Project Purpose
The purpose of this project was to select a topic of interest that would help better prepare me for a future career in Visual Communications. As a freelance photographer of several years who aspires to use their talents in future jobs, I wanted to learn more about photography that only people in the industry might know. This project has built up my confidence in myself as a photographer and increased my knowledge of various sub-topics of photography. I posted my research to Instagram in the form of short infographics, to teach advanced photography “tips and tricks” to others. I learned from both online sources as well as my mentor Caryn Esplin, photographer and retired professor at BYU-Idaho.
The Project
I created an Instagram account, which you can view here, that showcases my posts of various tips and tricks of photography. Each of these posts covers a sub-topic that I did research on and wanted to share. For example, the first post I made was about laws and ethics of photography. As you swipe further through the carousel posts you’ll learn bits of information, such as how “the photographer owns the photos even if the client pays for it, unless they transfer the rights through a document”. I wanted each slide of information to be easy to read and understand, useful to the audience, and to be something new and refreshing that they might not have known about before.
Challenges
Initially, I wanted to share about my research in the form of YouTube videos. I quickly found this to be a bit challenging because I did not have the current resources or time to make the quality of content that I wanted to. I decided to switch platforms and post Instagram carousels. From there, I could now break up the information that I wanted to share into slides that belonged to their own posts. My audience could pick a topic from what they saw on the first image, and then swipe through the carousel to learn about that topic. I found this to be far more convenient for myself as well as for my audience.
However, I now needed to fit the information I learned onto small slides, rather than talk about them in videos. This was difficult at times because I found myself wanting to share so much. This was a learning experience for me when it came to how creators communicate on different platforms. To make Instagram work for me, I was going to need to condense my research to 1-2 short sentences per slide. Summarizing my information was a challenge each time, but I found ways to effectively communicate the message and teach in an engaging way.
Project Processes
I started by creating a list of all the possible topics that I personally wanted to know more about.
- Advanced Camera Tequniques
- Lighting
- Editing Portraits in Photoshop
- Equipment, Cameras, Lenses
- Business and Marketing
- Storytelling
- Printing and Presentation
- Ethics and Legalities
- Trends and Technologies
From there, I selected a topic I felt would most benefit my learning as well as others, and started finding articles and other sources to teach me about the subject. I spent a week doing research, which included writing down what I knew, what I wanted to know, and reading about current events about that topic. The next week I would do a bit more research, compile my notes, condense them, and design my slides. I would choose a new topic the next week and repeat my process.
I also had the chance to meet with my mentor over messaging and zoom, where we talked about my slides and the topics I selected for the project. A lot of what I learned from “Printing and Presentation” I learned from Sister Esplin, and she gave me even more tips for preparing your photos for large prints. I have been inspired by her photos as well as her knowledge of the business side of photography, and plan on pursuing a career in wedding photography as well as product photography. I strongly believe that all photographers need to know how to print their work, because not only is it rewarding to see your work blown up on a big canvas, it is also a very lucrative business to sell your photo prints.
My Experience
I enjoyed my time working on this project, and had a couple of great experiences that pushed me to take this project in the direction that I did. One of those experiences was during the week I was doing research for the ethics and legalities of photography. Half way through the week, I found myself in a conversation about ethics and photography. In that conversation I was able to participate with my newfound knowledge of “commercial use” photography. I also learned that I own the copyright to my photos unless I specifically give written permission to the client. Sister Esplin and I expanded that conversation further later, and I learned how she has given permission to magazines and clients to print a certain number of copies of her photo. There are so many more things that I want to learn when it comes to copyright between the photographer and the client, which has inspired me to do more of my own personal research.
Another experience I had was sharing this information with my dad. My dad also loves photography, but to him it is more of his hobby. I find that he knows way more about camera lenses than I do, but when it came to what I was sharing online he told me he learned a lot. We had a great conversation about the current technologies in AI and smartphone cameras. I was able to share some of my work that I just recently finished for one of my other projects, which I took all photos of on my iPhone 14 Pro. It is impressive to me to see how much technology is advancing. Social media has also had a direct influence in the world of photography in ways of trends and formatting photos.
Insights and Conclusion
Overall, this project opened my eyes to just how much more I have to learn in the world of photography. Creating posts to share with others was really fun and engaging for me. I loved learning about these topics, and plan on doing more of my own personal research after this. I know now just how important it is that photographers learn about legal issues like fair use and copyright. my mentor suggested I download a model release form app on my phone to take with me on every photoshoot. I also am grateful for what I learned about printing and presentation. I want to open a print shop on my online portfolio to make some extra money and give my clients the option to print photos through my business. This project was very inspiring to me, and is now something I have added to my foundation of knowledge in photography.