ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Photograph Humor

Updated on October 3, 2013
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0 | Source

Having the ability of seeing humor in everything is a gift that not that many of us posses. We can often see an act, a subject, an event or any random thing that will bring a smile upon our face and will lighten our day, even changing our mood from foul to fair.

Photographing humor is a purposeful theme which intention is to seek out and record images of subjects; people, animals and situations where a humorous act or happening is present. Anything that brings a smile is a fair subject to photograph.

However, there are some situations that should be avoided like finding something funny in someones' appearance other than clothing, perhaps a physical defect. Your goal is to be in a position to record something funny and humorous not to do it at the expense of someone else.

What are good samples will be dependent a lot on your perspective and your own sense of humor. Not all of us find the same things to be funny since it is mostly a matter of taste and this theme involves capturing images that are clearly humorous to many and will make an audience laugh, not necessarily having them rolling on the floor, but just enough to bring a smile to their face.

The basic set up is a camera and a lens with several ranges such as a 80mm to 200mm, as it will allow you some flexibility. Do close ups of the face to record facial expressions and if possible isolate the subject against their surroundings if they add to the shot, otherwise just isolate the subject by itself.

"Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement." wikipedia

Most humorous situations are spontaneous, rarely are they planned, and be very aware that an audience is quite adept at noticing a forced smile or feigned emotion, thus spontaneity is key. Funny signs, funny adds, funny acts or antics performed by pets or wildlife, a big smile on a little child, two adults behaving like kids or acting silly. Interactions between people, pet and human interactions such as when we dress our pets in ridiculous outfits; ever wondered what your pet would say if it could talk?

There are literary thousands of humorous acts that we all witness almost every single day, but to record them you need to have a camera. Make it your purpose to choose a time when you will just go places and be alert for the possible humorous shot and have the camera ready at all times. You can't repeat spontaneity.

However, with a little creativity and cleverness, some humor can be staged. This is mostly done with still life arranged in funny proportions and can also be accomplished by adding text to photographs through a digital software program.

Often humor is found in the most unusual of places or where you least expect it like in a coffee mug. Have you ever paused and really took a look at some of the designs found in many coffee mugs? Some are really full of comical and funny artistic drawings. Store signs sporting humorous sayings make for some of the funnies of samples and it speaks volumes about the management and staff and their sense of humor.

Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0 | Source
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0 | Source

Bottom line, this particular photo exercise is not something you can really plan for unless you have some design in mind and can arrange them in an humorous fashion.

Do however decide if your images will be humorous to everyone, and not offensive since some humor can be risque and this may offend some. There is an ample market for humor in photography, not the least is the greeting card industry.

Most of the time you just have to be on the look out for instances where the opportunity just happens to present itself and you are there ready to capture the moment, and quite often one just has to be plain lucky.

If everything else fails and you fail to find some humor at least you can be comfortable in the feeling that you tried, and if you happened to record some funny moments in time, then at least, hopefully, they made you smile. And isn't laughter the best medicine? or so I have heard it said.

© 2011 Luis E Gonzalez

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)