Reporting events is no longer sufficient and photography is the need of the hour with the constantly evolving field of journalism, as it stands today. As the cliché goes, a picture does speak a thousand words! So, to transport the readers (or viewers) directly to the heart of the story, it is necessary to strategically combine words with corresponding images. This will instantly create a deep connect with the readers.

Giving a significant consideration to this fresh way of a visual form of storytelling, a workshop on photography was organized by the Department of Mass communication, School of Art, Design & Media Studies (SADMS) that provided the students an opportunity to dabble with lights and shades.

The workshop began in the state-of-the-art audio-visual room with a warm welcome and introduction of Mr. Farhat Basir Khan, an Indian Photographer and Jamia Millia Islamia AJK Mass Communication’s faculty member, who was the honorable mentor. He has drawn a lot of praise worldwide for his contribution to photography for several national and international media projects.

With the students being asked to share their thoughts about the photography, Mr. Khan interacted with the aspiring journalism and mass communication students to highlight the basic concepts of photography like composition, simplicity, contrast, rule of thirds, perspective, foreground-background, colour, shadow, focus, lighting and exposure – followed by some practical sessions. The direct interaction brought out a lot of worthy discussion about different photographic techniques and opened the minds of the young shutterbugs in an instant.

Furthermore, the students were guided on

  •  The use of light to make a difference to the image.
  • The major role played by the surroundings in creating different effects.
  • Different Close-ups, panning and camera techniques to achieve a shallow and sharp depth of field.
  • The physics behind the camera’s functioning to click pictures that can speak volumes
  • Basic tricks to approach the subject on camera.

“With the world in frenzy with its selfie obsession and the passion for capturing moments in a single frame, photography has become an unimaginable part of our lives, connects us all in a different art form. Everyone is a photographer, whether he clicks from a DSLR or a Cell Phone camera”, Mr. Khan said, at the workshop. When asked the formula for capturing the perfect photos, he said “50:40:10 is the formula of photography for me. 50% is the role light plays, 40% is the subject or the photographer and I give only 10% credit to the equipment”.

All in all, it was a fun-filled and a very encouraging workshop where Mr. Khan shared his experience and knowledge with the students. Sharda University is always finding ways to help students develop and nurture their inner passions. Conducting a workshop on photography is an invaluable attempt because it enabled the students to benefit from a wide range of photography perspectives under the guidance of renowned Indian Photographer Mr. Farhat Basir Khan they may not be exposed to otherwise.