Quick Photography

This weeks seminar involved an interactive activity where we had to take our own photos of other students in our seminar group and test out different techniques, angles and lighting in order to get the best looking photograph without requiring professional equipment or an expensive professional photographer. It was recommended that if we were ever given a brief where we had to use photography to promote certain brand products, then it would be best to use a professional photographer as it will make the products look much more appealing and of a better quality. However, learning how to take quick photographs would be useful for briefs that don't require product photos and that can include less professional photos but will still be persuasive and effective. Quick photographs can be useful in giving an organisations publics a basic idea about certain elements of the company, for example knowing how to take an effective photograph of a person would be useful if displaying an image of the organisational CEO on a brand website or in a feature article. Also, quick photography can be used for research or for social networking posts as these don't always require professional images to prove the point that they are trying to make e.g. sometimes social media posts can be designed with the purpose of creating a buzz and gaining shares from the public and therefore the most important thing is that the photography involved is interesting and represents what the organisation is trying to achieve, not that the photography is completely professional and angled perfectly.

A good technique for getting effective photographs is to have the subject tilt their shoulders in a 45 degree angle. This is to prevent the outline of the figure looking too block like, because if their shoulders are facing the camera straight on there will be a lot of large shapes to look at and the photograph will look intense. Alternatively instructing the subject to turn their shoulders slightly and tilt their head, this looks softer and less intense and makes the person seem more appealing. This works for both selfies and pictures you are taking of other people. Psychological research has shown that having human flesh in a photograph has more of an impact and can be more persuasive in

In terms of group pictures a commonly used and apparently successful trick for capturing a good image is the triangle technique involving the group being positioned in a triangle or inverted triangle shape instead of just a long straight line as this is boring and looks less appealing.