How to take better photos

How to take better pictures

This document from Thomas Rotherham College (TRC) is an extremely useful document to look it, save, print and READ when preparing for your AS music magazine photoshoots.

Now Easter is over and done with you can get on with the planning and research behind your photoshoots. You need to have a concept before you head off shooting so you will need to know your audience by now and the ideology behind your music magazine.

You will have created an artist or band that will feature on the front cover. What will they be wearing? What pose will they be in? What facial expressions will be used? Where is the shoot going to take place? These are all questions that you need to know the answers to before you head off to shoot.

You need to show off your planning and research ON YOUR BLOG. So we (ie. the examiner) can clearly see how you came to the ideas you came up with - what real life artists or magazines are you trying to imitate? It is not cheating to borrow ideas from real magazines, but actively encouraged. Of course, your own unique twists of creativity and flair will not be frowned upon, go with it!

Your planning and research does NOT need to be thousands of words typed into your blog. Experiment with different media.

Good at drawing? Sketch a mindmap and snap it.
Want to be more visual? Record yourself going through your plans and the ideas behind them (you don't have to be in the frame, shy people!) Whack it on YouTube and Insert into Blog.
Video-Blog at the photoshoot. Record snippets of "behind the scenes" footage as you are creating your photoshoots, talking about any problems you have encountered and how you have overcome them.
If in doubt, just take photos! Down to the final 3 costume choices for your hipster indie star? Take a pic of the outfits on display .. Maybe host a poll on your social network of preference and see what the wisdom of crowds tell you.

Any questions at all, please comment and I will get back to you. We really need you to return to school on the 15th April armed with footage from photoshoots that you can start manipulating and inserting into magazine layouts - If you can download the free 30 trail of Adobe InDesign this can give you a headstart, just YouTube search "creating a double page spread" and have a play and experiment.

Enjoy your break but please be a bit productive too!