CRITICAL PHOTOJOURNALISM

Introduction

When I (Tara) began my first job as a staff photographer at the Greenville News in South Carolina in 2007, newspapers were scrambling to integrate video as part of what was often called “convergence” journalism. The idea at the time was that various forms of news production were converging, that news stories could be written and produced for the newspaper front page, the website homepage, the evening broadcast and that photos, video and audio would accompany it all. We no longer call that convergence journalism, rather multimedia content is just how good journalism is done. News organizations have sought audience footholds in video-specific spaces such as Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube as they’ve grown in popularity and, while particular platforms may rise and fall, global interest in video has not waned. Video has consistently proven to be a powerful space of information circulation and a compelling format to engage audiences across the world. It should, therefore, be a tool in every visual journalist’s toolbox. 

Video has long been a staple of visual journalists working in broadcast news but when Nikon and Canon added video capabilities to their professional digital single lens reflect (DSLR) cameras in 2008, it revolutionized access to video production for still photojournalists. Suddenly, photographers could easily move between photographing stills and filming video on the same camera for the same assignment while the video output retained the look of high quality still photography. Importantly, the cost of DSLR cameras was considerably less than video-specific cameras which could often cost upwards of $10,000 USD at the time. Canon hired lauded photojournalist Vincent Laforet to produce a short film titled “Reverie” using its first video-capable DSLR camera, the 5D Mark II. “Reverie” went viral as it showed photographers the high quality video imagery they could now produce using a DSLR. Shortly after, TV and film productions began using DSLRs in their shows and movies, further legitimizing the capabilities of DSLR video for professional visual mediums. 

In the years since the introduction of DSLR video, integrating short journalistic videos between 2-5 minutes long (also known as “mini docs”) into media stories along with still images has become common practice. The advent of high quality video capabilities on smartphones has also made short form video journalism much more accessible to produce and circulate. These short documentary videos are often featured on news organization’s websites and social media accounts, but can also be found making the rounds of film festivals, streaming on major video platforms, or winning Emmys and Oscars. This was the case with a Los Angeles Times documentary, The Last Repair Shop, which won a 2024 Oscar. News organizations with more resources, such as the New York Times, LA Times and Seattle Times, now often have video-specific divisions that employ both photojournalists and filmmakers to produce short docs for their news audiences. Drone video, smartphone video and in some cases AR & VR journalism (utilizing 360 video cameras), have also become salient video skills for photojournalists to add to their repertoire. There are many different formats, styles and approaches to making video for news audiences. In the following sections, we provide a few of those as a starting point for photographers interested in adding video to their visual storytelling skillset. 

Gear & Technical Logistics

Production Techniques

Chambers feels a major difference between producing video over photos is the rhythm. “You’re shooting through a moment, so you want every shot to feel like it has a beginning and an end. I think a lot of still photographers transitioning to video have trouble not recording a shot for long enough, not holding the camera still.”  An important way to remedy that issue is, once you've decided on a frame and set up that shot, actually try to count for at least 15-30 seconds before moving the tripod or camera. “Make sure you caught the whole of the action and a little before and a little after, because oftentimes you need more video than you think you do,” says Chambers.  

Having an actual crew with various people focusing on different elements of the filmmaking process i.e. filming, audio, interviewing, etc. goes a long way toward making your final film more successful. Henderson, who won four Emmys during his tenure as a video journalist with USA Today, says the size of the team can indicate the amount of an outlet's investment in producing quality video content. 

“I always put up a slide of all the people who were responsible for the film that gets sent to some awards like the Emmys etc. versus the credits list for a great video done by a solo video journalist. This also shows us an organization’s dedication to quality or their dedication to quantity. For example, the New York Times has a lot of editors and video people because they are determined to do quality video work. Whereas, someone (at a less well-resourced news outlet) who is the one-person band, it's them and, if they’re lucky, one other person asking the questions.”

Having a solid crew with diversified skill sets can greatly improve a film, but video journalists are often working with limited resources on tight timelines as a crew of one. In those situations, especially, having the right gear for the job makes a huge difference in the quality of your final film and the relative ease with which you are able to produce it. However, a compelling, authentic story told clearly and artfully will always make for a good news video or documentary short, regardless of the kind of gear a visual storyteller has access to. The highest end audiovisual equipment will never save an uninteresting or poorly articulated story. However, having the necessary equipment to tell your story as clearly and beautifully as possible is a huge boon for any video and some technical elements of video production are more necessary to achieving a quality project than others. For example, audiences might forgive shaky or poorly composed video clips but poor quality audio where speaking portions can’t be clearly heard will likely lose your audience's interest quickly. Consider the technical and logistical needs of your video project from the outset to ensure you have the right gear to tell that particular story. If you’re documenting a surfing group, you’re going to need to be in the water with them to capture the most engaging video, which will require water housing for your camera. If you’re telling the story of mangrove replanting in a hard-to-reach area, you might want a drone to capture the full scope of the mangroves from above.

Cameras

When planning what gear to use, always start with the camera. As mentioned earlier, DSLR or mirrorless cameras can be a photojournalist’s bread and butter in making videos, allowing you to use the camera you likely already have in your bag to produce still photography. Smartphones have also become a viable and highly budget-friendly camera option, making films like 2015’s Sundance darling Tangerine which was shot entirely on the iPhone 5s, as well as commercials, music videos and TV shows such as “The Tonight Show”, with Jimmy Fallon’s 2019 use of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ to film an entire episode. There are many apps, lens attachments, filters mimicking film stock and other smartphone-specific gear adjustments that can amplify the smartphone’s existing video capabilities to achieve a more professional look. You might choose to work with both DSLRs or mirrorless cameras, as well as smartphone cameras on a production or forego them both for cameras that specialize in video capture like the RED or Black Magic equipment, both of which are film and TV industry staples. 

Many mirrorless cameras can produce high-quality video while also being a daily-use camera for still photography. Also, Canon and Sony both have video cameras that use the same lenses as a Canon and Sony DSLR, allowing for versatile cinema-style video in a relatively compact form akin to the size of a camcorder that also potentially fits with your existing DSLR gear.

Mobility and logistical ease should always be top of mind for documentary and news video production. The kind of video work you will typically find yourself doing requires extensive movement, the ability to navigate different spaces as quickly and effortlessly as possible and to consistently record quality video with minimal additional accessories. That likely looks like smaller cameras with a versatility of lens options and ability to work well with rigs and other attachments that make it easy to capture video on the go. 

Audio

An external microphone(s) is an absolute necessity to produce a quality video because the internal mic on any camera is not capable of recording high quality audio. Most people producing higher quality video for news outlets use a digital audio recorder, whether it’s handheld or attached to a larger camera rig. This is often used in addition to recording in-camera audio from a quality external microphone attached to the camera’s hot shoe. You can also typically attach external mics to audio recording devices. Though there are many voice recorders available on the market, an example of audio recorders often used by documentary filmmakers and video journalists are Zoom or Tascam recorders. These are compact, record excellent audio, and have many options for output and external mic connections.  

In addition to having an external audio recording device and/or external mic, you’ll want to connect a pair of headphones to your recorder to hear the audio as it’s recorded and adjust levels accordingly. Headphones that allow for full ear coverage are preferable to listen for any disruptions in the audio track. (Though it’s worth noting that this is specifically a practice for when a videographer is recording video and audio NOT when they are interviewing and need to therefore be able to hear and attend to the interviewee. Ideally, find a way to have audio levels checked by someone else if you have to be interviewing. Since this is not always possible on minimally-resourced video productions, we recommend doing an audio test, then playing the audio back to ensure it’s recording and that the audio sounds good.)

Microphones are specialized toward particular uses i.e. recording drums, guitar or vocals only. Video journalists tend to need mics that will pick up audio from a distance while retaining clarity and that is often a shotgun mic, which is an industry staple for video production. Shotgun mics can be smaller and attach to a camera via the hot shoe. Video cameras typically have dedicated inputs and attachments for a shotgun mic. A shotgun mic can also be placed on a boom pole for flexible movement. Any kind of mic can be placed on a boom pole which is held above and out of the camera’s view while getting in closer to pick up audio in a scene.

Wireless lavalier mics (lavs) can be very helpful for recording interview audio because they’re small enough to be placed on a person’s body. Lav mics are typically pinned to a person’s shirt front, mid-chest placement is ideal.  Keep in mind that mic placement and positioning are key to recording the best audio. You generally want to place mics 6-8 inches away from an interviewee’s mouth — close enough to pick up their words but far enough away to avoid issues from breathing or other unwanted/unintentional sounds like “plosives” or the wind created by speaking hard consonants. 

Storm prefers to use boom mics because “lavalier mics are so fragile. If someone looks away while speaking, it changes the quality of audio. Boom mics can be a cleaner, more consistent way to go, so I use boom as a preference and wireless mics as a backup.” This approach isn’t always possible when producing video solo, so keep in mind that you will often have to negotiate and balance gear choice with the logistics or your crew size (or lack thereof). 

Chambers says that, in a pinch, he “would start recording on my iPhone and put it in my subject’s pocket.” Using your smartphone as an audio recording device is always a good backup option and can be your main recording device on a tight budget. Regardless of what kinds of mics or audio setup you go with, any type of external audio recording device is better than on-camera audio.

Lighting

Video journalism production typically uses additional lighting sources during interviews. It might be preferable to use studio or additive lighting in an interview scene so that you have more control over the consistency of light. When working with natural light (i.e. window light or sunlight outdoors) during video interviews, it can shift over time throughout the interview. When working with controlled lighting, ideally you’ll apply a similar three-point light setup with a key light, fill light and backlight, as discussed in Chapter 8 Portraiture. 

While much of the advice we would offer for video lighting best practices is already covered in the chapter on Portraiture, video lights mainly differ in that they are continuous light sources  versus a flash that bursts when a still camera’s shutter is activated. This can lead to some types of video lights getting extremely hot and/or overheating  For this and other reasons, LED lights are becoming very popular with documentary filmmakers when working on small sets and in intimate situations. They don’t run as hot as other types of lights, are battery-powered, can be controlled remotely and the temperature or color of the light can be changed. There are also on-camera LED panels that attach to a camera’s hot shoe which are useful for filming in low-light and fast-moving scenarios. For a more in-depth overview of lighting accessories and general lighting best practices that can also be applied to video interviews or video portraits, please review Chapter 8. 

Stabilizers & Accessories 

Tripods are a necessity for recording quality video and other forms of camera stabilizers can also make a big difference in your video. “Monopods are a great middle ground between handheld and filming static on a tripod,” says Chambers. “Tripods can be slow to set up and heavy to lug around. Monopods won't give you a perfectly steady shot but better than handheld and will make the camera still feel alive.”

Chambers also feels that other forms of stabilizers and rigs “can be helpful for sweeping establishing shots or following a person with a long take through a conference center or their home or maybe tracking them doing an outdoor activity.” He specifically cautions against using gimbals and rigs as a crutch, however. “They are not a tool that is going to immediately make your video better.—you have to know how and when to use them. A gimbal corrects for two axes but not for the up and down so you're going to get that bob if you're not operating the gimbal smoothly. It takes a lot of practice. More often those kinds of shots serve more commercial and corporate shots. They smooth out a clip almost to the point of not feeling real and they can especially stand out alongside other shots not on a gimbal.”

A gimbal is a type of rig that allows your camera to incline in most directions while keeping it level as it floats, encased in the gimbal device. While these can come in handy if a video location or particular scene calls for extensive movement, you do want to avoid an overly-commercialized appearance when producing news or documentary video. A better option for off-tripod shots might be a simple shoulder-mount rig or handheld stabilizer, which both allow for mobility with minimal camera shake as you move through a scene. There are more complex stabilizer options such as whole “cages” with multiple accessory threads i.e.connectors for lighting, audio, and focus pull mechanisms, but these are typically more than you’ll need for basic journalism video production. 

If you’re working primarily with any camera with an LCD display that doesn’t angle up or down, you might want to consider an external monitor that can be added to your camera rig. These can be as small as 5 inches and come in handy, especially for high or low angle shots.

Post Production

Video post-production is considerably more involved than that of still photography. One thing to keep in mind is that for each video project, you’ll need to be more conscientious about your digital asset management (DAM) — the process of uploading, organizing, storing and archiving digital files —  since the digital files for video clips and audio clips are typically much larger and take up considerably more space than still photos. You may need additional external hard drives and/or internal computer storage to properly upload, process, backup and archive your video and audio content. 

Henderson underscores how different the still versus video post production processes are, saying: “Normally when you're done with a photo assignment, you caption it and send it off to an editor. You often get to wipe your hands of the responsibility of publishing it. Whereas a lot of video journalists are responsible for the production AND the post-production. You have to edit the video, add the metadata, create the transcripts for ADA compliance, put the video file into the CMS (content management system) and make sure the link gets to the correct editors.” 

You will also be spending time editing your video, either alone or working with an editor and possibly an audio engineer to craft the final cut of even the shortest video. People often make the mistake of thinking that shorter pieces take much less time, but telling a complex, compelling story in under 10 minutes can be as difficult as crafting a longer form narrative of a feature documentary. Introducing your story’s characters, its main action and issues, and having a clear ending that’s earned its emotional weight is a difficult undertaking. Leave a reasonable amount of time for thoughtful and effective post-production The Alliance for Documentary Editors recommends allotting one month of editing per 10 minutes of finished documentary film2. That timeline is likely based on a multi-person production team providing feedback as it goes through multiple rounds of edits and is reviewed by many on that team. That length of editing time certainly won’t work for most video journalism content coming out of newsrooms but it’s a good frame of reference to understand how in-depth the process of video editing can be. Another rule often applied to editing times is one hour of editing per one minute of finished video. You’ll want to double or triple that number if you have several hours of raw footage to cull through or you’re introducing any complexity such as motion graphics, color grading, or extensive audio mixing. There is no exact time estimate for video editing as there are so many factors affecting that outcome and every project is different but it will take some time. This is especially true if you are an inexperienced video editor.

Chambers thinks that the opportunity to do your own editing can be a huge boon in helping photographers become better filmmakers. “Post-production with video is an art on its own. I think learning to edit video is such a powerful way to become a better video producer because once you're in the editing bay you get a better sense of what you need in the field to make sense of a scene. So, I think that learning to edit video well is just as important as knowing how to shoot it well.”  

Conclusion

As video increasingly becomes an element of news organizations’ content offering and many platforms move toward video as their main form of media distribution, visual journalists should become familiar with it. We have not touched on the best practices of social media-style video i.e. very short form vertical video because that is such a rapidly evolving space it is best learned by watching and witnessing those developing trends in real time. As we write this book, Instagram’s photo focus has grown to instead prioritize vertical video to compete with TikTok yet TikTok is in danger of being banned in the United States or facing other drastic changes. Vine, an early video platform in the social media sphere that popularized short form citizen video content, was short-lived despite its wide reach and has been defunct for many years. YouTube has expanded on its original structure as a video hosting platform to also become a social media-like space. Video is constantly in flux as a media format generally, but it’s also shifting the way people consume news and how news organizations think about audience engagement.

Henderson sees the changing landscape of video journalism as connected to the way we assign value to photos and videos, which has radically shifted in recent years due in large part to the introduction of social media platforms and practices. 

“Now we assign value on how many clicks (a video) gets and the engagement with it, i.e. ‘what is the social impact of these videos or photos? Did they generate any ad revenue? Did it win awards?’ Rewind a few years to the invention of the story scroll via TikTok and we’ve completely changed views now in the video space. Six years ago, staying on a video for a half second would count as a view. Now that doesn’t exist anymore in the scroll society. Instead it’s ‘did they continue on your page to see other videos you produced, did they click on a link? How are they engaging?’ With photos, it’s really about shares and comments. It's not that the news org only wants you to subscribe based on the photo; it's also about driving an emotional connection with the viewer.”

Alternatively, Jovelle Tamayo stresses the need to be open-minded as you acquire video skills, thinking about how the industry will shift and change as our relationship to video and news grows in different directions:  “I (disagree) with the advice for students to know how to do everything, to be a photographer, be a coder, be a videographer, etc. because that will put you in a position for job hunting. But (newsrooms) don't necessarily want a jack of all trades, they want you to specialize. So, go into video because it's something you want to do, not because you think you have to. Our industry is fraught, it’s not the most stable. But that doesn't mean there’s no future in visuals. Video is such an amazing way to communicate a story, but just because publications dont have the most effective strategies around that medium right now doesn't mean they never will. So, it is up to people who want to be part of building the field and imagining what that future can look like. A lot of us are still in these visual fields because we really believe in the power of what we do. We can be real about what the industry is like and what (kind of field emerging visual journalists) might be entering into, but the media people consume is almost all video on TikTok and Instagram. Maybe the video of the future isn't what it looks like today. So maybe what will give you a leg up in this industry is your ability to learn and adapt more than just having the skill of being able to do video.”

Finally, Brian Storm believes “our profession has to be the anecdote to mindless 15-second doom scrolling. Our job is to tell stories about how people are similar, what the commonalities are across people.” Video is excellent at doing exactly that: telling the important stories that become humanity’s connective tissue. It takes the beauty and integrity of photojournalism and adds the voice of the people whose lives those images depict. Video brings various media elements together — visuals, text, sound –  to tell a holistic story. As Storm says, “it is not a volume game. Use video to tell the right story even better than you can tell with still photos or a written article. Use the right storytelling approach at the right time.”

Learning Prompts

Individual assignment: Create a shot list for a short doc film about a person you know or a particular topic you’re interested in. Think about what footage and interviews you’ll do, what questions you’ll ask and what kind of b-roll or natural sound you’ll film. 

Group assignment: In groups of 2-4, have students select and review a 2-5 minute news video or micro doc. Identify how the story is structured and reverse engineer the key elements of the story. What visuals and audio went together to make compelling commentary? Write out a brief structure of the video’s audio and video elements into a script breakdown, paying close attention to the narrative arc. What goes where and why? What could/should be different from your perspective? Bring your findings back to the larger group. What about the structure of each group’s video made the video successful or not, as the case may be?

Bibliography

Alliance of Documentary Editors. “Edit Schedules: A Guide for Documentary Editors.” Accessed November 14, 2024. https://allianceofdoceditors.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ADE_Edit_Schedules_final2.pdf.

Roig-Franzia, Manuel, and Hope Hodge Seck. "A Taliban Revenge Killing Prompts Questions, Removal of an Acclaimed Documentary." Washington Post, May 22, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/05/22/retrograde-documentary-film-taliban-heineman/.