How To Improve Club Photos (Part 1)

President of Harrovian Speakers (left) and winners of ribbons. I am in the centre wearing red. More information on the club's Facebook page.  

Problem
I have several photos taken at Toastmasters club meetings where the faces are dark. The person photographed may have a dark skin, wear a hat, or stand in shadows.

Answer
You can try increasing exposure. On the Apple system, go into edit, then adjust, then try moving each slider to see the effect. Move brightness, then exposure. You might find that if you go as far as you can, the lights in the ceiling make big splashes of white. Slide back until the face is clear but the white of the ceiling lights or window is not too bright. Alternatively, edit the photo by cropping to cut out the white ceiling lights and white window.

Counter-intuitively, on Apple's Iphoto editing programme, you slide the shadow icon to the right. Suddenly the face appears.

Moving contrast tends to make dark faces become darker. If you need to enhance black writing on a sign, adjust the black enhancer.

On your smart phone, such as an iphone, you will also have an editing function. Try out all the symbols below the photo.

You can duplicate the photo to compare before and after. Sometimes cropping makes the person or their face larger. You might want them in the centre of the photo instead of to one side.

Cut out a bystander whose eyes are shut. Remove half bodies. A white hand on somebody's black shoulder can be removed by filling in the black, used the touch up tool.

Adding Photo Details
If you have only one picture, you might illustrate an article by placing the whole picture at the start or end. Select a cropped close-up of a medal, ribbon, trophy. Then take the winner's smiling face.

Adding Logos and Buildings
Add the building logo. Add a photo of the building taken earlier at another meeting.

Congratulations and Comments
Get a congratulations quotation by speaking on the phone from the absent president, illustrated with a photo of them taken on a previous occasion.

If you have too many photos, you could make a mosaic of tiny pictures. Alternatively, list all the people photographed, or the name of the club, and refer to another site where pictures of them can be seen.

If you have time, during daytime, ask your subject to move into natural daylight. In the evening you can simply try the variety approach. Take the subject facing left and right, with you on the left and right, in another part of the room. Then select the best or easiest to edit. If you are sending photos to a newspaper, or a timed report, you want to get the photos up fast.

If you email immediately to the people at the club, it will save time next day. You also have a chance to ask people for their email in order to send the photo. You can check with them that it has arrived and be sure they saw it. You can check with them the correct spelling of their name. You also have each photo matched to an email often containing the subject's first name or surname or business, which speeds up writing captions.

You can take a group photo before the event or afterwards. Afterwards some people will be dashing off to catch a bus or release a babysitter or feed or walk their dog. So an extra photo or two taken at the start of the meeting of the audience is handy.

If you have fewer than twenty people, you can usually find most of the names correctly spelled on the agenda. You still need to check. Your subject will be doubly aggrieved if their name is wrong on the agenda and again in the photos!

Another idea I learned when I did teaching in schools, is to make a plan of the desks or chairs or rows of seats in an auditorium. Add the names or functions when people sit down. You might have president centre stage, VIP guest to president's right. In the front left might be two timers. At the back and out of sight is the official guarding the door. I write question marks where I need to get a photo or a name.

I can then see at a glance that during the interval I must get the name of one of the timers, and a photo of the door guardian who was missing from the opening photo.

If you can't identify or remember the name of the president, go back through internet records of the club meetings to find the president's face and matching name.

Privacy and Photography Announcements
Your meeting or large group could contain people who do not wish to be mentioned by name all over the internet. They could be worried about identity theft or being stalked by an ex. Usually the photographer or President or Toastmaster of the evening can make relevant announcements such as:
1 Please don't take photos during speeches. You can taken photos during the break and after the meeting.
2 You can take photos but please don't use flash.
3 Don't take photos of speakers unless you have their permission in advance.
4 We are taking photos for our Facebook page. Please let us know if you don't want your face included.
5 Our photos appear on our club page but it is only available to other club members.

Selfie
Finally, yourself, the photographer. You can add some cheery message such as, Congratulations to ... and club ... from photographer .... with a picture of yourself. If you have other photos which you can provide you might like to say so. If you have already spent hours editing you might prefer to keep quiet. Just put your feet up, relax, and admire your photos.

Afterwards - Memoirs?
Plan ahead. Will you ever want to produce an end of year photo montage or newsletter, or a book of the club history? If so create an album of all the year's winners, presidents, helpers. That saves time at the end of the year. You already have one vital photo of every meeting o event, all in one place with suitable captions accurately made at the time.

Remember The Missing
Tick off every member of the club. If you find that you have pictures of 19 out of 20 club members, add the missing one's face. Oops - nineteen membebrs won prizes but one didn't get a mention or award? If you cannot make an award with a ribbon or box of chocolates or certificate, at least include a happy caption.

Add to the photo a kind or welcoming message, such as loyal supporter, enthusiast, long-standing member, or latest member or introducing .... . That way as many readers as possible will find faces and places of interest.

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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