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Structuring your Photo Essay
Photo essays are accompanied by detailed captions and sometimes additional text to flesh out the story and inform the audience of the context and connections between each of the photos.
Bringing your pictures to life
Photo essays are more than a slideshow. They can introduce characters, establish a setting, chart a conflict, and reflect on a resolution. Your captions can help describe the details of these story elements, but often you’ll want to include longer form text alongside your images to create a multi-media experience.
In order to help structure your photo stories, you may want to utilize a packaging software like Adobe Express Web Pages, Shorthand, or Knightlab.
Adobe Express
Creating a web page on Adobe Express is a great way to format your photo essay in an aesthetically pleasing, professional-looking, and customizable way.
Adobe Express is a free web-based tool. Once logged in, press the purple Plus Sign and scroll down to Web Page. Once inside the Web Page builder, press the little plus signs to add your pictures, story text, to browse the formats that Adobe Express offers.
Check it out!
Eva Sideris
Shorthand
Shorthand offers a product similar to Adobe Express but with some alternative options for storytelling customization. Their “Scrollytelling” tool allows you to combine audio, video, and animations into your photo essay in a sleek and creative package.
There is a free version of Shorthand you can use, but you’ll have to purchase a subscription in order to gain embed functions when sharing on a site like Planet Forward.
Check it out!
Harrison Watson
Knightlab
Knightlab is a storytelling software project of Northwestern University that offers a variety of tools. Their StoryMap tool in particular is a great way to tell a photographic story that is structured around the concept of geography.
This is a free program that allows you to create an experience in which audiences can navigate a map of your design, going from one point of interest to another, learning about your topic and characters along the way.
Check it out!
Eric Forbes
There are additional tools out there, but these three are great starting points to get the creative juices flowing. It is important to remember that just like a written article, photo essays should include data to back up the stories that is linked to reputable citations and attributed to trustworthy experts.
Your story should be detailed and focus on creating a narrative link between your pictures and elucidating the meanings and values behind your images.
