Three Areas of Photography to Conquer Technical Quality Dramatic Appeal Photo Composition By Susan Duncan Pine Tree High School

Technical Quality Do not use muddy or out-of-focus pictures EVER. If you can’t clean the image up in Photoshop, choose another photo. Avoid grainy photos Remove even small blemishes in Photoshop Use your best ACTION photos as dominants Use a flash or strobe in low-light situations When shooting available light, bracket your exposures and take several photos to assure good technical quality.

Dramatic Appeal WHAT IS IT? Tell a story with your photo Show action Display mood HOW DO I DO IT? Get close-up shots, mid shots and wide shots Take pictures of faces, not backs Avoid POSED pictures. They make caption writing atrocious. Besides, they’re boring.

Photo Composition Use the rule of thirds Look for textures, patterns Look for leading lines Frame the subject Move CLOSE Create interesting angles Use a shallow depth of field to get rid of a busy background Look for a strong center of interest Use the quality and direction of available light to create interesting composition.

Tips Shoot at 10 feet, 5 feet and 2 feet. People are vertical, landscapes are horizontal. You can turn the camera both directions. Freeze action with flash or higher shutter speeds. Adjust f-stops to increase or decrease depth of field Carry more film and batteries than you think you’ll need

Tips (cont’) 6. Pay attention to backgrounds. 7. Use throw-away cameras to expand coverage. 8. Shoot five times as many photos as you think you’ll need. 9. Develop a filing system, and stay current.

Cropping Crop closely- you don’t always need a full-body picture However, don’t try to enlarge a photo so much that it becomes grainy. Crop at the chest on the front rows of group photos. Don’t crop at joints-ankles, knees, wrists

You have the POWER You can boldly go where no crowd has gone before; you are a member of the working press. Do not be afraid. THINK about the activity. What happens behind the scenes? How can you show a different perspective? Follow not only the action on the field but all the hoopla that goes on off the field Go backstage at all productions. Take crowd reaction shots also. Make friends with coaches, teachers, secretaries, and administrators so that they allow you to boldly go where you need to go.