2.1 General News

In this section, we're gonna talk about general techniques for news assignments. General news are pre-planned events, press conferences, politics, and other special events. The key to general news assignments is anticipation. You need to be in the right place at the right time when the photo happens, and likely it's only gonna happen once. Some tips. Number one, arrive early. Likely, if it's a big event, there will be other media there, and you need to be there early to reserve your spot and ensure that you get your shot. Tip number two, be ready for anything. Have your cameras set, your flashes on. You never know when the key moment is going to happen. Tip number three, work the scene. Often, these press conferences are very visually boring. Circle your subject and try every single angle you can think of, but again, be ready for anything. There's nothing worse than being out of position and missing a key photo. Tip number four, white balance/exposure. This may sound obvious to some of our more experienced photographers in here, but likely you're gonna be shooting in very dark situations with the light changing constantly. Other photographers' flashes often ruin key frames. A videographer that you're standing next to might flip his light on at the very last second, completely ruining your exposure. You need to be ready for this, and anticipate it. In these dark situations, we are shooting with our cameras at the highest acceptable ISO, so it is important to make sure that your image is as close to perfect as possible. Hard news is a completely different game than general news. These are events that are happening now, or breaking news. House fires, car crashes, protests, or any other events that may be newsworthy. Although a lot of tips from general news apply to hard news, hard news is a lot more unpredictable and sometimes dangerous. Be careful. Don't risk your personal safety for a photo. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but ruining your gear, ending up in the hospital, or even getting arrested is not going to be worth any photo. Plus, if you are in any of these situations, you will not be able to file your photos, and your editor will be very unhappy. So, that's a primer for news photography. Next, we're going to be looking through some of my news assignments, explaining the situation frame by frame.