Photo Assignment 4: Behind the Scenes

Description

For this week, your assignment is “Behind the Scenes.”  You'll photograph people in a space that "the public" doesn't normally get to see. 

It is vital that your images and story give a sense of intimacy and special access.  You must see and show your viewers things that they wouldn't be able to see without you!

Your images should tell a story about people doing stuff. You might have a couple of pictures in the series that don't include a person, but primarily the series should be about people.

Examples can be things like:

• the opening or closing activities of business (after hours)

• a restricted part of a public space that the public cannot access (a restaurant kitchen, a locker room, a backstage dressing room, a control room, announcer's booth, etc)  

• a ride-along with law enforcement

• a medical facility (for people or animals)

• a warehouse or factory

• a mechanic shop

• a film set

• an event facility 

• a farm

• a morgue

Requirements

You will submit at least 10 images to tell this story.

• Use a variety of shots (wide, middle, close-up; setting the scene, details, etc)

• Be creative– but all your creativity should be intentional and meaningful.  Feel free to use other techniques you’ve learned – making use of tricky lighting, silhouettes and shadows, composition rules, motion, etc. 

• No posed/staged/purposefully lit photos.  Use what’s there.

• Find a way to make your images interesting!  - use perspective, angles, lines, light, etc. but get close.

• Good editorial value – feeling/emotion, human interest, humor, oddity/novelty, juxtaposition, illustrates a relevant or current issue, interesting theme, etc. You should be able to say why people should look at this image.

• Think about the narrative and the chronology - how will you begin and end the story? What shots would be good as an "introduction" and a "conclusion"?

• Images should tell a story and make visual sense when viewed sequentially. This means that you need to make sure the pictures are numbered/ordered so that we will be able to view them in the order that makes narrative and aesthetic sense, not necessarily in the order that you took them.

Other requirements

• Your photos should tell a story and mean something.  You should be able to say WHY each photo is important to telling this story.

• You need to process your images through Lightroom and do the proper adjustments to highlights/shadows, sharpness, etc., as needed.  You will add captions and rename the files as we discussed in class. Your images will export from Lightroom as .jpg files.

• You must caption your photos according to AP style guidelines and attach captions to the photos as metadata.  Each caption should have two complete sentences: the first sentence, in present tense, explains what is happening in that photo and includes the day, date, and location. The second sentence gives more general information about the overall context or significance of the specific content of the image.  The captions should be properly punctuated and contain proper grammar and spelling. Double-check your grammar and spelling. You will have points deducted for errors.

Remember, show people only your best work!