Photographers have the opportunity to show how engaging subjects are in their environments. You can show how animated and interesting the subject is by himself or herself as in figure 1.
Figure 1
You can show how passionate a person is and how those around her are being polite but not really engaged as in this photo in figure 2.
Figure 2
If you wait and shoot enough you will most likely find another moment that shows that those present are interested in the subject like in figure 3.
Figure 3
You don’t always need to see faces of people around the subject to show they are listening and engaged. You can tell they are facing the person and the subject engages the photo audience as well as the audience for the subject.
Figure 4
While this person from the audience wants to ask this panel a question, I chose a moment where those around him helped communicate a little about his personality from their expressions.
Figure 5
Compare figure 6 to figure 7 and you can see that those around the subject give you a tone of the question being asked by their body language and face expressions.
Figure 6
Sometimes you can show the audience alone’s reaction to a question to the panel from a subject that gives you a feel for the moment.
Figure 7
Just a photo of John Doe says something and the moment you click the shutter you are deciding a great deal about what you communicate. If you have a variety of moments you may be able to pick the moment that best depicts the tone and message the best way. If you have few to pick from you may actually have a photo that might be better not used because it runs counter to the message you are trying to communicate.
Are you aware of what communication is going on in your photos?
Figure 1 – I like the body language of the student taking a biology test. I also like that the background with the body parts is behind her. The dish in front has tissue she is having to identify.
Sometimes the only way is to show folks. I believe many of my clients hire me over and over because of what I deliver as compared to my competition.
I want you to look at these situations and see the before and after treatment that I often do with lighting to give my clients a choice. I often will shoot available light and many times I find that adding a light to part of the scene can enhance the photo.
Figure 2 The student seems more engaged than the student in Figure 3 and interested in the subject due to her pointing with the pen to the different parts of tissue.
Figure 3 While this student maybe be thinking about the parts like the lady in Figure 2 she is not visually showing the same interest in the subject.
Lighting can help create a mood. The client sometimes isn’t sure what look they are going for in terms of mood, so I give them some choices.
Figure 4 With her hands by her side and not on the paper like the student in Figure 5 she looks at a loss for the topic.
Figure 5 The one eye engaged with the model, lips are tight, the fingers tightly grasping the pencil all are communicating she is in control of this content.
Which of these did you like the best and why? You can comment on them below. I would be interested in your thoughts as to which one you might choose and why?
Figure 6 Shooting with just the room lights.
Figure 7 Adding flash and colors to the room.
Figure 8 Adding a flash to the women helps to separate them from their surroundings.
Figure 9 You eye is not as drawn the to subjects as in Figure 8 since their faces are in the shadows.
Figure 10 Good color and pop is achieved with a flash off camera.
Figure 11 The subject is more like a silhouette and faceless as compared to Figure 10.
Figure 12 The whole room was given a boost of light with the flash to give a greater dynamic range which makes the color pop.
Figure 13 With just the light in the room the subjects have strong back lighting from the window which causes a flair which diminishes the colors.
Figure 14 With flashes raising the light value on the subjects and less light on the background, helps direct the viewer to what they are doing and increase the pop factor.
Figure 15 The stage lighting on the conductor makes him standout against the darker house lights in the background.
Figure 16 A flash is used on this back lit subjects to draw your attention to their faces.
Go back and look closely at the color and compare those with flash and the one without flash. Do the ones with flash have much punch and color? I think so, but do you see it?
As a photographer, it’s easy to get caught up in the details of a scene, focusing on capturing the perfect shot of a single subject. However, taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture is essential. By doing so, you can capture images that showcase the subject and the context and environment in which it exists.
One way to do this is to vary your perspective. For example, instead of always shooting from eye level, try getting down low or climbing up high to capture a different view of the scene. This can help you see how the subject fits into its surroundings and give you a more dynamic image.
Another way to see the big picture is to pay attention to the foreground and background of your shots. You can create a more compelling image that tells a story by including elements that frame the subject or provide context.
So next time you’re out shooting, remember to step back and see the big picture. You might be surprised at the images you can create.
Addie Card, 12 years. Spinner in North Pormal [i.e., Pownal] Cotton Mill. Vt.
If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.
– Lewis Wickes Hine
Lewis Hine is a photographer I have studied and admired, and I think of him when I struggle for something to photograph. Like Hine, I started my studies in the social sciences. Then, I studied social work and quickly realized my calling was to be a photojournalist.
Lewis Hine studied sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and New York University. He became a teacher in New York City at the Ethical Culture School, where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium. The classes traveled to Ellis Island in New York Harbor, photographing the thousands of immigrants who arrived each day. Between 1904 and 1909, Hine took over 200 photographs and eventually realized that his vocation was photojournalism.
Hine went on to work for the Russell Sage Foundation, which improved social and living conditions in the United States. After just a couple of years with the foundation, he went to work for the National Child Labor Committee. He did this for ten years, and his work helped to change the labor laws for children.
During WWII, he worked for the American Red Cross, covering the work in Europe. In 1930 he photographed the workers building the Empire State building. To get the photos of workers through the years, he would take similar risks to the workers were taking. He was in a unique basket 1,000 feet out over 5th Avenue to get that unique angle while working on the Empire State Building project.
Raising the Mast, Empire State Building, 1932
Lewis Hine’s work is so powerful because he knew what he was photographing and why he was doing it. He was doing something useful with his photography. Hine said, “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.”
The fun in photography is when you take on a challenge and bring all your creativity to it to help communicate an idea or concept to your audience. But, unfortunately, when you use a lot of typical clichés, it quickly becomes tiresome.
Not knowing what to photograph is an excellent time to ask yourself what you stand for as a person. First, you need to understand your relationship to the things around you and their meaning. Observation is how you form thoughts and convictions about the world. It is not from formal education—it is from a sense of caring about people and the world in which you live.
Child laborers in glassworks. Indiana, 1908
When you have this gut check, it will give you the inspiration to take on a subject and communicate how you feel about it, not just a documentation of its existence but its significance to you. You want people to respond, and this is what motivates you.
I am struggling to find subjects that often lack personal convictions.
The secret is to think about the audience. Knowing the audience gives me a goal in mind. I must love or hate the subject to get my emotions going and create a mood and feeling that I want to communicate beyond the obvious.
The young girl pauses for a moment’s glimpse of the outer world. She said she was 11 years old. She has been working for over a year. Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, North Carolina.
You tend to scapegoat your responsibilities when you find yourself in a mental block. This is where you often look for a formula or copy someone else’s concept. I see this most often in sports photography. You see the photographers all standing together. One of my friends Scott Cunningham who photographs the NBA for Getty Images, is rarely sitting next to other photographers. He is in the stands and always looking for something different.
Another scapegoat photographers use is that they don’t have a piece of equipment, or their equipment limits them. Remember, we still haven’t exhausted all that is possible with the simple point-and-shoot. Be careful that you are not buying new equipment as a way to inspire you. Instead, take the time to think and feel about your world.
“What shall I photograph?” will not be an issue. Instead, the problem becomes, “How can I say it clearly and with enough emotion that my audience is moved to action because of my photos?”
These are some photos I made this past weekend at Corp Day at The Citadel. Which ones do you like and why?
1st Battalion marches out to the parade field.
Summerall Guards 2012 make a slight breathing noise together to keep in cadence and so everyone is together.
Summerall Guards 2012 closeup of the breathing technique for timing.
Summerall Guards 2011 last time together before handing over their rifles to the class of 2012.
Summerall Guards 2011 last time performing.
Summerall Guards 2011 take the field with all the alternates in position.
I took the photo showing the alternates for Class of 2011. These guys seldom are photographed as compared to those marching.
Timing is everything to show the precision. If their legs are all down not as impressive.
Summerall Guards and BVA run together the night before the rifle exchange to the new guard.
Bravo Company during parade review.
Nelson Lalli checks the alignment of Bravo Company.
I am reminded every time I photograph the cadets how important it is for each person to have a nice photo. After I post these to my facebook account I spend hours accepting the requests for tagging and friends. I try and make “portfolio” quality images, but find often just simple clean image of a cadet is really appreciated.
Nelson Lalli andTj Fischer
Christopher White
Matt Spysinski, Nelson Lalli, & James Riley Harrell
“The instant can be the end product of a long experience as well as that of immediate surprise.”
–Henri Cartier-Bresson
Mika Ariel with her new camera bag in Hawaii
This past week I was at the Museum covering the Founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy’s, 90th birthday. While there, I saw some of the exhibits of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
I think every photojournalist knows about their work and probably more about their philosophy of the Decisive Moment. This is when the photographer thinks, “I need a figure in that space, but just any figure won’t do. It must not merely fill the space but also give it an incomplete meaning. The figure must have a credible reason for being there, will have to relate to the space significantly, and will add something. Their appearance in that space must be considered to make the resulting picture clearly express what I want to say.”
This is when the timing is just right for the photographer when they click the shutter and capture the subject in a context that helps tell a story in a very compelling way.
Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park – The City of Refuge
I have a series of photos; this was the one where the water smashed against the rocks to help communicate the power of the ocean.
I think there are five steps that a photographer will go through to capture this decisive moment. First, there becomes a two-way relationship with the subject, which often goes like this.
Genuine interest in the subject
An effort is made to understand and know the subject.
Due to this new knowledge, you have deductions about it.
You now feel moved to say something about it.
You say something when the subject is ready to participate with you.
Interest
I have been on those class or camera club assignments. You are just looking for something that fits the subject matter assigned. This will not get you a “Decisive Moment.” Having an interest that leads to enthusiasm and a desire to know it better would be best. This genuine interest is the first step.
Understanding
You must know a subject intimately before attributing a specific value to it through composition and timing. This intimacy helps you convey the subject’s purpose to their environment.
Fat Tuesday at North of NOLA
Barbara, the head cook at North of NOLA in Roswell, Georgia, is enjoying the moment during the busy Mardi Gras celebration.
How can you know the right moment to take a picture unless you have a good idea of what the subject means and what you are after? When you are interested in a topic, you learn more about it. You go below the surface stuff to the meat of the matter.
You must first know yourself before you will be able to know others. Then, you are in touch with your feelings and can empathize with the subject.
You will have some reference points in your life that help you connect to humanity. This will help you secure your subject with others as well.
As a result of our understanding of the subject, we react and our opinion or feeling about it. Based on this, we make photos.
Conclusions
The understanding you gained now helps you know the hook that will engage the audience and help you communicate the knowledge you now have to the audience compellingly. At this point, you no longer use “rules of composition” to guide you; instead, you move the subject around the frame and find a placement communicating your heart about the issue. This is not just the emotions, effects, intellect, and will.
Some photographers may zoom in and out, and others may move the subject all around in the frame until they feel the composition of the elements around the topic is helping capture much of the person’s essence.
Synchronicity
You can do everything up to here and never move to this step because this is where the subject must allow you the moment. They may relax in your presence, and you are just the fly on the wall able to be present with the person. They may give you a look that is personable and intimate. Underlying the first step is your willingness to be transparent with the subject. The more you are open and honest, then more the issue will respond in kind. The more you are closed off, the less the chance of a moment.
My wife and daughter are enjoying a moment together that they and I will remember forever.
Serendipity
Doing the above steps regularly as you photograph subjects over time will develop a keen sense of moments. You will take nothing for granted and be ready for the slightest change. You are a master of your camera and can quickly make adjustments to capture any moment. You have done this long enough to translate your vision into the camera like muscle memory. You don’t have time to think but instinctively react because you have practiced and disciplined your routine of getting to know subjects to recognize the moments if they reveal themselves early in the process.
The prize
The prize is the relationship I have developed with a subject, and the photograph is just icing on the cake because I get to share this person with the rest of the world.
If you were listening in last week when I was doing one critique after another at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference, you would have heard a theme to my comments.
First, I like also to review all the photos before I comment. This way I can categorize some of the comments that apply to some if not all the photographs.
Second, I usually find a positive attribute of his or her work. Sometimes I might be pointing out how I can see why you might be interested in that subject. My point is I think there is usually a small redeeming factor to make you stop and make a photo.
Watch those edges and keep it simple
Third, probably the number one thing that I say to people starting don’t center their subject. Use some rules of composition to help guide the audience and make the composition more interesting. We might talk about rule-of-thirds, leading lines, framing and of course using light as a way to help improve the photograph.
Fourth, most everyone I find struggles with the edges of the photograph. They see the subject and haven’t quite made all the stuff around the subject and within the frame to work together to create a strong photograph. We might have things growing out of their heads or parts of the body cropped funny.
Fifth, one of the things I struggle to this day with myself is my camera drifting up. I end up with more space at the top of the frame and not really doing a good job anchoring the photo at the bottom of the frame.
Everything I have mentioned up to now is the fine-tuning thing one does to improve the photograph. You might compare what a photographer does to a sniper. The sniper takes aim with a rifle at a target a long way off. They will do everything to keep the barrel as still as possible. They will even control their breathing and fire the rifle in between heartbeats. If they do not control these minute details they will miss their mark.
When photographers do not pay attention to the minute details like the sniper they too will miss their mark and the message will not come across to the audience.
Connect with your subject, you should be showing their personality.
Sixth, up to a couple of years ago I would have stopped here. But this is when I am now ready to talk to those who do photojournalism about the most important thing they can concentrate on the most to improve their photos—the subject.
I believe until you know the subject well and not just on a mental level, but with your heart you will not connect the audience with the subject at a level to move an audience to action.
As I go through the photos with the photographer, I ask them questions like: What did you want me to know about your subject? How did you feel about the subject?
You don’t have to ask this question with photographers at the top of their game—you feel like you know their subjects from their photographs. The reason I ask this question is to reveal what I think is the core value missing with many photographers today.
Most of the photographer’s answers to those questions were—I don’t know. To which my reply was then how do you expect the audience to know anything or care?
I you look at any photograph and it brings up feelings of warmth or sadness, I can assure you the photographer felt this. Most likely the photographer is crying behind the camera when you cry from one of their photos. The photographer is smiling when he made the photo of the joy in a child’s eye. The photographer is pissed when you see something that angers you in their photos.
Do you want your photos to look better? My advice is to get to know your subject and know what you want to say about them. Get to know them so well that your heart is moved to emotions and not just a mental understanding of the story. When you know what you want to say and how you want to portray the subject, then you will place the subject in the frame at the best place and wait for the moment and the light to all convey what you want to say until you feel it in your viewfinder.
If you don’t know what to say and you are not feeling it behind the viewfinder—put down the camera ask some questions and get to know them better. My faith teaches me that all mankind is made in the image of God. I pray that I see the world with my heavenly father’s eyes.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
I just recently I spent the day with former President Jimmy Carter. I was even able to tweet that he was my seat warmer that day. What a really exciting time it was for me to work with The Carter Center. President Carter is the Founder of The Carter Center.
I was covering International Campaign to Eradicate Guinea Worm which the Carter Center is the leader in worldwide. There are only 3 countries left in the world before it is defeated. The last major disease defeated like this was small pox back in 1978 during President Carter’s presidency.
I really enjoyed the event since everyone was so excited about the progress of the campaign. I could tell President Carter was very pleased. He was so easy to photograph and gracious to his guests from all over the world.
While I am always concentrating on getting the best expressions and moments with people interacting to help tell the story in the most effective way, I am also looking for graphically interesting angles to add a little interest. I liked the ceiling here in the press conference.
The logo for the Guinea Worm looked so similar to their staircase at the Carter Center that I not only thought it was a cool graphic, it also tied into the event with the look of the Guinea Worm being twisted onto a stick. (Carter Center Logo Below)
In today’s world, it’s easy to become consumed by self-promotion and self-gain, especially in business. However, as we look at the teachings of Jesus and the power of service, we can see that there is a better way.
As Derek Schoenhoff, Pastor of The Little Red Church in Hawaii pointed out, many churches have become more focused on their buildings and programs than on spreading the message of Jesus. Unfortunately, this same mentality can be found in the business world, with companies more concerned with their products than their customers.
But as we look at the teachings of Jesus, we can see that the path to success lies in service. Jesus himself came to earth not to be served but to serve. He asks us to do the same.
So, how can we apply this idea of service to our businesses today? It starts with focusing on the customer experience. People don’t just want a good product; they want to feel cared for and valued. They want to have an experience that makes their lives better.
This means going above and beyond to make sure our customers are happy. It means listening to their needs and concerns and doing whatever it takes to meet them. It means focusing on building relationships rather than just making sales.
And while this may seem like a difficult task, it can lead to great success. Focusing on service creates loyal customers willing to pay top dollar for our products and services. As a result, we build a reputation as a company that cares, one that people want to do business with.
So, whether you’re in the business of photography, widgets, or anything else, remember that the power of service can be transformative. Focus on serving your customers, and success will follow.
Before our children could even read, they could identify restaurants by their logos. Our oldest son was in the back seat singing “… The Simpsons” when he saw a sky with many cumulus clouds. Most everyone involved in communications understands how images entice the audience.
Sometimes logos conjure up other thoughts. For example, for many folks, ATT’s logo is called the “death star.” This is another topic for another time, though.
Many people working as communicators for corporations, nonprofits, or in the media see the visual as the “hook” to their written story. The concept of using visuals as “eye candy” is a way to make you stop and at least start to read the article.
Love her or hate her, Catherine Zeta-Jones helped shape the image of T-Mobile during her first run with the company. To celebrate the launch of their Mobile Makeover advertising campaign, she’s back again. The ads use her as the “eye candy.”
No question this works in advertising, but how does it go over with corporate communications or journalism?
I think those that use imagery as “eye candy” are like the tabloids or car magazines with women on the car’s hood. This approach must work, or these media types wouldn’t be doing so well financially. However, they are not taken seriously for their content.
You can use the imagery as the message and not just a hook. In journalistic examples, are the photos of the Twin Towers being hit by airplanes or on fire? Another example is Michael Phelps touching the wall first with others still behind him.
In journalistic media, we also see visual “hooks.” We see mug shots that accompany an article but say nothing about the story. How is this a hook? On sports pages showing the loser during peak action moments looking like they won is a hook.
I’ve learned the best images leave the viewer asking a question. “Why are the Twin Towers on fire?” is the question people ask when they turn on their televisions. It kept us glued to the coverage to understand and help us heal. Is this the photo of Michael Phelps winning the 8th gold medal, or what race is it?
We can learn from “eye candy” photography. If the image is exciting and has a visual impact, it will hook the reader. It would help if you surprised your audience. I have talked about this in past e.newsletters. Getting a unique perspective like a worm’s eye view or a bird’s eye view is a great “hook.” Making photos from the standing position straight on all the time is what amateurs do. You can create an informative intriguing image of most content to help tell the story with your pictures.
I shoot for different audiences. For example, I often shoot for Associated Press, magazines, corporate publications, websites, college recruiting and alum publications, and many other mediums.
I must tell the story in one photo when I shoot for AP. I must shoot tight, which means close-up and filling the frame. The users of AP images may run the picture small and will not want to use the photo if it isn’t close-up. It needs to have an impact. They may run it on a paper’s front page to help tell the story and sell the newspaper.
I have to take a different approach at an event where an AP photographer is there, and I am there shooting for a magazine. By the time a magazine comes out, the readers will have seen the AP images of the event. My coverage must be more than one impactful image. I have a variety of angles, from close-up to medium and overall shots of the story. I will use lighting to help influence the image even more.
I have been shooting many multimedia packages lately that require 30 – 60 images for a 2-minute piece to run on a website. I need photos as I would for a magazine and transition photos. I need pictures of noises you may hear in the audio to help the audience understand those noises are seagulls in the background near the subject. You still need strong images, but they can help tell the story and compliment the audio.
Most communicators today are using the same content in multiple places. For example, they send out a printed newsletter and post it on a blog, website, or eNewsletter. All of the pieces point to the website where more content and images can be placed than before this existed.
Capturing all the photos of the story, you will now have just started telling your story. That’s right—I just started. People like to be in dialogue and comment on your reports online. This outlet wasn’t available in print.
In the most recent Scientific American Magazine, there was an article on Celiac Disease. When you went to their website, the report was there as well. Still, it now will comments like this, “The illustrations in this article delivered to my mailbox today allow the complexities of the science of gluten intolerance to be easily understood by everyone.” Here is a link for you http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=celiac-disease-insights&page=6.
Is your material getting as many comments as this article? Are your visuals helping your audience to understand the topic? Using visuals effectively and not just as a visual “hook” will improve how your message is communicated.
Stanley is available as a consultant to help you improve your visual communication for your organization. Give him a call or email him to set up a time for him to work with your team.
Professional communicators understand the importance of getting the audience’s attention. A robust hook is necessary to stimulate their interest in the message, and a quote or a visual impact is an effective way to achieve that. However, when it comes to photography, a powerful image alone is not enough to convey a message. A photograph that lacks context can leave the viewer with little understanding of the subject and their story.
Wire service photographers have used impact as a visual hook for so long that it has become a norm. However, the context has been handed over to the writer, and we rarely see good examples of photos with real context. A good photograph should tell a story and provide context; the environmental portrait is an excellent example of achieving both. By showing the subject in their environment, the surroundings portray the person and help tell their story. A simple headshot only shows what someone looks like, but an environmental portrait can speak volumes about the person.
The child was fascinated by my camera and watched me as I worked at the Hôpital Baptiste Biblique in Tsiko, Togo, West Africa. [NIKON Z 6, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 1400, 1/200, ƒ/4, (35mm = 105)]
Missionary groups often show photographs lacking context, also known as “People Who Need the Lord” photos. They show what the people look like but tell us nothing about who they are, where they live, or what they do. Instead, photographs should be used as an introduction and tell a story. For example, showing a mother in her kitchen making a meal, a man at his job, or children playing can give context to the photographs and help the audience understand the subject and their story.
To bring context to a photograph, there are six simple steps to follow:
First, determine the purpose of the picture.
Decide on the mood of the photo.
Determine the subject.
Decide on what to include or exclude around the subject.
Decide when to press the shutter to capture the moment.
Decide on the light source to use.
Following these steps, photographers can contextualize their subjects and create photographs worth a thousand words. Photography can be used to tell a compelling story, and it is up to the photographer to ensure that the context is not lost in the visual impact.
Charles G. Goldman, Executive Vice president of Schwab Institutional, leads the opening general session of the Charles Schwab conference for independent financial advisers.
There can be no words without images.
— Aristotle
More than any other technological innovation, computers are responsible for the explosion in images. Today, 20 percent of the U.S. population can use a computer. But 80 percent of school-age children have learned to become computer literate. By the turn of the century, Sculley predicts that 98 percent of all the words and pictures created in the world will be computer mediated. By that time, virtual reality — the ultimate fusion of computer and television technologies in which viewers become active users of the medium — will be inexpensive and accessible.
Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University cites studies that show persons only remember ten percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they read, but about 80 percent of what they see and do. When all members of society whether at home, in school and on the job learn to use computers for word and picture processing, the switch will be made from passive watching to active using. There will no longer be the barrier between the two symbolic structures. Words and pictures will become one, powerful and memorable mode of communication.
— Professor Paul Martin Lester, Ph.D., Department of Communications, California State University
Visual forms of communication grab the attention of today’s audiences. Graphic representations such as diagrams, charts, tables, illustrations and photographs not only catch the eye; they draw the viewer into the information being presented.
Corporate communication departments who took advantage of this visual revolution early on are today’s leaders in the communication field. They saw this “explosion in images” coming and jumped aboard.
Endless, long blocks of type spreading across pages are rarely read. Early editors discovered a visual tool that cured this ill… they broke the copy up into short, more manageable paragraphs that didn’t intimidate or bore their audience.
Ted Turner
Today, many no longer read traditional text. Just taking brochures from the past and posting them to the web will not get the message out.
Okay, if it’s true that a skilled use of visuals will improve communication and if expertise in this area seems like a foreign language… what then?
We’d probably take classes to learn a foreign language, so to become proficiency in the use of visuals perhaps we should study art, photography or theater at the local community college. This is one way to learn how the masters in these fields used the visuals.
Mr. Bean was a British comedy television series starring Rowan Atkinson. Bean, an almost totally silent character used physical comedy to entertain. The series did well internationally because words were not important to the success of the show.
Instead of a brain storming an idea try playing a game of Charades to express what needs to be communicated about that idea. The game forces thinking in visual terms. Pictionary is a board game where teams try to guess specific words from their teammates’ drawings. More than Charades Pictionary requires forming mental pictures. Both games provide a fun way to practice visualization.
Here are Ten Tips to consider when thinking about using images:
1. Humanize – Illustrate how products affect people. For example, to show how small something is, rather than using a ruler, put it in someone’s hand. If something improves lives – show it doing just that. Today the trend is to use a more photojournalistic approach or, at least, to make it look photojournalist. To make sure the expressions are genuine set up a situation, give it enough time and it can become real.
2. Good Lighting – Sometime the natural light is perfect. Just cut the flash off and use a higher ISO for the available light. Remember that whatever has the most light on it will become the main subject.
Bill Griffeth moderates panel with Greg Valliere and Liz Ann Sonders during the Charles Schwab conference for independent financial advisers.
3. Try Black & White – Some war photographers feel that color may make even war look pretty. Black and white is a good way to focus attention on faces and graphics.
4. Get Closer – Almost any photo will be better closer up.
5. Watch the background – Look around the subject. Be sure nothing is growing out of a head or sticking in from the edge on the frame. Use a shallow depth-of-field like ƒ/2 versus using ƒ/16 to make your subject stand out from the background. If the background helps tell the story increase the depth-of-field by using f16 or f22, or vary the background anywhere in between fuzzy or sharp.
6. Consider a worm’s eye view or the bird’s eye view – Shoot really low or high above the subject. Change the height of the camera in relation to the subject; avoid making all the photos from a standing position.
Lou Dobbs
7. Turn off the date stamp – Digital cameras embed the time and date in the photo information so it is not necessary to have it print on the photo itself.
8. Variety – Make plenty of photos from different angles. In addition to using the zoom actually get closer and farther away from the subject. Make wide-angle and close-up photos. Try some without flash, some with direct flash and bounced flash.
9. Give it time – Make a few photos then stop for a few minutes. Let the subject get used to being photographed. After a while they’ll relax and the really great photos will start to happen.
10. Action and posed –Show the subject doing what they do. Let them do their job and make lots of pictures. Pose them for a good portrait, not just a headshot, but do an environmental portrait showing their work environment or signage of the place they work in the background or foreground.
11. File Size Matters – You can always downsize an image, but you can’t do much to upsize the image. Many think they can get more images on their SD or CF card by changing the file size and you can. The problem is unless you are never have plans to use the photo for more than an avatar or profile picture on Facebook then you will not be able to make prints or use it in printed pieces. Use RAW or at least the highest JPEG at the finest setting possible for your camera. You might have to find the owners manual to know how to do this for your camera.
There are many other ways than these that can improve visual communication. Like everything worth doing visual skills come from doing… from practice.
Think about it this way: Who is going to SEE your message today?
