

Let me take another example. This is the one about the deer bellowing. For each year, I create new phrases. For example, this year I had listed these stories:

Elegance is an attitude. It is not a question of means.
Grace should be present in every gesture.
Power comes through the eyes.
Light is vital to happiness.
Perception is reality.
Curiosity is an essential element to move forward in life's great adventures.
etc.

In the field, during my sessions, I was trying to set up these stories.

It is true that I am very attracted to symbolism. I like to suggest human behavior through my images.

But regardless, I do not make a landscape or deer photo because it is a landscape or a deer. I try to tell a story.

Then on the field, I place my photographic elements for my narrative.

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Tip #3 for Creating Narrative Photos: Get to Know Your Audience

I always repeat this during my nature photography courses. If you want to create interesting photos, I recommend you learn a few things about psychology.

You must learn to listen to others. Knowing your audience's wants and desires will help you make the pictures they want. This is essential for you.

Accept one of the previous paragraphs about the photographic virtuous circle. If your audience is happy, you will be happy. You will continue to take pictures. It is a virtuous loop. If you make photos just to flatter your ego, you will not get very far. You will suddenly stop using your camera.

Listen to the comments about your photos either during exhibitions or on social networks.

If you are shooting for competitions, look at the results from previous years. Get to know the juries.

No matter how you are going to use your photos, you need to know what you like and do not like.

Then, all you must do is write your own narrative to show your difference and create interesting photos that will catch the eye.

10 Traps to Avoid If You Want to Create Good Photos.

Tip #4 for Making Interesting Photos: Use Secondary Photographic Elements

In the tip #1, I mentioned using three primary photographic elements. These are the basic elements.

But reading reinforcement elements, primary or secondary focus attributes, and negative space are all elements you should use in your narrative.

To detail their function in this column would be much too long. If one day, you can participate in a training course with me, you will discover all the formidable power of these elements that you never used.

Tip #5 for Creating Narrative Photos: Keep It Simple

I often say, "Just doing one thing is hard. It takes a lot of time and a lot of experience."

When you start making narrative masterpieces, you will wonder how to do it. You are not going to be satisfied with the result.

This is normal. It is even a good sign. You are stepping out of your comfort zone. You are no longer in stage 1 of photography, which is taking descriptive pictures. You have moved on to stage 3. I will describe stage 2 in another article.

But keep in mind the idea of being simple.

At the beginning, we are all the same. I am the first. We take complicated paths. We explain simple concepts with complicated words and phrases. But we must start somewhere, don't we?

Little by little, simplicity will impose itself as you gain experience.

When telling the story, consider that there is always a beginning, a central theme, and an end.

Look for simple scenes. Avoid disruptive elements in the construction of your photos.

Think that the person who is going to recast your image is going to spend 1 second evaluating it, no more. Address them as you would like to be addressed.

The simpler you are, the more you will be heard and understood. The more people will like your pictures.

Finally

In this article, I gave you the keys to building and creating narrative photos.

Keep in mind that storytelling is the action of telling a photographic story. The more you think about the narrative of your photos, the more interesting and creative they will become, and the more you will hold the attention of the viewers.

Always remember to keep it as simple as possible.

But above all, learn to be empathetic and to listen to others, for that is the key to any artistic success.

This article will help you understand how to implement a new tool in your photography toolbox. By implementing it, you will make your photos even more interesting and instill in them true meaning.

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4 Reasons to Create Narrative Photos

Example of a narrative photo of a landscape. Torrent in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

Photographic Storytelling Can Make Your Photos Extraordinary

In my opinion, photographic storytelling can allow you to create photos that are different from others and resemble your style and contain your spirit.

The trick is to learn how to control it.

Take for example, a photo of a mountain landscape. Everyone can trigger the camera in front of an exceptional panorama. Everyone can freeze eternal snows on a summit.

Some people who are good at technique will be able to manage depth of field or mass balance well. Many photographers can do this because it is just technique. You just need to have had the benefit of learning this and then you can easily apply it to your work. Boom. It is done. However, this is not a sufficient way to differentiate yourself.

Other people expect stormy weather conditions with clouds and heavy skies. This can make excellent photos, but all the photographers will present similar results at the same time which will cause the photos to look the same.

I could multiply the examples concerning the technique, the external conditions, and the quality of the lenses or the cameras.

The conclusion would always be the same: today, given the quality of the material and the level of the photographers, many photos will be successful.

But are they interesting? Do they make sense? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Despite the improvement of the equipment, the globalization of the exchanges between the photographers' communities, the wide diffusion of knowledge, the number one problem of photographers is to create photos which have sense, which express something, and which address and maintain an audience.

Why is that? The answer is simple.

Most photographers do not know how to use photographic storytelling.

This is not only true in photography. It is true in all art forms.

Take literature, for example. If you learned to write in school, you can create a story. You have heard stories about good guys, bad guys, and so on throughout your life. You can find the elements of a story. And yet you are not a writer or novelist. The reason? You do not master storytelling. You cannot tie the story elements together to engage an audience and keep their attention.

You certainly have other qualities, but you have not learned to develop this one.

In the world of photography, I see the same thing. Many photographers think that proficiency in technique, knowledge of the photographic language, and experience in the field is enough to create interesting photos.

They have forgotten the essential elements of photography. The stories they tell are of no interest to anyone. They look like stories that have been presented repeatedly. The photographic narrative is the essential factor for your photos to have body, for them to have a soul.

To make photographic stories different from others, even if they tell your personal story by making you dream, you must know how to use photographic narration. It will allow you to take your audience into your universe.

The Isolation Photo Is Not a Narrative Photo

In a previous paragraph, I distinguished between narrative and isolation photography for figurative photography.

It was during my trip to La Dombes that I understood the difference between the 2 ways of creating a photo.

I will come back to how to incorporate isolation in photography in a future article.

But I do want to touch on the fact that this way of photographing does not involve photographic narration.

An isolation photo can tell a story, but its implementation is mostly technical.

It is much more complex than a narrative photo.

An Example of a Narrative Photo and an Isolation Photo

At this point in the article, you are probably wondering what an isolation photo and a narrative photo might look like. I will give you some examples without going into too much detail. I will come back to this in a later paragraph.

Narrative photo of a landscape taken in Monument Valley in Arizona. Photo by Amar Guillen, artist photographer.

An example of a narrative photo. The story I wanted to tell in this photo is "even after we are gone, the good things we did in life remain in the memory of those who knew us".

For the narrative, I chose the dead tree in the foreground to illustrate the fact that we will all disappear one day. The mounds in the middle ground symbolize our legacy and the memory of those who knew us.

The background is open, with a bright sky. It is the hope that during our existence, we will have made a small contribution to the building. We will have helped humanity to progress.

Narrative photo of a landscape taken in Valley Fire in Nevada. Photo by Amar Guillen, artist photographer.

An example of a narrative photo.The story I wanted to tell in this photo is "existence is not a straight path. It is winding and full of pitfalls. No one can tell where he is going.

As far as the narration is concerned, I chose to start the road at the bottom right. This first shot symbolizes a moment in our lives.

The road in the middle plane shows that our existence is winding. We may sometimes have to take complicated paths.

The background shows that the road has no end. We never know how our life will end.

In the rest of the column, I will only discuss aspects related to narrative photography.

Let me share some good reasons to illustrate my point.

Photo isolante d'un gorgebleue à miroir en Charente-Maritime en France. Photo de Amar Guillen, artiste photographe.

An example of an isolation photo.In this photo, we only see the bluethroat bird. The whole scene is built to create the contrast that highlights the subject.

Reason #1 For Creating Narrative Photos: Interpreting the World Around You

If you practice photography, it is because you want to show the world around you. You want to share your perspective or your view of it. You may want to show things that others have not seen.

But you must be careful not to show the world in an obvious way. By this I mean that you should not show it at face value, in a way which shrouds the extraordinary in a mundane approach. Be personal and unique, take the time to stand out.

Interpret the world around you. This suggestion is the first reason to create narrative photos.

To interpret the world around you through your photographs, you will tell your own stories about an experience which you lived. To engage an audience, you will need to focus on quality storytelling. You must master photographic storytelling.

A Good Photo Should Tell a Story and Generate Interest

Reason #2 For Creating Narrative Photos: Express Yourself

The photographic interpretation I mentioned in the previous section can be objective or subjective.

If you want to convey private messages, emotions, or share your aesthetic values, you need to express yourself. Be aware that this is not always the case. Many photographers make pictures only to testify, to be like the others, to have fun. Few photographers choose photography as a means of expression.

If you are in this case, you must use narrative photography as a technique. This is a second reason to make this type of figurative photo.

Reason #3 For Creating Narrative Photos: Be Unique

Your photographic goal is to create a loyal audience of people who will enjoy your photos and your photography business.

Here is the virtuous circle of photographic creation:

You will make people happy and content.
You will be satisfied.
You will be encouraged.
You will continue your quest by creating new photos.
You will be fulfilled.
You will start to propose new photos again.

This photographic virtuous circle allows you to be happy in your life and to fulfill your personal satisfaction.

To achieve this goal, your photos must be interesting. They must attract the interest of other people. You need to create unique photos. This is the third reason to make narrative photos.

Since you will be telling stories, use a personal angle that will differentiate you from other photographers. No one else can share your experiences and your perspective. This is what makes you special.

Telling your own stories with your own narrative style will create interesting photos.

Reason #4 For Creating Narrative Photos: Having an Impact

A photo that has impact is a photo that holds the attention of a viewer.

It is a photo that strikes a feeling or emotion in the heart of your audience. It can raise the spirits. It will remain in the memory of the viewer and can even influence their choices and actions.

The impact can be caused by the nature of the photographed scene, by the development of the photo, and even by its construction.

This is the fourth reason to make narrative photos. By using this technique in your photos, you will cause a lasting impact.

Why? Because by thinking about how you are going to build and create your photo, you are developing the narrative. You will put forward the strong points of your dish. You will have an impact, and thus create a legacy.