Much teaching time in photography – especially on the high school level – is spent on looking for the right moment to shoot. But examining the fl ip side of that concept – what not to shoot – may be just as helpful in pursing good images, so that photographers understand what does not work, what has been overused or what may put us on shaky ground legally or ethically.
Winter 2007
“Lift” images off your page. You can create different versions of this effect by experimenting with elements of various sizes, gradients and feathering.
You can get your staff to cheer about yearbook. Trevor Johnson, the yearbook adviser at Sherando High School in Stephens City, Va., gets his staff to cheer and play games, all in the interest of motivating students to a new level of dedication to the yearbook.
The staff at Dunwoody High School in Dunwoody, Ga., used several photo illustrations in their 2006 yearbook, as seen on page 19 in the Caught Our Eye feature. You can follow these steps to turn a photograph into an illustration:
Writing, designing and creating your yeabook is a daunting task each year, and typically the one that gets the most attention. But it is only part of the job.
Yearbook staff members need to feel as important to the production of the publication as the editor is. I did this by empowerment, which enabled my small staff to produce the 2006 Spartonian yearbook for Hempfield Area High School in Greensburg, Pa.
If yearbooks tell the story of the year, then some are published without an ending. A yearbook delivered to students in the spring may not include graduation, spring sports or prom. Having those events in the yearbook is just one reason many schools choose late summer or fall delivery.
Adobe Photoshop software is a great tool for working with yearbook photographs and digital images. Like most software, it performs many functions that either cannot all be learned or do not apply to yearbook. Tutorials are great for learning more; there are some at Adobe.com, and more will be appearing in Idea File and on our website, walsworthyearbooks.com. So be prepared to hone your Photoshop skills.
It does not behoove the modern yearbook adviser to exercise extreme control over the middle school photographer. Granting permission to shoot the scenes as they see them can afford fantastic results. Better still, encouraging artistic license will ensure a yearbook that is thoughtful and exciting for the consumer.
One of my students’ favorite activities is a yearbook theme design contest. Instead of waiting until September to come up with a concept, we have a contest every spring. The winning theme is usually the yearbook theme for the next school year. Here are the rules and advantages.
