Photography
The captured image
Image · LEARN
Photography brings credibility. A photograph claims to show something real, which makes it powerful for documentation, storytelling, and persuasion — and makes its manipulation a serious ethical question.
As a designer you may not take the photographs yourself, but you must know how to commission them, select them, and crop them. Learn the basics of light, lens, and composition; learn the difference between resolution for screen and for print; and learn to read a contact sheet for the one frame that carries the story.
A strong photograph can carry a layout almost alone. A weak one cannot be saved by any amount of styling.
Working with photographs
- Reading and writing a photography brief
- Selecting and editing from a shoot
- Cropping for composition and emphasis
- Resolution, format, and color space for print and screen
- Basic retouching and color correction
- Working ethically with documentary images