Smile for the Camera!
-What pictures should I take?
Smile for the camera seems so cliché and it is cliché for a reason. Everyone always wants their best smile to be in the yearbook, but yearbooks shouldn’t only have pictures of smiling faces! There’s so much more going on in school to take photos of!
It’s best to write a list of guidelines and instructions so you can enlist the help of others and they can have a clear idea of what you want from them.
I find it best to start with written instructions for anyone who I want to send me pictures, I always include the same kind of information.
Here’s my list of instructions I send out:
Tips for taking photos:
- Only school activities are included in the yearbook. Bus Stop is okay
- Take group shots, groups of 3 or 4 are great, larger groups- try to squish them together.
- Make sure the kids are looking at the camera – we want to see faces
- Be mindful of hand gestures
- Only adults I want in photos are teachers and staff
- I don’t need photos of food – only people
- When taking a group shot in the classroom or elsewhere, make sure there aren’t other things in the way, like desks
- Photos of learning activities are great
- Music and Art program photos are great up close, not so great far away
- When in doubt upload it!
Sometimes I add a few more details to my guidelines. Some of it may seem silly, but there is a reason it’s on the instruction sheet.
No photos of non-school activity.
No photos of students who don’t attend our school (no photo release on file).
No personal photos/family photo shots
There is a balance to find between getting lots of photos to choose from and getting relevant and usable photos. It definitely requires, planning, luck, timing and collaborators!
Sometimes you need every bit of help to be everywhere to get every activity! Next time I’ll talk about how to get the photos!