Tag Archives: B-roll

Detail, detail

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This season, whether you photograph your family get togethers, or vacation trips, or any other story: make it a story. And you do that in large part by adding detail pictures.

Like this, for example:

On a trip to Jerusalem, you would of course photograph the “big” things. But the small details, interspersed with the big things, tell the story much more clearly. A hebrew Coke bottle, and menu with shoarma, kebab,ash tray, and so on. Or signs at the entrance to the western wall site:

Look for anything that helps tell the story with detail. Anything you notice.  And then you can shoot the “big things”.

But that “B-roll” of supporting detail pictures makes it come alive.

Look for my upcoming Impactful Travel Photography e-book, out soon. Details here as soon as it is ready to go – I am aiming for December 24.
 

Tell the story

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Here’s an image from a 2007 trip to Jerusalem:

Jerusalem 2007 (Photo: Michael Willems)

A typical “B-roll” picture – a picture that helps…

  1. …set the scene – where we are;
  2. Tell something about the environment;
  3. Make the viewer “work it out”;
  4. Provide a visually interesting image.

In this case, elements are: the blurred scene in the background (people eating and drinking, the waiter, the umbrellas); the Hebrew on the coke bottle; the menu including shoarma; the sunny background; and the three-dimensional feeling created by the “close-far” technique.

When you next travel, try to take lots of images like this. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to tell the story.