A photo story is one or many photos that tell a narrative. They are typically organized by time, event, person, location, and/or activity.
Photos with stories to tell go beyond just creating an interesting picture. They’re more like a short movie or documentary than just pretty scenery or action.
Photo stories can be fun ways to share experiences or learn about other people’s lives. You may make them for your own life (like this article!), or you could create them for others to enjoy.
There are several easy ways to start creating photo stories. This article will talk about some of those tools and how to use them. No artistic ability needed! These apps and programs take care of the rest.
We’ll also look at some examples of how professional photographers put together their photo stories.
Set up a photo story
First, you will need to have an empty album or gallery set up where you want your photos to go. You can name this new album “Photo Stories” or anything similar!
After that, it is time to start taking pictures! Start by taking some general picture and video assignments, then use these as starting points for creating a more specific assignment.
For example, if you were going on a trip next week, take a few pictures in and around your house to create a home tour. Take several close-up shots of different things to make an action shot or a collection of photographs to tell a narrative story.
Once you have all of those ready, organize them into one big collection using Photoshop or another editing software and upload them onto your previously selected social media site and/or account.
Start creating your story
First, you want to start by taking some good pictures! The best way to do this is with a smartphone. You can take as many pictures as you like without having to worry about running out of space or power.
Having a lot of photos means that you will have lots of different stories to tell. A few bright, crisp shots are all it takes to create an interesting tale.
After that, it’s time to choose which photos go into what story. For example, how about we try writing a story based on the following photo?
Interior – bed, table, window
In this case, our story would be about a person who loves sleeping in comfortable beds. So, what kind of room could fit such a description? An elegant bedroom would work nicely here.
A great way to develop your photography skills and creativity is to explore various styles. Try looking up photographs of beautiful bedrooms and see if you can apply those concepts to your own images.
Develop your story theme
A good way to start is by deciding on a thematic element or topic for your photo stories. What kind of pictures will you include in this narrative? Will it be landscape, people, nature, and so on!
Your storytelling style will develop as you add and position different types of images within your posts. You’ll know when you have used up all the possible themes for your photos when you feel that there’s nothing left to add to what you already have.
Finish your story
The next step in creating a photo story is to finish the project! Once you have gathered your photos, you will want to organize them into an appropriate sequence or order.
You can use software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, or other similar programs to do this. Or, you can use a website like Adobe Stock, where most of the stock photography has a section that allows you to create a slideshow directly from the site.
The best way to find the right balance of pictures for your story depends on what kind of picture story you are trying to tell and what mood you desire to convey. There are many ways to achieve this!
Take your time to add supporting pictures and set up the slideshow properly before presenting it to us.
Share your story
A photo story is very different from just taking pictures of things or events. With a photo story, you create narratives in photos that tell a tale.
Photos with stories are much more engaging than just having an album full of isolated images or collages. When someone else can connect to these stories, it’s more interesting for them as they can relate to what was going on at the time the picture was taken.
There are several ways to add narrative style photographs to your repertoire, so let’s take a closer look at some of them here!
1) Use off-the-cuff photography
This doesn’t mean you have to be totally casual about it — but don’t plan ahead of time!
Instead try to spontaneously photograph something you see around you every day and play up the natural flow of the scene. For example, if there’s a pretty lake outside your house, take many spontaneous water shots during your daily routine to create a cool looking photo diary.
Alternatively, use neutral backgrounds and bright colors to emphasize the beauty of nature. Try using large lenses to exaggerate the size of the area being photographed.
2) Avoid posed photoshoots
These are usually planned out in advance and sometimes paid for, which removes the spontaneity needed to tell a good story through photography.
Get creative
A photo story is not just one picture, it’s an extended photograph with other materials such as videos or text that are linked to the original image.
Photos tell their own stories, which is why they’re such powerful tools in the photography arsenal.
A good way to create your own photo stories is by gathering several photos that show the same subject together into a longer sequence.
For example, if you have a group of photos of yourself and your loved ones doing something fun, like going for a bike ride or swimming, you could make a short video using only those pictures!
You could even add some voice-over content to connect with the images and give more context to what was happening in them.
Organize your photos
The next step in creating a photo story is to organize all of your pictures! This can be done using different software, but most common ones are Lightroom or Photoshop.
In both programs you can create albums that contain sub-albums. For example, if you have an event with friends, you could make an event album, then inside of that you would make a separate album for each person. You could also do this with seasons – making a season change album, for instance, and within that album, individual picture albums for each month.
By doing this, it becomes easy to quickly access every item easily. And you will eventually run out of wall space!
Lightroom has an option to sync these albums across computers, phones, and tablets. This makes it very accessible as you do not need direct internet access to use it.
Write your story
Now that you have your photos, you’ll want to start writing your photo story!
The hardest part about telling someone else’s story is knowing what to include in the narrative. You are not only representing their company, but also themselves as an individual.
Your readers will be looking at these pictures for entertainment, so make sure the content is entertaining and interesting. They paid to read your article, so don’t waste their time!
Some tips to ensure the success of your storytelling: tell stories that are important to you, use personal experiences to draw parallels, never take yourself too seriously – we’re all human afterall!, and know when to add dramatic flair or humorous comments.
Once you’ve written your story, edit it until it’s perfect! There are several free editing tools you can use to do this such as Canva or Photoshop.