Take a decent photoActivism guide • November 2016

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Taking great photos is vital for campaigning as it can make the difference to having your photo published in the media and shared on social media.

A great photo can inspire others to take action and communicate your campaign message. It can also encourage others to get involved with your group.

You don’t need a fancy camera to take a good photo, especially if you will be using your photos for social media and on websites. There are things you can do to make your photo look great, whether you are using a phone or an SLR.

General guidelines • Keep it simple (less is more). Remove anything from your ‘frame’ that complicates things and have a clear focal point.

• People are more interesting than things: make sure you feature someone in the photo – even if they’re out of focus in the background. Images of people who are doing something are best.

• If you’re setting up a static photo, don’t be afraid to direct people: ask them to move and tell them what to do. Everyone wants a good photo and you know what looks best.

• Make sure your message is obvious by having the words in the photo (e.g. on a banner).

PreparationBefore your event or action, think about what photos you want to take and what you will use them for. Having an idea of what follow-up you will do will help you decide what photos you need.

Who will be taking the photos and what camera will they be using? Make sure someone has the specific role of photographer and that they have a phone or camera which is fully charged and with plenty of memory.

To get an idea of what makes a good photo, take a look at photos in newspapers and on social media which you find eye-catching. What angle do they take the photo from? Is it close up or faraway? What is in the photos? Are they portrait or landscape? Learn what kinds of photos are used and try to replicate them.

Tips for taking photos • Try taking photos from different angles: below, above or from the side. Photos from below create a sense of ‘power’ in the shot.

• Take both portrait and landscape photos.

Capturing people doing something and ‘active’ makes an image dynamic and gives it energy

Photo: Matt Bonner

You can fill the frame in an interesting way by taking photos from below.

Photo: Global Justice N

ow

• The best zoom lens is your feet. Move around!

• Make sure you fill the frame. It’s the people and the message that are interesting, not the brick wall or park behind them. Take photos from close up, at a medium distance and from far away. You can crop photos, but you will lose the quality which might prevent you using them in print media.

• Don’t have too many different things going on as it can look jumbled and confusing. What is your message? Is it clear from the photo?

• If staging a photo, get people to pretend or ‘re-do’ something you missed. Ask them to chat nonsense with each other. Get people holding a banner to shout and raise their fist. To get people to look natural while smiling ask them to laugh a little (rather than just saying ‘cheese’). It feels strange, but it really helps.

• Look at the background. Avoid including bright and colourful objects, or text that draws attention away from the focal point of your photo. If you have something in the background (a building name for example), make sure you’ve done it on purpose.

• Use your props (but not too many). Costumes and props will provide colour and interest, and can also help deliver your message. When composing your photo include your campaign message on a banner, t-shirt or placard.

Does your photo reflect the feeling of the event or action? Does the way you’ve taken the photo look exciting/dramatic? Do people look like they’re having fun/ are engaged?

Being in a photoIf you are in a photo, listen to the photographer. Follow their directions on where to stand, what to hold and how to hold it. Play along if they ask you to re-do a key moment or act out a situation. If you’re being asked to smile for the camera, pretend to laugh a little – it feels weird, but it looks good.

Be aware of who the designated photographer is (as opposed to others that might appear), and make sure you direct your attention at them.

Photos for press mediaIf you are hoping your photos will be used by journalists, you may want to use a digital SLR camera. Choose up to three of your best images and don’t send any more.

Framing your shotAn easy way to create a nicely framed photo is to use the ‘rule of thirds’:

Divide your image into two imaginary horizontal and vertical lines, then place the main subject of your image where the lines intersect with each other.

Framing the subject in ‘thirds’s usually creates a more balanced and pleasing photo than if you focus them at the centre of your image.

You can reframe your image after you have taken the photo by cropping it and zooming in. Have a go at cropping photos you have already taken so they fit the ‘rule of thirds’.

In this picture the subjects have been framed in the intersections of the imaginary lines

Photo: Global Justice N

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Taking photos of placards or banners can tell your story.

Photo: José Farinha

Include both landscape and portrait photos and make sure your message is clear in all your photos.

Your photos will need to be high resolution for print media: at least 300dpi (dots-per-inch) and no less than 500kb in size (probably bigger than this).

If you’d like the journalist access to the original files, upload them to a website like Flickr or Dropbox. Make it obvious in the email and press release where the files can be downloaded.

Don’t forget to provide a caption for each photo, and a credit for the photographer.

Local and national media are generally interested in different kinds of photos. National media tend to use eye-catching images which are symbolic or dramatic. Local media like photos which feature people and use landscape photos to fill space.

Photos for social mediaPhotos are great for social media as updates with photos tend to get more shares, likes and retweets on Facebook and Twitter.

You can make your action or event look exciting reach a much wider audience.

Photos of people doing things, or of key moments are best to show people whats going on. Photos will need to be at least 500 pixels wide.

Facebook has started doing full-screen photo viewing at high resolutions meaning smartphone photos (with a dirty lens, for example) can look blurry and grainy.

You can change your image quite dramatically by cropping it afterwards, though you need a fairly high resolution photo to do this successfully .

Photo: Cam

paign Against Arm

s Trade

On demos, as well as taking close-ups, make sure you get some images that give a sense of numbers. You can use filters on smart phones to make photos eye-catching.Photo: M

att Bonner

InstagramInstagram is an online social media tool for editing and sharing videos. It’s free and easy to use and with it you can:

• Crop and edit photos directly from your phone to create a more professional / eye catching look.

• Use hashtags to increase the size of the audience that will come across your photos.

• Upload directly and quickly from your phone, which enables instant sharing of photos. This can help build momentum and the impact of a protest or campaign.

• Automatically share your photo on several social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr.

• Reach a younger audience.

Produced by Global Justice Now (globaljustice.org.uk) and Campaign Against Arms Trade (caat.org.uk) in collaboration with Common Weal (allofusfirst.org) N

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Follow upUpload your photos to websites, blogs and social media.

You can use simple online editing tools such as Canva or Picmonkey to add text and calls to action to your photos. You can do this to create memes for sharing on social media.

Consent and rightsIt’s important to get people’s consent for taking their photo when in a private space. In public spaces you don’t have to get people’s consent, but it is respectful to.

At events, you can make an announcement at the start of the event and give people a chance to opt-out of photos. You could put up some signs explaining that photos will be taken and what they might be used for.

On actions, police and security may try and stop you from taking photos, but if you’re in a public space they have no right to do so. You can often get away with taking photos even if they want you to think you can’t.

If you are using other people’s photos in materials or on your website, check the rights to the photo and make sure to credit the photographer.

Capturing emotion can tell a powerful story. This image is of a Bahraini torture survivor who was the only person arrested at an anti-arms trade demonstration

Photographing stallsIt can be useful to have photos of your group running a stall, but sometimes people struggle to make stall photos look interesting.

The photo on the left isn’t perfect, but it does manage to look dynamic by capturing people ‘in action’. Taking photos while people are interacting with your stall can look better than a posed photo with group members behind it.

The photographer has taken a close-up from an interesting angle which has helped to fill the frame.

The person on the right is facing into the photo and is positioned in a third of the shot (see ‘Framing your shot’ box above).

It could be improved if there was a campaign message or the group’s name in the image, for example with a logo on the back of the clipboard, and if the bottom left of the photo wasn’t so ‘busy’.

Photo: Cam

paign Against Arm

s Trade

Photo: Global Justice Brighton and Hove