As word choice and sentence structure alone do not make a written story, the Life formula does not guide the photographer in the content or the structure of the story. Life editors didn't use all the photos from an assignment. But they knew that, with the formula, whether the photographers were shooting in Hollywood or Haifa, they would bring back a viable array of pictures that could be formed into a Life essay. Few newspaper photographers have the time to shoot the entire list of combinations described above. Most would evaluate the time they can spend on the assignment against other stories they have to cover.
Photographers working for dailies often have to shoot more than one assignment a day.
Magazine photographers usually can take more time an a story than their newspaper counterparts. But even the photographers hired by the national glossy magazines must limit the time they spend on an assignment. Only on major stories of vital interest will some progressive newspapers and a few large magazines, such as the National Geographic, release a photographer for long periods to produce in depth picture coverage.