What is Editorial?

[ffppro]

Here is something interesting that came up in a different thread:

What makes an images "Editorial"?

I always thought that if the images tells a story, then it's editorial. Be it Glamour, Fashion, whatever, if it tells a story it's an editorial image.

I would love to hear your input on the subject.

[PhotosbyChuck]

Since I was the one that generated the question on your other thread (I think RG posted his link to the same topic around here somewhere...or maybe that was on G1), I'll offer my thoughts:

If you want the publishing world's definition, editorial images are the non-ads. That's pretty broad, since a photo of an old farm tractor could be used in an ad for new combines or in a story about farming 20 years ago. The same photo can be both editorial and non-editorial.

I feel that there is a difference between editorial photos and photos used in an editorial fashion. The former (just my opinion) is a photo in which the "story" told by the photograph was the whole purpose for creating the image. The latter is any photo that leans on editorial copy to create the story.

A photo of a scantily clad woman looking under the hood of a sports car could be editorial if the copy was good. But the true subject of the photo was most likely the woman ... not a story about female fascination with horsepower.

Take that same photo and put the same woman in a mechanic's uniform so that she is no longer an object in a scene, but truly shot to be just another mechanic that happens to be female and the editorial weight rests more on the image.

Just my thoughts.

[r_fredrick_smith]

See this post on ShotCritic by Rolando:

What is it?

Cheers,
rfs