Q&A for How to Make a Photo Essay

I'd keep them as objective and descriptive as possible. Don't color the context or modify it by using really fanciful titles. Your goal here is to capture something as it is, and if your images tell a story, they'll speak for themselves.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. Just shoot in a way that makes sense to you. Your style will develop naturally over time.

A lot of this is just going to come down to understanding your audience. Try to look for publications and sites that are actively seeking work that matches the kind of photography you're interested in. Be enthusiastic when you're talking about your work, and do your best to read the room. Keep in mind, it can take effort to get a photo essay published. You may need to give this 10-15 attempts until you're successful!

Make it so your photo essay tells a story. Lighting differences can show differences in tone, for example.

Not necessarily. If you want the story to be told only through pictures, just include a title for the photo essay and let the pictures do the talking.

Before you can use other people's pictures, you need permission. If you take pictures from the Internet, you must cite your sources unless the pictures are free to use. But it's always nice if you at least mention where you took them from. If you're using friends' pictures, you need to first ask them, and to be sure, get their consent in writing, then mention this consent in your work.

A photo essay is a series of photographs that, when assembled in a particular order, tells a unique and compelling story, and portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, including closed-end funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). People generally believe that stocks, bonds, and cash comprise the core of a portfolio.

Four or five pictures might be enough for a photo essay gallery. For audio slideshows or video, however, you'll want multiple options for each of these photo types, but I usually do 10.