Behind the Scene With Stanley

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Do Your Photos Provide Context For Your Subject?

Professional communicators work hard at getting a message across. But first they must get the audience’s attention. There needs to be a “lead” or “hook” to stimulate their interest in the story.

Ted Koppel said that during his 25 years as anchor for Nightline, they spent the majority of their pre-broadcast time on the first 10 seconds of the show.

The hook is all-important. If it doesn’t work no one will hear the message.

A tactic used by writers to grab the attention of readers is to lead with a quote. This is a powerful literary tool for hooking an audience. It is often misused. Quoting out of context is done quite often. There are two known common practices of misusing a quote - the straw man argument and the appeal to authority. Both of these can undermine the message.

Photographers are also guilty of taking photos out of context to create impact for a visual hook.

If a writer or photographer uses the hook appropriately they will deliver context or story within the hook.

Wire service photographers have used impact as a visual hook (to the detriment of the story-telling photo) for so long that we rarely see good examples of photos with any real context. The context has been handed over entirely to the writer.

Extreme close-up photos have extreme impact but, out of context, may lack any story-telling ability. Relating the subject to its surroundings can help tell the story of the subject, but impact is still needed.

A good example of the type of photo that can contain both impact and context is the environmental portrait. The subject is shown in their environment and the surroundings portray the person and help tell their story. A simple headshot shows what someone looks like, but the environment portrait can speak volumes about the person.

I grew up watching missionaries give slide shows in churches. Invariably most of the pictures they showed were tight headshots of some person looking into the camera. A friend of mine characterized these lacking-context-pictures as “People Who Need the Lord” photos. The pictures show what they look like, but tell me nothing about who they are.

Today I am often asked to speak to these missionary groups about how to improve their photography of their mission trips. My chief complaint about mission teams going somewhere and then showing their photos is the lack of environment in their photos. They have many “People Who Need the Lord” photos, which could have been made almost anywhere. Their photos don’t tell a story, they have little context. What does the county look like? How do they live? What do they eat?

I suggest to these groups that they make pictures that tell something about these folks. Show the mother in her kitchen making a meal. Show the man at his job – what does he do to earn a living. Show the children and what they do for play.

Think of the photos as an introduction. How do we in America do introductions? After we exchange our names we usually ask what they do for a living or we ask about their family.

A real advantage of photography is how much story can be told without having to speak a word. True masters of the craft use light and composition to make sense of all the clutter and show how things in the frame relate to one another. When the photo includes people expression and body language add even more context to the image.

Here are six simple steps to help bring context to a photograph.

1. Determine the purpose of the photograph.
2. What is the mood for the photograph to be?
3. Determine the subject.
4. What should be included or excluded around the subject?
   a. Do I include some of the environment in front of the subject?
   b. Am I making an image that is just graphically strong or does the space around the subject give context?
   c. What is in the background?
   d. What is beside or on the same plane as the subject, giving it equal importance?
5. When do I press the shutter?
   a. Are they interacting with another person?
   b. Do I show a serious or light moment?
6. What about the light?
   a. Do I use the natural light?
   b. Do I bounce the flash?
   c. Do I use professional lights?

Put your subjects in context when you photograph them and your pictures will truly be worth 10,000 words.

Corporate Cummnication Visual Tips: 10 of them

There can be no words without images.

--- Aristotle

More than any other technological innovation, computers are responsible for the explosion in images. Today, 20 percent of the U.S. population can use a computer. But 80 percent of school-age children have learned to become computer literate. By the turn of the century, Sculley predicts that 98 percent of all the words and pictures created in the world will be computer mediated. By that time, virtual reality -- the ultimate fusion of computer and television technologies in which viewers become active users of the medium -- will be inexpensive and accessible.

Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University cites studies that show persons only remember ten percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they read, but about 80 percent of what they see and do. When all members of society whether at home, in school and on the job learn to use computers for word and picture processing, the switch will be made from passive watching to active using. There will no longer be the barrier between the two symbolic structures. Words and pictures will become one, powerful and memorable mode of communication.

-- Professor Paul Martin Lester, Ph.D., Department of Communications, California State University

Visual forms of communication grab the attention of today’s audiences. Graphic representations such as diagrams, charts, tables, illustrations and photographs not only catch the eye; they draw the viewer into the information being presented.

Corporate communicator departments who took advantage of this visual revolution early on are today’s leaders in the communication field. They saw this “explosion in images” coming and jumped aboard.

Endless, long blocks of type spreading across pages are rarely read. Early editors discovered a visual tool that cured this ill… they broke the copy up into short, more manageable paragraphs that didn’t intimidate or bore their audience.

Today, many no longer read traditional text. Just taking brochures from the past and posting them to the web will not get the message out.

Okay, if it’s true that a skilled use of visuals will improve communication and if expertise in this area seems like a foreign language… what then?

We’d probably take classes to learn a foreign language, so to become proficiency in the use of visuals perhaps we should study art, photography or theater at the local community college. This is one way to learn how the masters in these fields used the visuals.

Mr. Bean was a British comedy television series starring Rowan Atkinson. Bean, an almost totally silent character used physical comedy to entertain. The series did well internationally because words were not important to the success of the show.

Instead of a brain storming an idea try playing a game of Charades to express what needs to be communicated about that idea. The game forces thinking in visual terms. Pictionary is a board game where teams try to guess specific words from their teammates' drawings. More than Charades Pictionary requires forming mental pictures. Both games provide a fun way to practice visualization.

Here are Ten Tips to consider when thinking about using images:

1. Humanize – Illustrate how products affect people. For example, to show how small something is, rather than using a ruler, put it in someone’s hand. If something improves lives – show it doing just that. Today the trend is to use a more photojournalistic approach or, at least, to make it look photojournalist. To make sure the expressions are genuine set up a situation, give it enough time and it can become real.

2. Good Lighting – Sometime the natural light is perfect. Just cut the flash off and use a higher ISO for the available light. Remember that whatever has the most light on it will become the main subject.

3. Try Black & White – Some war photographers feel that color may make even war look pretty. Black and white is a good way to focus attention on faces and graphics.

4. Get Closer – Almost any photo will be better closer up.

5. Watch the background – Look around the subject. Be sure nothing is growing out of a head or sticking in from the edge on the frame. Use a shallow depth-of-field like ƒ/2 versus using ƒ/16 to make your subject stand out from the background. If the background helps tell the story increase the depth-of-field by using f16 or f22, or vary the background anywhere in between fuzzy or sharp.

6. Consider a worm’s eye view or the bird’s eye view – Shoot really low or high above the subject. Change the height of the camera in relation to the subject; avoid making all the photos from a standing position.

7. Turn off the date stamp – Digital cameras embed the time and date in the photo information so it is not necessary to have it print on the photo itself.

8. Variety – Make plenty of photos from different angles. In addition to using the zoom actually get closer and farther away from the subject. Make wide-angle and close-up photos. Try some without flash, some with direct flash and bounced flash.

9. Give it time – Make a few photos then stop for a few minutes. Let the subject get used to being photographed. After a while they’ll relax and the really great photos will start to happen.

10. Action and posed –Show the subject doing what they do. Let them do their job and make lots of pictures. Pose them for a good portrait, not just a headshot, but do an environmental portrait showing their work environment or signage of the place they work in the background or foreground.

There are many other ways than these that can improve visual communication. Like everything worth doing visual skills come from doing… from practice.

Think about it this way: Who is going to SEE your message today?

Little Details Make a Big Difference

"God is in the details" -- Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) ... or "the Devil is in the details" (a variant of the proverb). However you choose to look at it, there's no question that little details make a big difference in your work.

The ancient Greek artisans took this so seriously that the statues they carved are complete all the way around, even though they knew their carvings would be in places where no one would ever see those details. This attention to detail is perhaps one of the reasons we marvel at their art thousands of years later.

A Photojournalistic Approach to Corporate Training Materials

Recently I was working on a crew creating training materials for a restaurant chain. We decided to approach the assignment photojournalistically rather than stage the photos. This approach, showing the employees doing their jobs properly, made the photos more believable than set-up shots. These pictures will be used to train other employees and show them in detail how things should be done.

Even though we didn't stage the shots, we still had to set the stage by cleaning up the place. We had to make sure it looked as the company said it should look, that everything was in its place.

In past training programs, the photos occasionally showed that a store didn't always follow the company line in every detail. It may be as small as some item not being in its normal place, or something that's not present in every location.

Insignificant, but incorrect, details are not insignificant to those responsible for training employees. In the Nixon/Kennedy debate of 1960, it was the sweat on Nixon's brow that's remembered -- not what anyone said.

On most high-investment photo shoots, stylists are employed to catch the small details that can distract from the message. Attention to the details is the fine distinction that separates the professional from the amateur.

Communicating Clearly, Without Distractions

I've told you this story before, the one about sitting by a grandmother on a flight from Dallas. She showed me a snapshot of her grandchild standing in front of a house. The child was a mere speck in the picture, but the grandmother, so intent on the memory of the child, was not even aware of all the distractions in the photo. She remembers what the child looked like and so she saw her clearly, but only in her mind's eye.

Musicians, poets, writers and photographers are well aware of how important a detail can be. Musicians listen as they play to keep themselves in tune. Poets search for the one precise word. Writers look for the verb to carry the action. Photographers look at the subject, plus scan the complete frame to eliminate details that distract or add ones that compliment.

As professional communicators, we must show what we want people to see and show it clearly and without distraction.

If a trainee is sidetracked by a detail that should not be there, he or she may miss a point being taught. If there are too many distractions the trainees may not be trained as they should be.

It is our job to make certain the message does not fail due to things overlooked. That's why details make the difference.

No Setup Photos

The cry of all the focus groups when they review most educational recruiting pieces seems to always say they want natural looking photos and not setup.

After having spent the last twenty plus years as a photographer shooting pure photojournalism, where you capture what happens in front of the camera to shooting for advertising pieces, where there are stylists arranging everything in a photo; my experience says most focus groups are asking the wrong questions.

“Do you like the photo?” is not as good of a question to see if the photo was successful as a question like “What did you learn from the photo?” You can even have a photo again on a questionnaire from your recruiting materials and ask, “Does the photo help you see what a typical dorm room looks like?” You could even have a follow up question “What could improve the photo to show you a dorm room?”

The reason I have come to this place about evaluating photos is my experience with truly “real” photographs. I have spent many years shooting “photojournalism” for magazines, newspapers and wire services. You do not change a thing in these photos and you do everything you can use composition, lens choices, lighting and timing to communicate the mood and reality of a situation.

Often a photojournalist’s photos are not “pretty” pictures. Photographers will even use their composition to create more conflict to add to the mood of the photo. Having a focus group evaluate war photos with the typical questions we ask “Did you like the photos?” will give you results which would say the photographers were not successful.

How can you know the right moment to take a picture unless you have a fairly clear idea of what the subject means and what you are after? When you are interested in a subject, you want to learn more about it. You dig below the surface values to the truth beneath. That way you get to know it intimately and are able to photograph it understandingly.

Understanding does not necessarily mean a technical knowledge of the subject. Understanding is interest, sympathy, curiosity, the human element of the equation.

While photojournalism will give you “real” photos, sometimes reality for recruiting will keep your institution on the same path rather than to where you would like to be.

This is where what I call the “sitcom” photography works best. We all know the sitcom isn’t real, but it can create such a reality we are all tuning in to see “Who shot JR?”

This is the type of photography where the school has determined where they want to go and then create communications pieces to help them attain the goal. For example if you want to be more diverse in the future, you will need to show diversity. If you keep it real, you would then research to find those situations where diversity exists already. Then you would photograph those situations and play them prominently in your piece.

As one person put it “You don’t want to be the lone raisin in a bowl of milk.” If everyone works to help the school to become more diverse it can be done.

As you can see there are a few ways to communicate your message using photographs. The ideal scenario is to have “reality” photos. If you had a photographer go to everything you did this year—then maybe you would get the reality you need.

Sometimes “reality” isn’t what you want to show. The student wearing another competing schools T-Shirt. A student with major over weight issues or skin problems can detract from the message. This is why so often we re-create reality like the sitcom. If properly planned, you will tune in and want to know more about your school.

Photographs are made of light, mood, texture, form, and line. The value of techniques lies in how they are used. Techniques by themselves are barren. To come alive with meaning, they must be employed interpretively. This is where I come in. Give me a call and let’s make your recruiting photos—REAL.

Anatomy of a Sports Photography Assignment

Last month, I covered Boston College's victory over Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Here are a few of my photos from the game, along with some thoughts on my approach to shooting the assignment.

First, when covering a football game, I like to stand behind the end zone so the team I'm focusing on is facing me. That way, I am already where they are trying to go.

There are two types of photos you can get of a team from this vantage point -- defense and offense. The great thing is you can see the players' faces, which for me is very important.

In this photo, for example, Boston College wide receiver Kevin Challenger spins loose from Georgia Tech defensive back Avery Roberson, setting up Boston College's first touchdown. What I like in the photo is you can see Challenger's face, along with the defensive player he left in the dust and the ball.

In sports with a ball, I am typically looking for three things: (1) peak action, (2) the ball and (3) competition. Sometimes you can't get all three in a picture, but if one element stands out, the photo will still work.

In this photo, BC receiver Rich Gunnell is tackled by Georgia Tech safety Djay Jones and teammate cornerback Pat Clark after a catch. While you cannot see the ball or their faces, the peak action of the players' feet off the ground communicates the effort.

After one team is ahead in a game, I often begin to focus on the other team to see if there is a play that changes the whole game. When the game is close, this can happen at any moment. With a blowout, the latter part of the game is harder to cover since not much will happen to change the outcome of the game.

After you shoot a game, it's important not to editorialize in your captions -- but to provide concise descriptions of what's taken place. Concise, but chock-full of information.

Today, databases require the captions to be written so the software can pick keywords from the caption so that editors can find the photos. One thing to remember, for example, is to list both teams in the caption. This way, the editor knows which game the photo is from. It is common for editors to search for a few photos and then put them in a folder, and well-written captions help them with the necessary information.

Here's a caption for the photo at left, for example:

Sept 15, 2007; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Tech running back Tashard Choice (22) cuts on Boston College linebacker JoLonn Dunbar (40) during first quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Getting a great moment in the camera is only part of the story; it is the caption that fills in the rest.

A final note about the picture above; like all of these, it's taken at night, which is a bit more diffcult. But it communicates all three elements: He's carrying the ball, it contains peak action, and you can sense the competitive pressure he probably feels from the defensive player pursuing him.