A Week in Review: Photography, Editing, Readings and More!

This past week, I learned a great deal both in and out of class.  During our class lecture, we were taught the “rule of thirds” in photography.  I admit I had heard of this before, but never really understood it quite as well as when Mindy visually explained it to us using actual photographs and grids.  My classmate, Eisa, also did a nice job of recapping what we were taught in class on his blog using his own photographs.

 

For those of you who might not know about this rule, it states that when you divide a picture into thirds the most interesting thing in the picture should be in the middle box points.  Again, see Eisa’s blog for a good visual explanation.

 

Learning this rule came in very handy on Friday the 21st when I visited William H. Turner Technical Arts High School for my Master’s project in lieu of thesis which is to be a series of feature articles on education in Miami-Dade County.  Although I am not required to take photographs for my project, after a few weeks in this class, I realized my stories would probably be incomplete without a few good photographs to illustrate the articles and the individuals I spoke to.  After only a few weeks of reading Kobre’s Photojournalism The Professionals’ Approach, shooting a few pictures during our in-class assignment last week, and discussing some of these pictures, I found myself really paying attention to every shot I took.  I thought about angles, composition, light, and the rule of thirds every time I pressed the shutter.  It is amazing what a little training in photography can do for your thought process while shooting pictures.  Still a novice however, I am sure most of the pictures I took on Friday are not anything earth-shattering, but at least I feel confident that I took a few usable shots, many more than I would have had before my recent exposure to photography.  Tomorrow I get another chance to practice when I visit two other high schools.  I am excited!

In class on Thursday, we also learned how to save pictures for the Web and edit them in Photoshop. I was able to practice cropping and adjusting levels.  I also learned that the correct picture resolution for the Web should always be 72 ppi (pixels per inch) and the maximum height for a Web photograph should be 400 pixels while the maximum width should be 750 pixels.  These are easy to set in Photoshop under Image, Image Size.

 

As usual, the learning this week did not stop in the classroom.  I found our three reading assignments each to be quite interesting.  These included Sound Advice: The Natural Approach,  Natural Sound Stories: A How-To Guide and The Transom Mic Shootout Part 2: Handheld Mics .  I will summarize/highlight a few of the most appealing points for each (in my opinion) below.  Still, you should definitely check them out for yourself!

 

1. Sound Advice: The Natural Approach

• The idea of natural sound, which is sound that compliments the image you view on the screen.

•  The idea of an “audio picture” was particularly poetic to me.  We sometimes tend to think of things in very definite terms, but if you let your mind wander just a little bit you can realize that images are not only created with photographs or other visuals.  Sound can create an equally effective image of a particular story in an individual’s mind if collected carefully.

• The term “audio band-aids” used to describe how the author “fixed” gaps in his recording of a narrator for a recent project of his.  The term sort of jumped out of the page for me and reminded me of our ethics discussion last week.  Still, if I remember correctly from our discussion, I think this is OK as the sound to create these “band-aids” was collected from the same room where the narration took place and on the same day.  Right?

 

2. Natural Sound Stories: A How-To Guide

 

• The four steps to creating natural sound stories
  i. Knowing your story and planning ahead for it, including its structure.
  ii. Getting the sound, both subjects speaking and the natural sounds of the surroundings to help the story flow.
  iii. Interviewing differently by asking two-pronged questions, making observations instead of asking questions, getting more sound than you think you might need, and asking subjects to clarify when necessary.
  iv. Finally, putting it all together by creating an outline of your story and organizing your sound, listening to the story to make sure nothing important was left out, and lastly testing your story on a colleague to see how it fairs before air.

 

3. The Transom Mic Shootout Part 2: Handheld Mics

 

•  This one was not my favorite as I had a hard time pointing out the difference in sound between the various mics.  Maybe my headphones are not that great, who knows! 

• However I did notice a few small differences.  There seemed to be an echo coming from Mic D, a little handling noise from Mic E and finally an awkward whistle-type noise in the background from Mic G.

 

In addition to the above readings, we were asked to take a look at The Art of Listening.  As I watched and listened to this, I wrote down one note:  “Listen carefully.  There are more sounds to sound than you think.”  Hmmm…interesting…what do you think about that?

 

Lastly, I listened to Studying a Koala Mystery in Eastern Australia.  These are some of the things I noticed:

• The background sound was good but was a bit of a distraction from the speaker.

• The sounds of the researchers walking in the grass seemed more natural to me, less distracting and seemed to add more to the flow of the story.

• However, the above was much more effective when it was demonstrating action, less so during the speaker’s static talking.

• The sound did a great job of making me feel as if I were there.  The scene was easy to imagine without any images.

• The use of different voices also helped the flow of the story and helped to keep my interest.

• I felt that some of the most intense natural sounds were found towards the end.  To me, this was a good way to signal that the end of the story was coming.

Ethics of Photography: Is There Any One Right Answer?

Ahh…ethics….that sneaky little work we seem to stumble upon no matter where we turn or what work we are involved in.  Most of us would like to be handed a list of do’s and don’ts, and call it a day.  Unfortunately, it is not that simple.  It seems that even the three basic ethical frameworks mentioned by Kobre, utilitarian, absolutist, and the golden rule, are not enough to always provide a direct answer to a photojournalist’s (and any other professional for that matter) ethical dilemma with any particular assignment.
I like the suggestion in the readings that every photographer and every assignment carry with them different ethical implications and thus must be handled separately.  This is important to remember in any situation.  As human beings, I believe we have the unfortunate tendency to try and simplify things too much, in this case ethical standards, to try and fit every case with one set of answers.  Kobre makes it obvious that this line of thought is not helpful.  Every situation is different and must be considered as such.

Then comes the question I have heard in so many of my mass communication courses here at UF: Are we journalists before human beings or vise versa?  It is this “professional versus good samaritan” dilemma, as Kobre terms it (313), that we seem to struggle with so much.  This question, too, does not have a definite answer.  In some situations, where we have the ability to assist those in danger, such as when Joe Fudge of the Newport News Daily Press Times Herald (pg.314) alerted a family that their attic had caught fire and helped them evacuate before he ever took a shot, it seems that our duty as human beings overrides our duty as journalist and providers of information to the public.  Interestingly, in a different situation, as when Pennsylvania’s former state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide at a press conference (pg. 314), Kobre suggest that there was nothing the photographers could have done and thus the job overrode the human factor.  These examples, I believe provide a good dichotomy on which to judge this long-discussed dilemma of professional duty versus our duty as human beings.  I think I see Kobre’s point in using these two situations to illustrate this point, do you?

Finally, I especially enjoyed Kobre’s discussion about whether to print gruesome pictures or to sometimes shy away from printing these to avoid offending viewers.  In my opinion, yes, some pictures can be so gruesome and violent that they have the potential to really offend and outrage viewers, but is it fair then, as communicators, to yield the public from the reality that exists in their world without first giving them a choice to decide whether they want to know or not?  I think these kinds of photographs should always be published, as long as they provide some kind of crucial information to the public, and then individuals can choose whether or not to turn the page.  The media should be careful in censoring itself by going on what they perceive will be readers’ reactions, something they can never know for sure. 
This then reminds me of a time during my freshman year in college when I checked my mailbox at the dorm and found a seemingly harmless envelope.  When I opened it, I remember screaming, because there on a 4 x 6in.  postcard was a picture of a horrifying, blood-laden aborted fetus staring at me.  At the time, yes, I was very offended and upset by this unsolicited photograph.  Now, several years wiser, and many communication courses and ethical discussions later, I can respect that group’s offensive postcard, because they had a message to communicate and simply found the most effective way to do so.  Amidst all my screaming, that post card did serve to provoke some real thought on the issue of abortion.  So I ask, do we as a society wish to be thought for or do we wish be given the opportunity to think for ourselves?  Food for thought…pardon my cliché!

A helpful introduction to photography.

Our first readings from Kenneth Kobre’s Photojournalism, The Professionals’ Approach served as a significantly thorough introduction to photography.  Although I have dabbled with photography before in previous courses, I had never really had the chance to read about it in great detail.  I remember when I was young, I thought, you’re a photographer, big deal!  In my mind, there was nothing more to it than aiming the camera at a subject and pressing that shutter.  After reading about all of the thinking and planning that goes into taking a good photograph that will tell a complete story, I realize it’s not so black and white. 

The readings in addition to the class lecture were definitely helpful when it came time to take some of my own photographs.  After reading about different kinds of shots i.e. medium shots (tells the whole story, pg.14), close-ups (emphasizes one element to create drama, pg.14), and overall shots (paints a scene of the event, pg.13), I found myself putting more thought into every shot than ever before.  I thought where should I stand, what elements should I leave in the frame, what elements should I leave out, which details pertaining to my subject would be most visually appealing in a photograph, what elements would tell the most complete story? 

The readings, lecture, and in-class activity coupled together gave me a whole new respect and admiration for the work of photojournalists and photographers in general.  Kobre’s tips, in my opinion, can quickly improve anyone’s ability to take a better picture, a more complete picture, even for a complete novice like myself! 

Below I will highlight what I felt were some of the most helpful tips throughout the readings.  Read these carefully and you can quickly be on your way to taking a more thoughtful and professional quality photograph than you ever thought possible!

1. Be present when your subject is engaged in some activity.  This helps to avoid the posed portrait feel.
2. Think about the purpose and use of your photograph when deciding what kind of shot to take.   For example, if you know only one of your photographs will be used in a publication, take a medium shot that tells the whole story.
3. Using different angles can give your photograph a different perspective.
4. This is a tough one.  Because we are used to the kinds of pictures we might take with our friends or at a gathering, our tendency is to manage the scene by telling people where to stand and what to do.  Kobre says “Rather than stage-managing pictures, photographers observe but do not direct” (pg.19).
5. Kobre also says, “come early and stay late” (pg.54).  This way you can catch surprising photo-ops that might happen before and after the actual event takes place.  Also, by doing this, you have the best chance of getting a spot near the subject that will provide a thorough and clear shot, something you might not get if you are stuck behind a huge crowd of other photographers.
6. Always look for good lighting.
7. Look for something that stands out, something enlightening, something shocking.
 

Journalists’ Toolkit- Aspirations for this Course

When I registered for Journalists’ Toolkit 1 last Spring I was looking to extend the digital knowledge I was gaining in a course I was enrolled in at the time, Developing Digital Online Learning.  In this course students were briefly exposed to many skills including digital photography, collecting and placing audio on the Web, various software applications, digital presentations, publishing material to the Web and more.  Because it is always difficult to go in-depth into numerous topics in just one semester, I was left with an overwhelming fear that little practice in the skills I had acquired would erase everything I had learned throughout the semester.

My goal in Journalists’ Toolkit 1 is to continue to practice and improve my digital skills, and my ability to “figure out” different software applications.  During the course of the semester I hope to substantially increase my audio editing, photography and digital storytelling skills.  In addition, I hope to become increasingly comfortable with a computer and all of its powerful components.  I also hope to come out of this course with a few more work samples to add to the online portfolio I am in the process of creating for my nearby job search.

Everything gets better with practice, but I believe this is particularly true of the digital world and the skills needed to succeed in it.  I want to come out of this course with the ablity to produce more professional quality material for the Web and the confidence to take on any digital based project.

This course is crucial to a successful career in communications in the digital age, and I expect to greatly benefit from it!