Problems
1 You have a dozen photos of a person or place.
2 You can't remember the name of the person you met at a business meeting, holiday or conference.
3 Your photos are distorted.
4 Your picture of a holiday destination are ruined by bits of litter, graffiti, people scowling in the background and somebody's hand waving in the foreground plus your finger across the corner.
5 The helpful bystander cut off your hat and your shoes.
Answers
1 However busy you are, go through the photos and pick one to send to the organisers of the event, to put on social media or your website, with the names of the persons, the place, and yourself as photographer so they can come back to you later for more photos.
Captions
2 Caption every photo immediately with the names of people and the place, whilst you have the literature handy. Photograph the event programme or tourist brochure so that you have the name of the place with correct spelling for later captioning.
Look for banners or advertisements with the names of the event and organisers and phone numbers and correct addresses and postcodes and websites.
3 Your photos may be distorted because you are too close. At an event, try to sit in a different place in the second half.
Watch any professional photographers. If they are professional they may have a tripod.
If you have a small camera such as a smart mobile phone you might need to be near to the people on stage.
If you think you have distorted photos, ask them to pose later. With a window behind you will get a silhouette. (Might be useful if they don't like being photographed.) Too much light and they screw up their eyes. Take two photos, preferably from different angles.
Take one vertical picture and one horizontal. Most magazines are A4 or A5, tall, so you/ they want one photo that shape. You might want a vertical picture for the back cover of a book.
Multiple Photos
Take at least two photos. In case they shut their eyes in one photo. Or you have camera shake on the first one.
Steady your camera against an upright surface such as a desk or shelf or wall if there is poor light.
Editing
1 I cut out duplicates, blanks from having the view finder covered and photos accidentally taken of my own foot.
2 I go through several versions of the same place or person and select the best. The others can be deleted or hidden. I have found that if I have six photos almost the same and edit only one I risk accidentally loading up one of the un edited versions. to edit every one wastes a lot of time.
3 I lighten a photo where the face is in shadow because of the angle or because the person is dark skinned.
4 I click on contrast to enhance colour. If the colours look unnatural, I gradually go back towards the original.
5 I sharpen the picture. If this reveals spots and wrinkles on faces I can either edit out spots and wrinkles or go back to soft focus.
6 I crop to remove distractions: the fire extinguishers, the notices about other events, the handbags in the aisles, the disembodied feet and hands from somebody else unknown alongside, the cigarette butts in the street, the trailing wires from electrical equipment.
7 I could keep two similar photos in case I ever want to offer one as an exclusive and then get asked for another photo by somebody else.
8 I use the one with the graffiti, cropped to show the graffiti, in an article about graffiti. I use the one with the cigarette butts, cropped to concentrate on the cigarette butts, for a post about smoking.
Self Censorship
9 I self censor the photos. If that was a photo of me, would I want it to show me frowning, scowling, with wrinkles and blemishes?
If I were the tourist board or PR would I want the photo showing the place looking a mess? But if I were a tourist, would I want to know that the pretty place seen empty at sunset after closing is full of queues of people at mid-day on a bank holiday?
I can show both pictures as a contrast and use that as a tip for tourists. Or even show photos of a queue (Americans say line-up): For example: ''Go at sunset to take a romantic photo without the crowds.'
I can write a caption to please the tourist board whilst warning the tourists. For example, "You can see how popular 'Dracula's' Bran Castle, in Romania, is in summer time."
Or, a building under scaffolding in the UK: "The museum is closed for renovations. I plan to go back next summer. Make a note in your diary."
Time Taken
It takes me half a minute or a minute to write a caption and another half a minute or a minute to edit the photo. That is a short time.
However, if you have thirty pictures of an event, that's at least half an hour of your time, plus the time emailing to the subject of the photo, event organiser, or a magazine or newsletter or social media page.
If you have sixty pictures of a big event or a two day event, that's at least an hour. A three day weekend conference or a holiday means three hours, half a day. You can see why a photographer would expect to be paid, or at least a big thank you, a photo credit, and maybe a certificate of appreciation, a round of applause at the next event, or a small gift.
You don't see the time they spent deleting all the photos where people waved and made camera blur, or the idiot at the back made a V sign over the head of your VIP.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark useful posts and share links to posts which you find informative or amusing.
1 You have a dozen photos of a person or place.
2 You can't remember the name of the person you met at a business meeting, holiday or conference.
3 Your photos are distorted.
4 Your picture of a holiday destination are ruined by bits of litter, graffiti, people scowling in the background and somebody's hand waving in the foreground plus your finger across the corner.
5 The helpful bystander cut off your hat and your shoes.
Answers
1 However busy you are, go through the photos and pick one to send to the organisers of the event, to put on social media or your website, with the names of the persons, the place, and yourself as photographer so they can come back to you later for more photos.
Captions
2 Caption every photo immediately with the names of people and the place, whilst you have the literature handy. Photograph the event programme or tourist brochure so that you have the name of the place with correct spelling for later captioning.
Look for banners or advertisements with the names of the event and organisers and phone numbers and correct addresses and postcodes and websites.
3 Your photos may be distorted because you are too close. At an event, try to sit in a different place in the second half.
Watch any professional photographers. If they are professional they may have a tripod.
If you have a small camera such as a smart mobile phone you might need to be near to the people on stage.
If you think you have distorted photos, ask them to pose later. With a window behind you will get a silhouette. (Might be useful if they don't like being photographed.) Too much light and they screw up their eyes. Take two photos, preferably from different angles.
Take one vertical picture and one horizontal. Most magazines are A4 or A5, tall, so you/ they want one photo that shape. You might want a vertical picture for the back cover of a book.
Multiple Photos
Take at least two photos. In case they shut their eyes in one photo. Or you have camera shake on the first one.
Steady your camera against an upright surface such as a desk or shelf or wall if there is poor light.
Editing
1 I cut out duplicates, blanks from having the view finder covered and photos accidentally taken of my own foot.
2 I go through several versions of the same place or person and select the best. The others can be deleted or hidden. I have found that if I have six photos almost the same and edit only one I risk accidentally loading up one of the un edited versions. to edit every one wastes a lot of time.
3 I lighten a photo where the face is in shadow because of the angle or because the person is dark skinned.
4 I click on contrast to enhance colour. If the colours look unnatural, I gradually go back towards the original.
5 I sharpen the picture. If this reveals spots and wrinkles on faces I can either edit out spots and wrinkles or go back to soft focus.
6 I crop to remove distractions: the fire extinguishers, the notices about other events, the handbags in the aisles, the disembodied feet and hands from somebody else unknown alongside, the cigarette butts in the street, the trailing wires from electrical equipment.
7 I could keep two similar photos in case I ever want to offer one as an exclusive and then get asked for another photo by somebody else.
8 I use the one with the graffiti, cropped to show the graffiti, in an article about graffiti. I use the one with the cigarette butts, cropped to concentrate on the cigarette butts, for a post about smoking.
Self Censorship
9 I self censor the photos. If that was a photo of me, would I want it to show me frowning, scowling, with wrinkles and blemishes?
If I were the tourist board or PR would I want the photo showing the place looking a mess? But if I were a tourist, would I want to know that the pretty place seen empty at sunset after closing is full of queues of people at mid-day on a bank holiday?
I can show both pictures as a contrast and use that as a tip for tourists. Or even show photos of a queue (Americans say line-up): For example: ''Go at sunset to take a romantic photo without the crowds.'
I can write a caption to please the tourist board whilst warning the tourists. For example, "You can see how popular 'Dracula's' Bran Castle, in Romania, is in summer time."
Or, a building under scaffolding in the UK: "The museum is closed for renovations. I plan to go back next summer. Make a note in your diary."
Time Taken
It takes me half a minute or a minute to write a caption and another half a minute or a minute to edit the photo. That is a short time.
However, if you have thirty pictures of an event, that's at least half an hour of your time, plus the time emailing to the subject of the photo, event organiser, or a magazine or newsletter or social media page.
If you have sixty pictures of a big event or a two day event, that's at least an hour. A three day weekend conference or a holiday means three hours, half a day. You can see why a photographer would expect to be paid, or at least a big thank you, a photo credit, and maybe a certificate of appreciation, a round of applause at the next event, or a small gift.
You don't see the time they spent deleting all the photos where people waved and made camera blur, or the idiot at the back made a V sign over the head of your VIP.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark useful posts and share links to posts which you find informative or amusing.
No comments:
Post a Comment