Ten tips for budding photojournalists

Times news snapper Ben Gurr’s top news photography tips:

1: Photographers have to be totally familiar with their equipment. You should not need to think about the technical side of things. Take lots of photographs and your thinking will soon be devoted to the image.

2: Study your subject with childlike curiosity and do not forget the background.

3: Use the light that exists naturally and record the scene as you see it.

4: Try not to influence or “mock up” your subjects. Let them behave as though you are not there. The photograph will be more truthful.

5: The camera is a simple tool: do not get carried away with gadgets.

6: Advances in camera technology mean that mistakes are rare but if you do make one, learn from it.

7: The use of computer software to enhance images is overrated and overused.

8: Captions need to enhance and explain your picture and must be 100 per cent accurate. Always check the spelling of names.

9: Talk to people: they are full of useful information.

10: Your award-winning pictures are useless if they are not seen by the picture desk before deadline. Understand how to transmit your images in all situations.

And just for good measure: ensure your batteries are charged, keep a few coins at hand for parking meters, always have plenty of fuel in your car and be ready for anything!

Choosing Your Horizon

When out in the field and faced with a fabulous scene in front of you, there are three choices to consider when it comes to where you should place your horizon; Top, middle, bottom. Positioning the horizon in one of these three places will dramatically effect the perspective of the picture and will help to give your photographs a more dynamic edge. Generally speaking, the casual snapper and beginner photographer will tend to put their horizons more or less dead centre, as this is the way we usually see the world from a standing perspective. However, this tends to give pictures an unnatural balance with the photograph feeling as if it should be viewed as two halves. There will be times though, that placing your horizon in the middle will work a treat.

Choose to put your horizon near the top, somewhere around a third of the way down, when there is either something of great interest in the foreground or very little of interest in the sky. Placing the horizon in the center will more often than not result in an average looking picture, mainly because its how we all usually see the world. You’re not giving it a new perspective. However there are times when putting it in the middle works well, an example being reflection shots. Place your horizon near the bottom, again around a third of the way up as a general rule, when there is little of interest in the foreground with main point of interest being in the sky.