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FIELD GUIDE RYAN MCCALLUM PHOTOGRAPHY BHS PUBLICATIONS Photo by Melisa Miller ‘

FIELD GUIDE RYAN MCCALLUM PHOTOGRAPHY BHS PUBLICATIONS Photo by Melisa Miller ‘04 “These snapshots are their little stands against the flow of time. The shutter is clicked, the flash goes off, and they've stopped time, if just for the blink of an eye. And if these pictures have anything important to say to future generations, it's this: 'I was here; I existed; I was young; I was happy; and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture'." -Sy the Photo Guy One Hour Photo Cover by Allie Houfer ‘05 2 INTRODUCTION Photography is a means of recording forever the things one sees for a moment. -Aaron Sussman Whether you are taking pictures for the news- paper or the yearbook, you have become the eyes of the school. A photographer decides what gets remembered about a person, event, or place. You allow people to experience things they’ve never seen and remember moments that will inspire memories. You con- trol a part of history. In order to live up to this role, you should learn how to take the best pictures possible. This guide is designed to help you understand the world of photography; from the technical aspects of cameras and the fundamental rules of picture composition to technical aspects involved in digital editing. While reporters and writers work on chroni- cling events that can help provide a glance into an event, photographers provide a living history of the school. A yearbook full of great stories and a newspaper full of important issues will go unread and unnoticed. Photographs add importance, impact, and emotion to to any publication. Photography allows us, in a sense, own what we do not. You decide what people remember and what will be forgotten. You can’t capture every moment, so make what you do capture amazing. You are the eyes of the school... 3 INTRODUCTION Melisa Miller ‘04 4 BEFORE YOU GO Angela Salveson ‘04 “The camera is no more an instrument of preservation, the image is...” Berenice Abbott Setting: Will you be shooting indoors or outdoors? Will the light source be mostly artifi- cial? If it’s indoors, how large will the area be and how far away will the source of light be? Be sure to scout out your location in order to take your pictures from the best location. Time: If your event is outdoors in in natural light, try to take most of your pictures during the brightest times. When day- light starts getting sparse, be sure to show up to events while it is still light if you can. Certain shutter speeds become useless when it begins to dark- en. Light: Adjust the camera to compensate for the amount and type of lighting that will be available. Motion: You should know how Factors to consider Good pictures don’t happen unless the photographer is pre- pared. Every assignment you will go on will involve several important factors that will dic- tate which camera settings are appropriate. If you don’t antici- pate these factors in advance, you may return with an ugly shot of a beautiful moment or miss important events as you rethink the camera’s settings. You only get one chance much motion to expect from your subjects. Anticipate and compensate for motion and adjust your shutter speed appropriately. 5 Allie Houfer ‘05 Tip Action shots require a higher shutter speed, which needs a lot of light. Try to get all sports shots dur- ing the daytime. Weather: Overcast skies, rain, wind, and snow cover should all affect how you set up your camera. Intent: Know what you photos are going to be used for. Will it be large and dominant? Will it be horizontal or vertical? Will there be digital editing with it? If you are taking a picture that is supposed to be artistic, talk with the writer or editor to find out exactly what the picture is supposed to look like. Emotion: Pictures are meant to do more than just provide proof that something happened. Be sure to pre- pare to capture meaning behind events. Think carefully about where to place yourself to capture the honest emotions behind an event. Remember that not all sports photography should be done on the field of play. 6 GUIDING PRINCIPLES Ryan Strugar ‘04 We are not interested in the unusual but the usual seen unusually. -Beaumont Newhall Perspective As a photographer, your main goal should be to get as close to your subject as possible. Everybody can see a sporting event from the stands, a speech from the bleachers, or a class- room from the doorway. It should be your aim to provide your audience the view from where they want to be. The best photographers are not embarrassed by getting on the playing field and next to their subjects. If you aren’t willing to get up close, you may as well send someone else. Honesty Just as writers cannot make up quotes, no mat- ter how good they would sound. You should never, under any circumstance, pose a photo or attempt to recreate a candid situation, no matter how good it may look. Also, during editing, you may never alter a photos content or meaning. Candid Saved posed shots for portraits and group pho- tos. While posed shots may be great for person- al albums, they are horrible for newspapers and yearbooks. Candid photos capture emotion, action, and motion. This is they type of photo that everyone will be interested in, even if they don’t know the people or have never seen the event. Candid photos are honest and create a living representation. Be creative and outgoing to get interesting and unique candid photographs. Awareness A good photographer is aware of their surround- ings and is able to take candid photos without being noticed by subjects or getting in the way. Get outside of yourself. Become a part of the environment you are photographing and take the pictures that you know your readers want to see. 7 HISTOGRAM The histogram is a handy graph that alerts you to the two extreme cases of underexposure and overexposure in your pictures. In severely underexposed pictures, you lose details in the shadows. In severely overexposed pictures that result in blown highlights, you lose details in the highlights. If the image is too dark (histogram touches the left side), dial in a positive exposure compensation value in +1/3EV steps, and see if the his- togram shifts to the right. Some pic- tures might require up to a +1EV exposure compensation to preserve details in the shadows. If the image is too bright (histogram touches the right side), dial in a nega- tive exposure compensation value in - 1/3EV steps, and see if the histogram shifts to the left. Some pictures might require up to a -1EV exposure com- pensation to preserve details in the highlights. Most digital cameras allow you to dial in an exposure compensation between -2EV to +2EV, in 1/3EV steps. We have also seen that there is no good or bad histogram, per se. A his- togram simply tells us how our picture is exposed and we retain the control to decide whether -- and how -- to adjust the exposure. We might decide to compensate for the under or over- exposure, or we might even force an underexposure if that is the effect we are after. For more info, see page 74 of the Sony man- ual or page 110 of the Nikon manual. Too Dark (Underexposed) Too Bright (Overexposed) Just Right (Balanced Exposure) 8 TERMINOLOGY Exposure is the amount of light that reaches the image sensor and is controlled by a combina- tion of the lens aperture and shutter speed. Exposure, and its effect on shutter speed, may be the single greatest technical aspect of photography. It affects every aspect of a photo, so it should be a key consideration before you set out to take a pic- ture. The shutter speed is the length of time that film is exposed to light. A rapid shutter speed (400 and above) means that very little light reaches the lens while the shutter is open. A slow shutter speed allows more light to reach the lens, but also makes it diffi- cult to capture motion because the lens is open longer. If you have a strong flash or are shoot- ing in daylight, a fast shutter speed will capture amazing Exposure It is important to understand that a photograph actually captures an image during a certain length of time. A photo can never freeze time, but we can control the length of time a photo cap- tures. While some photos cap- ture action over several sec- onds, minutes, or hours, other can show as little as 1/1600th of a second. It is important to remember that the passage of time is represented in each pho- tograph we take. The idea that any photography can't be personal is madness! ... I see something; it goes through my eye, brain, heart, guts; uploads/Geographie/ field-guide-ryan-mccallum.pdf