The purpose of taking good photos is a responsibility to show our supporters what God is doing on our teams.
Here are some tips for taking and submitting good photos.
1. DAILY EXPECTATION: Every Team Leader needs to submit (or have someone on their team submit) photos DAILY during your team assignment unless you are outside good cell service. We use Facebook for the first impact for those who follow our teams. At the end of the team assignment, those same photos are uploaded to our website as a “Photo Report”. You can see all the photo reports from each previous year.
2. THE RIGHT FORMAT: Make sure your camera is taking .jpg images and not .heic images. On an iPhone, go to: 1. “Settings” then, 2. “Camera” then, 3. “Formats” and MAKE SURE your camera is set on “Most Compatible”. If you don’t send .jgs, I cannot use them on the website unless you convert each one individually.
3. SENDING THEM: The best way to submit photos is by texting the photos to Tom Denlinger at 717-314-7760 or sending them to: tomdenlinger@comcast.net AVOID sending photos via Messenger or WhatsApp because those platforms compress the photos which makes them a lower resolution and they become unusable for the future in printed materials.
4. USE GOOD LIGHTING: Try to use natural light and AVOID taking photos into the sun. Taking photos into the sun usually makes them washed out and unusable.
5. TAKING GROUP PHOTOS: If someone is not available to take your group photo, AVOID propping the camera up far away from the group with the intention of zooming in and cropping later. The quality is always poor when you zoom in later. Consider purchasing a camera holder like this one in this photo.
Try and get your group shot up close.
NEW TIP! Try videoing your group shot. Later you can pause the video at just the right moment when everyone looks great and make a screen shot of that. Send the screen shot as your group photo!
6. THE PROPER SELFIE: When someone takes your photo and says, “Look at the camera” and CLICK, that is the right way to get a good photo of a person. But when taking selfies, people often send me photos where they are looking at themselves on the camera screen AND NOT looking at the camera LENS. The difference of often good versus BEST.
This one (below) me looking at myself on the screen.
This one (below) is me looking at the camera LENS.
You might think I am exaggerating, but I have seen some extreme examples of people admiring themselves rather than taking a pro shot by looking into the lens. Find your lens on your camera and look over at it just before you take the photo! It makes for a much better photo.
7. LANDSCAPE (horizontal) video and photos are always best. If you ever watched a YouTube video that was recorded with a vertical format, there is black on either side of the photo. Vertical photos are only nice when people look at them on their phone. But you can see so much more when you take them in landscape mode and they look much more professional in slide shows and YouTube videos.
I realize as a photographer you might use a vertical shot for an artistic angle. But general team photos should always be landscape (horizontal) photos.
8. VIDEO TIPS: Without getting into recommendations on purchasing more gear, let me just comment on getting video with just your phone. a. AVOID getting too far away when recording someone talking. The best video is one that also has good audio. If you are recording a person talking, you need to in arms length of them. b. AVOID windy conditions. I’ve made that mistake many times. c. Keep videos short and sweet.