Intro to photography

 

NTRO TO PHOTOGRAPHY

-Students will learn how to use a digital camera

-Students will understand: iris, aperture, and shutter speed

-Students will learn the fundamentals of photography in a hands-on course.

 - Students will review introductory lesson in Photoshop

http://mycooljournalism.blogspot.com/2023/03/captions.html

-Students should complete a lesson in Photo Shop

1. Correct the contrast on three of their best shots…these will be graded

A. Fix the levels

B. Adjust the RGB

C. Adjust the individual colors: red, green, blue

D. Each photo should contain a caption using the caption rules stated below.

2. They should fix the contrast of the photos in tvstudio

3. Go through your photos and eliminate any unacceptable photos.  Adjust other photos.


Three Photos:
Edit Your three best photos
Write a caption for each
1. Nature/ Portrait / Group
1. Texture
1 your choice

Place pictures on MS Word and upload to www.turnitin.com

Caption Writing:
1.Check your facts. One of the most important aspects of any type of journalism is accuracy. If you use incorrect information, the story or photo loses credibility. Before uploading or printing any photo captions, make sure you’ve checked that anything stated in the caption is accurate.^[3]

• Don’t print an incorrect caption if you have trouble checking your facts, either because you can’t find an appropriate source, or because you’re on a deadline. It’s better to leave the information out if you aren’t sure it’s accurate.

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Describe something that isn’t obvious. If a photo caption simply describes the visuals in the photo, it’s fairly useless. If you have a photo of a sunset and simply caption is as “a sunset” you’re not adding any additional information for the reader. Instead, describe details of the photo that are not obvious, like the location, the time of day or year, or a specific event that is taking place.^[4]

• For example, if you have a photo of a sunset you might want to caption it as: “Pacific coast sunset, March2016, from Long Beach, Vancouver Island."
• Also avoid using terms like: “is shown,” “is pictured,” “and looks on,” or “above."
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1. Do not start a caption with certain words. A caption should not begin with the words ‘a,’ ‘an,’ or ‘the.’ These words are too basic and take up valuable captioning room when they aren’t necessary. For example, instead of saying: “A blue jay in the boreal forest;” simply say: “Blue jay flying through boreal forest.”^[5]

   • Also, do not start a caption with the name of someone, start the caption with a description first and then include the name. For example, don’t say: “Stan Theman near Sunshine Meadow Park.” Instead say: “Jogger Stan Theman near Sunshine Meadow Park."
   • When identifying where someone is in a photo, you can say “from left.” You do not have to say “from left to right."
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   Identify the main people in the photo. If your photo includes important people, identify who they are. If you know their names, include them (unless they’ve asked to remain anonymous). If you don’t know their names, you might want to put a description of who they are instead (e.g. “protesters on the streets of Washington, DC”).^[6]

   • While it shouldn’t need to be said, make sure any and all names you use are spelled correctly and have the proper title.
   • If the photo includes a group of people, or some people who are not relevant to the story (i.e. their names are not required to tell the story), you do not have to name each of them in the caption.^[7]
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   Be as specific as possible. This advice goes hand-and-hand with being accurate. If you are unsure of where the photo was taken, or who is in the photo, find out. Showing a photo without any specific information may not be useful to the reader, especially if you cannot inform them of the context in which the photo was taken.^[8]

   • If you were working with another journalist for the story, contact them for more information if needed.
   • If you are trying to identify a specific person in the photo, describing where in the photo they are is very useful. For example, if Bob Smith is the only one in a hat, you can say: “Bob Smith, back row in hat."
   • While specific is good, you can also phrase your caption so that is starts general and becomes more specific, or starts specific and ends more generally. Either method ensures specificity, but creates easy-to-ready statements.^[9]
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   Label historical photos properly. If you’re using an historical photo in your story, make sure it’s labelled properly and includes the date (at least the year) it was taken. Depending on who owns the photo, you may also need to credit another photography and/or organization (e.g. museum, archive, etc.).^[10]
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   Use the present tense in captions. Because most photos being shown as part of a news story are of things happening “right now,” use the present tense in the caption. An obvious exception would be any historical photos, where using the past tense makes sense.^[11][12]

   • The nice thing about using the present tense is that it portrays a sense of immediacy and increases the impact of the photo on the reader.
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   Avoid humour when the photo isn’t intended to be humorous. If the photo you’re captioning is of a serious or sombre event, don’t try to be funny in the caption. Funny captions should only be used when the photo itself is a joke or of a funny event that is intended to make the reader laugh.^[13]
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   Remember to always include credits and citations. Every photo should include the name of the photographer and/or the organization that owns the photograph. In actual photographic magazines and publications, photos also include the technical details of how the photo was taken (e.g. aperture, film speed, f-stop, lens, etc.)^[14]

   • When writing the credits, you don’t have to use the term “credited 
   • to” or “photo by” if the information is presented in a consistent and understandable format. For example, maybe the credits are always italicized or are a smaller font size.

   Avoiding Caption Mistakes:

   1. 1. Do not be arrogant. Arrogance in captions comes when the person writing the caption doesn’t care about the reader, and simply writes a caption that is easy at the moment of writing. This can also be consider being selfish because the writer cares more about themselves than the reader who is trying to decipher what the photo and story are about.^[27]

      • This can also happen when a writer is trying to be ‘fancy’ and try something new or clever. There is no need to get complicated. Keep things simple, clear, and accurate.
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      Avoid making assumptions. You know what they say about people who assume … ! The same goes for writing captions. These assumptions could be on the part of the journalist, photographer, or even someone else at the publication where everything is being put together. Don’t make assumptions about what was going on in the photo, or who the people are. Find out the truth and only include what’s accurate.^[28]

      • This also goes for style and format. If you aren’t sure if the publication has a specific format for captions, ask. Don’t use a format you like that may need to be completely revised later because you didn’t ask.
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      Make sure you aren’t sloppy. Sloppiness happens when someone just doesn’t care, or doesn’t consider the situation important enough to double-check. The result of sloppiness can be incorrect spelling, the wrong names for people in the photo, captions that don’t match the photos, referring to a photo in the story incorrectly, etc. If you’re proud of your work, do a good job from start to finish.^[29]

      • This can also happen when someone tries to use another language in the caption, but doesn’t check if it has been written properly. Google Translate is not the same as double-checking if the language is correct!
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      Remember that what you print is considered fact. As a journalist, whatever you print either in your story or caption is usually considered fact by your readers. They rightfully assume you’ve done your fact-checking and that what you’re telling them is accurate. If you were too lazy or sloppy to do the job, you risk passing along incorrect information to a large number of people.^[30]

      • Also remember that once information gets “out there,” it can be hard to correct. Especially if that information is related to an event that was tragic, stressful or still ongoing.