Photography is often overlooked, but is still essential especially in this consistently image-driven age of the media and online. Read through these tips for a rundown on the extreme basics of photography and how it is utilized/organized at the Patriot Press, as well as how to effectively communicate this to the staff.
First, the extreme mega basics. This year I believe we had an issue in communicating to the staff particularly what kind of pictures we are looking for when it comes to articles, who is responsible for those pictures, and how they can be sourced. Here are some rules that should be emphasized above all else BEFORE going into the more complicated areas of photography such as adding people elements, etc.
Pictures must be original, not taken off the internet. Do not let writers break this rule for a while (preferably never but you know how that goes, haha). Making exceptions leads to bad habits.
Photos are taken by the author of the article, unless someone else has taken responsibility. I.e., someone else lives near the police station so they agree to take the picture for someone else's article about police reform.
Horizontal pictures preferred, but not a hard rule. For portraits and pictures of students, vertical is sometimes better.
Photos are due by the final draft date.
Articles without a picture WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. Articles absolutely need a picture to be published on the online. In the print, this is not always necessary (rarely we will cut the photo for spacing issues, but more often we will just leave a picture out especially for very short articles).
Photo cannot be blurry.
Include at least 3 options for a photo (can be the same object/setting just from different angles) when submitting.
Sometimes, article topics are very abstract and students will have a hard time finding something to take a picture of. Some suggestions for what to tell students to do in this case, in order of first to last choice:
Help the student brainstorm things to take a picture of. Teach them how to be creative with it without resorting to some of these later options coming up (which can be lazy solutions sometimes). Suggest posing other students, visiting somewhere new to take a picture, etc.
Ask an AFHS student or teacher for a quote or point of view on the article, then take a picture of them. This can serve as the picture for the article, or one of them.
Take a picture of a magazine article laid out nicely (not blurry or cropped weird) that has something to do with the article. For example, an article about the new president could have Time Magazine's editorial on the Biden administration laid flat on a table among other magazines.
Take a picture of some books in the library that have something to do with the article topic.
Take a picture of a student from the back or side, looking at a computer screen that has something to do with the topic pulled up.
For club or school centered articles, go on Twitter and find a picture from school accounts there, as long as students give credit in the caption.
For a newsy or facts-based article, sometimes a chart or graphic is acceptable as long as the source is reputable and credited in caption.
Quick side note for the editors: all photos must have a caption with a description of the picture (sometimes a paraphrased quote from the article) or what it represents, followed by a period and then "Photo by [photographer name]." or in the case of the photo being taken off a site, "Photo courtesy of [site/account name]."
More specific things to sprinkle in when talking about photography practices:
Rule of thirds.
Having a human element.
Focus.
Clarity--does the photo make sense with the article? Can a reader at a glance tell what it is depicting?
Does the photo tell a story?
Does the photo look too posed?
Though there are plenty more specifics to get into, these reminders and the rules and suggestions written above are the best way to build a solid foundation of photography for writers.
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