A Step-by-Step Guide

There are three ways you can get assignments.

1. Actively taking a written assignment from an editor, writer, reporter or other staff member
2. Verbally (or otherwise) agreeing to take a photo
3. Finding good action shots to take without being “told” to take them

Your best photos will probably come from just being in the right place at the right time with a camera ready to go. That’s how you get pictures full of action and emotion.

Assignments generally need to be complete (with cropped, captioned and generally color-corrected images on the server) within 24 hours. Assignments that are going to take longer than that require consistent communication with the editors.

Step One: Shoot the photos

Regardless of how you get the assignment, it is then your responsibility to get quality photos – action photos full of emotion that are good in technical quality, that have some composition to them (i.e. are more than snapshots) and that have some meaning. Accepting an assignment is a contract between the publication and the photographer.

When you shoot an assignment, it is your responsibility to have the camera and all necessary equipment (film, batteries, note pad, etc.). It is not acceptable to say that you couldn’t complete an assignment because your camera didn’t work. Plan ahead. Have a backup plan.

It is your responsibility to ensure that all the gear you check our or use on assignment is in working order. You are responsible for all gear you check out, including the camera, card, battery, lens and any other accessories. If it is not in working order when you check it back in, it is your responsibility to notify the adviser and/or photo editor. DO NOT check out gear that is not in working order.

Before going on an assignment, format the card in the camera.

Step Two: Download images

When you get back from shooting an assignment, put the card in the card reader and dump ALL the images into an “Originals” folder either on a local computer (preferred) or the temporary hard drive. Do your editing from there.

Step Three: Cut the crap

Look at the images and determine which ones are useless. Delete any out-of-focus, extremely under- or over-exposed images, etc. from the computer so no one has to waste his or her time looking at them again. You should do this by yourself.

Step Four: Cull (with a partner)

This step cannot be completed by yourself. Just as all stories require an editor, all photo assignments require that the “best” images be selected through an editing process. So, with a partner, decide on what are the best images. It may be the best one, or it may be the best 10 or 20. These are the ones you’re going to save on the server, so they should be usable pictures. It’s better to save too many than not enough. You never know how valuable the images might be when the person you shot pictures of decides to run for president. It is the responsibility of the photo editor to see that all images are culled as a team.

Step Five: Basic editing

Now, working only with the selected pictures, do some basic cropping (leaving designers some room to crop) and basic toning. Don’t worry about anything but basic color correction. And do NOT resize or resample the images. Leave them in RGB, JPEG. Since this original file contains the most data it’s ever going to contain, the designer will resize/resample a COPY of this image so we always have the original to go back to. CLICK HERE for the steps of basic digital editing.

Step Six: Caption

All edited pictures need captions in the Photoshop File Info fields. Without complete captions and credits, (a) your pictures are unusable; (b) you won’t get paid; (c) you won’t get credit. For historical purposes, even if the pictures aren’t used, the captions are invaluable. CLICK HERE for more information on captions.

Files should be named using the description_IN.ext format where “description” is a one- or two-word description of the contents of the photo. Be specific. “IN” is the photographer’s initials. “ext” is the appropriate file format assigned by Photoshop.

Step Seven: Copy to server

Copy all the edited pictures to the PHOTO SERVER. Never put unedited images on the server. It is your responsibility to have the images copied to the server before the deadline given by the editor or within 24 hours, whichever is sooner. There are two reasons to put images on the server.

It’s from the server that designers will look to get their pictures. If you don’t put your images on the PHOTO SERVER, they won’t get used.

The server is backed up nightly.

Step Eight: Backup raw images

Just like photographers used to maintain their own negatives, you should burn a copy of all of your images, raw and edited, to a CD for your own purposes. Unedited images can be storied on the temporary hard drive. This hard drive will be reformatted at the end of each semester.

Step Nine: Delete raw images.

Now, you can delete any unedited or un-captioned images from the host computer. DO NOT leave any files on local computers. They will be erased and will not be backed up.

Types of assignments

Feature

Wild art, feature shots are stand-alone, human-interest shots. There is no story to accompany the shots, so a lengthy caption is necessary to explain detail not evident in the photo. There are some things that are discouraged as wild-art features, mainly because they have been overdone. That, however, shouldn’t discourage photographers from finding new ways to shoot old things.

• NO people studying. It’s a campus, there’s rarely anything newsworthy when people study.
• NO squirrels, unless they happen to be doing something completely unworldly, like catching themselves on fire
• NO brickyard preachers, every man woman and child on this campus has seen them on the brickyard. They don’t want to see them in our publications.
• NO pictures of buildings. We need pictures of people doing something, not static shots of buildings.
• NO pictures of people looking at computers. Been done. We need action and emotion.
• NO pictures of people talking on the phone unless that’s really the story.
• NO pictures of speakers talking at a podium. Get pictures of the speaker interacting with students.

Go into a building a see what’s around, most buildings on this campus, except residence halls, have some form of work lab or another room that can be pretty visually interesting. Get out of your room, most residence halls have some crazy students in them that will toss phone books in the hall, race down hallways, have room wars, or poker nights in the lounge, all are great shots. Talk with people. You may find someone on campus that has something interesting about them. You’d be surprised at some of the odd jobs that students on campus have.

News

Some things like speakers, Student Government meetings, or press conferences are rather dull to shoot and provide little help for getting a great shot. Look around. Find some strange angles or good interaction shots. Look for interaction between people.

Spot news

Spot news is sporadic and unplanned and can range from a student getting hit on Dan Allen to a fire alarm in a residence hall. Spot news doesn’t always have to be grim. Shots of students in their bath robes outside a dorm after a fire alarm can provide a light-hearted angle to a serious event. Be available. And be prepared.

Sports

Sports can be fun to shoot, but finding a unique shot in a game can be difficult. Often, more of the story can be told by shooting reaction to the game from the fans or players. Focus on the students and don’t forget to shoot the band, dance team, cheerleaders, fans, coaches and other aspects of the event.

Portraits

There is a difference between a portrait and a mug shot. A mug shot shows what a person looks like and that is all. A portrait not only shows that, but it also shows something about the person that you can’t see just by looking at them. Find out about your subject and see what they are interested in. If you find a student that is an avid swimmer take them to a pool and get a portrait of them there. If a professor loves to play video games, get a shot of him tearing it up on the Xbox.

Get out of Witherspoon to take portraits. Find the students in an environment in which they are comfortable. Shoot their portrait there. Then their environment adds to the picture.