Photography Exercises

Before we start, think of the four “F”s Frame: choose carefully what to include in your photo. Focus: be sure to understand how to focus. Follow through: allow your camera time to take the picture. Flash/Light: think about where the light is coming from. August 2019 Photography Exercises

And, remember the three ways to convey your message visually Photographing reality: What is happening NOW. Photographing symbols: Show an idea, concept or a theme. Posing the scene: Photographing an arranged scene. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Exercise 1: Flash & light (30 minutes) Work in groups of two Find a dark room or space and place your colleague in the darkest corner: Take a portrait of him/her on mode: (That is one with/one without flash). Change roles and repeat exercise. Pick a different spot. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Change positions and do it again. Now place your colleague in the light coming from the window (that is: the light is coming from your back) and take a picture. Change positions and do it again. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Feedback Facilitator collects pictures and gives feedback on some of the results. Look at your results: what can you say about the difference between the pictures taken ‘in the dark’, with a flash and with natural light coming from the window. Which do you prefer? It is important for the participants to know that when a flash is used there’s a chance the atmosphere or the emotion in the picture disappears; the picture might get too light. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Exercise 2: Composition (30 minutes) Work in groups of two Take four different pictures of the same subject (your working partner or maybe a chair or a car or a table): Change the angle or position so that you play with different ways of photographing something or someone. Change roles and repeat exercise. Pick a different spot. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Feedback Facilitator collects pictures and gives feedback to some of the results. Look at the results: what can you say about the different corners, focus and composition? What do you prefer? Make sure the participants choose 4 actual different points: e.g. from the front, from the bottom, from the back and from the top. All frontal pictures, with each a different distance to the subject, are not 4 different corners. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Exercise 3: Focus (30 minutes) Work in groups of two Position your working partner from the waist up on the one side of your frame. Make sure there is another subject in the background of your frame (this can be a tree, a car, a person etc.). Now take one picture with your working partner in focus. And another picture with the other subject in focus. Change roles and repeat the exercise. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Feedback Facilitator collects pictures and gives feedback to some of the results. Look at the results: what can you say about the different corners, focus and composition? What do you prefer? August 2019 Photography Exercises

Exercise 4: Visualising a VIP… (75 minutes) Work in groups (3 or 4) The facilitator hands out the name of a well known person to each group. Or the group can come up with a VIP themselves. Don’t tell the other groups. Make a list of the characteristics of the VIP. ASK around to come up with several VIP’s. Think of rappers, rockstars, moviestars, politicians etc. Groups can come up wIth their own VIP’s as well. August 2019 Photography Exercises

From all the pictures your group took, you choose five. As a group you choose five characteristics that best represent the VIP. As a group you are going to take photos that represent these characteristics. From all the pictures your group took, you choose five. Without saying who the characteristics represent, one group presents their pictures to the rest of the participants. The other groups try to guess who the VIP is! Grandma, rockstar, policeman, president, teacher etc. August 2019 Photography Exercises

Exercise 5: Photographing concepts (75 minutes) Work in groups (3 or 4) Each group receives a concept. The group cannot show it to others. Each group has a few minutes to think how they can visualise their concept. Take up to eight photos that show the concept. Remember the three ways of conveying your message. Example concepts: Family, Love, Education, Traveling, Food August 2019 Photography Exercises

When photographing: try to make use of your surroundings as much as possible. From these 8 photos, you will have to select your three best ones together with the facilitator. As a group you then discuss which photos together show the concept best. Each group presents their pictures to the rest of the participants. The rest try to guess what concept is shown. Example concepts: Family, Love, Education, Traveling, Food August 2019 Photography Exercises