The Yearbook Blog

Tired of orange/yellow gym photos? Over/under exposed photos? Here are some tips to get your photos to shine in the perfect light!

• Automatic settings do not always give you the best exposure.
• Be aware of your light sources. Light behind the subject gives a dramatic silhouette effect while light to the side often gives long dramatic shadows.
• Use a minimum ISO of 200 for daylight shots and minimum 800 for evening or dimly light interior shots. Note: The higher the ISO, the more “grainy” the photo.
• The slower the shutter speed (1/60 of a second), the more exposed the shot or the less light necessary. The faster the shutter speed (1/500), the less exposed the shot and the more light needed.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “U” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

A picture is worth 1,000 words…but only if it captures a moment, contains action/emotion, and is cropped correctly. So, remember the “ABCs of Photography” when shooting/choosing photos:

• Angle - A view from above or below provides a stronger center of interest or different perspective than a straight-on shot, while a wide angle or fish-eye lens can create a dramatic effect.
• Balance - It’s all about the rule of thirds. This is achieved when the center of interest lands in the upper, lower, left or right third of the photo.
• Candid - Great photographs tell a story, whether through physical action or at the peak of emotion. Avoid shots of students smiling or waving to the camera.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “P” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Herff Jones releases their new iPhone App for Yearbook. That’s right, an iPhone App for Yearbook! No, this doesn’t mean you have to start working on your spreads while you’re in line at the Supermarket. But it does mean that parents, students, and basically, anyone you want can upload photos right from their iPhone to your eDesign photo library. How cool is that!

Advertise this app to your entire school community to increase your coverage. Send out theme requests (i.e. “This week, we’re looking for pictures of your car/pets/bff…”). Have an iPhone photography contest and publish the winners. Run a strip along the bottom of each spread with iPhone submitted photos. The ideas are endless, but either way, you’re going to increase your coverage. And increased coverage = more book sales!

Best of all, it’s all free to Herff Jones schools. For more info, go to www.yearbooks.biz or search “Herff Jones” on your iPhone “App Store.”

Handling your camera with CARE is as simple as remembering these simple letters:

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “H” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

DPI, or “dots per inch,” is the challenge most advisers face. Most pictures on the computer screen are 72 DPI, which is fine for a monitor. But to print in a yearbook, you want 300 DPI. When there are too few pixels to represent an image adequately for its size, you end up with photos of people that look like my child made them with Legos. But thankfully, digital camera prices are one of the few things that go down every year. For the best results, stock your classroom with cameras that are at least 5 MP (mega pixels), buy 1 G memory cards, and make sure the camera is set to take the largest file possible.

FYI - eDesign (our online layout software) checks your DPI for you, and provides you with a warning if your photos are in danger of being blurry.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “D” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Think of a dominant photo as the school bully: it’s big, places itself in center, and gets all the attention. On your spread, it should be:

• The first picture placed on the layout
• Off-center, if it crosses the gutter (pictures split in half are not visually appealing)
• Two to two and half times larger than any other photo on the spread
• A powerful, story-telling photo that makes readers say “Wow!”

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “D” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

You took all that time to center your subject just right, but when you take the picture, it still doesn’t look right. What went wrong? Take a look at professional photographs, and you’ll find that the subject is rarely (if ever) centered in the photo. Instead, photographers use something called the “rule of thirds.” Here’s a great article about it by Darren Rowse from Digital-Photography-School.com: (or you can also read about the “rule of thirds” on page 106 of your Herff Jones Journalism Curriculum book)

Perhaps the most well know principle of photographic composition is the ‘Rule of Thirds‘.

It’s one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots.

I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However a wise person once told me that if you intend to break a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your breaking of it is all the more effective!

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.

As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.

With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this - but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot - using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

In addition to the above picture of the bee where the bee’s eye becomes the point of focus here are some of examples:

In this image I’ve purposely placed the head of my subject on one of the intersecting points - especially his eyes which are a natural point of focus for a portrait. His tie and flower also take up a secondary point of interest.

In this shot I’ve placed the subject along a whole line which means she is considerably off center and therefore creating an additional point of interest. Placing her right in the center of the frame could have resulted in an ‘awkward’ shot.

In a similar way a good technique for landscape shots is to position horizons along one of the horizontal lines also as I’ve done with the following shot (I’ll let you imagine the lines).

Using the Rule of Thirds comes naturally to some photographers but for many of us takes a little time and practice for it to become second nature.In learning how to use the rule of thirds (and then to break it) the most important questions to be asking of yourself are:

• What are the points of interest in this shot?
• Where am I intentionally placing them?

Once again - remember that breaking the rule can result in some striking shots - so once you’ve learnt it experiment with purposely breaking it to see what you discover.

Lastly - keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos later on. Post production editing tools today have good tools for cropping and reframing images so that they fit within the rules. Experiment with some of your old shots to see what impact it might have on your photos.

Check out CNET’s Digital SLR Buying Guide. Here’s an excerpt:

So what is a digital SLR anyway?

The term digital SLR is short for digital single lens reflex, so named because these types of cameras use a mirror positioned behind the camera lens to direct light toward the viewfinder when you’re composing a photo. When you release the shutter, the mirror swings quickly out of the way, letting light from the lens travel straight to the sensor and momentarily blacking out the viewfinder. The viewfinder in an SLR incorporates a prism–usually a pentaprism–that flips the incoming image around so that you can see it right side up and bounces it onto the focusing screen where you see it.

The SLR design allows one camera to accommodate a very wide range of lens focal lengths, and that’s the biggest reason that SLRs dominate serious photography. The explanation? With a non-SLR camera, you have to match the angle of view of the “taking” lens with that of the “viewing” lens. That’s easy with a fixed lens or a short-range zoom, but it requires increasingly complex and expensive viewfinder mechanisms as you try to cover a wider range of focal lengths. With an SLR, you avoid this problem because the taking and viewing lens are one and the same.

Most dSLR models beyond entry-level models incorporate a Live View mode, which allows the photographer to use the LCD to compose shots the same way they can with a snapshot camera. The most basic implementations generally lock up the mirror, with the prism diverting the image to a small sensor that feeds through to the LCD rather than to the capture sensor. This does tend to hurt performance, however. Early versions required that you focus manually when in Live View mode, but current models use contrast autofocus.

Click here to read the full article, which includes types of SLR cameras, advantages/disadvantages of SLR, and a guide to available features.

• The setting is called the “F-stop” on your SLR camera
• The higher the number, the smaller the opening (i.e. less light enters the lens)
• Have staff members experiment with the setting with a single subject
• Use http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Photography/Lessons/502.php for instruction

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook” project. If you’d like to download the “A” card, go to the “Adviser Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

It’s a new year, new theme, new kids, new ideas… It’s so easy to get caught up in all the fun stuff and lose focus on what really needs to be done. Use this list of the 12 most important things that need to be done by October 1st to help your staff stay focused. (But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun!)

1. Open Your Kit
   • Your yearbook kit contains all the materials necessary to produce your yearbook.
   • Start with the “Start Here” Envelope.
   • Check the Kit Guide to make sure all items have been included
   • Use the order form on the back to order any additional supplies you will need.
2. Contact Photographer
   • Schedule a meeting with you school photographer during the first few weeks of school.
   • Discuss your full color needs and be sure he understands the importance of deadlines
   • Give him your deadlines. Predate them one week as a safety margin.
   • Discuss what you expect from him and what he can expect from you. Find out what services he is willing to perform and schedule his services for important school activities, such as homecoming.
   • Have senior portraits or DVD delivered to your school at least 10 days prior to your senior deadline
   • Set dates for underclass and faculty portraits and determine when  you will receive your Quick Panel Plus CD
3. Determine Deadlines
   • Check your deadline packet from your reps. Make a note of your deadline dates and number of pages due.
   • Check your deadline packet to determine when your color pages are due, if your book is not all color.
   • Check with photographer to determine when DVD of senior portraits
4. Develop a Theme
   • If you have not yet chosen a theme, select a small group of staff members, preferably returning ones, to work on the theme.
   • Have them discuss what is new and different this year, and have them make a list of these changes in order to find a theme that fits your school and is unique to this year.
   • Conduct brainstorminwg sessions with the entire class and present the group’s ideas.
   • Plan to have the theme appear in some way on the cover, the endsheets, the opening section, the division pages, and in the closing.
5. Make a Ladder
   • Before any pages can be assigned, a page ladder for the entire book must be completed.
   • Check your publication agreement to see how many pages there will be in your book. Obtain enrollment figures for your school from the administration.
   • Decide on the number of pages you will need for seniors, underclass and faculty.
   • Make a list of every club, sport, organization, and event you wish to include.
   • Compute the number of pages needed for each section. Be sure to leave enough space for your opening, closing, divider pages, index and advertisements
   • Use a pencil for your first draft of the ladder; or laminate it and use a dry-erase pen, or use the HJ Planner program.
6. Design the Cover
   • If you attended the Spring Cover Workshop, be sure to finalize your cover design.
   • Consult your yearbook representative to see what types of covers are available and within your budget.
   • Decide on the type of cover that best fits your theme and ask your reps to show you examples.
   • Assign a few staff members to develop a sample design.
   • Once the style and design are decided, determine exactly what type of material you wish to use, the color of the material, the applied color or colors, and meet with your reps to put it all together.
   • Decide whether you will order individual name stamps or name plates for the books, and choose the color for these name stamps/plates.
7. Select Endsheets
   • Several choices of endsheet materials and styles are available to you including company designed full color, colortext, and solid color. Check with your rep to see what options best fit your budget.
   • Select an endsheet that will complement your cover and will carry your theme forward. Be sure that the endsheet colors coordinate with the colors of the cover.
   • Discuss other endsheet options with your reps such as printing on the endsheet, four-color endsheets, die cuts, short-trim endsheets, foil stamping, embossing, and tinted embossing.
8. Sell Ads
   • Make a card file that contains the name, address and phone number of every business that has advertised in your book over the last five years as well as merchants who have advertised in other yearbooks in the area.
   • Add cards for businesses that are owned by parents of students in your school.
   • Expand your file further by adding businesses in your area from the Chamber of Commerce directory for your city and from the yellow pages. Pass out an equal number of cards to every staff member, letting them select those that they know.
   • Students must contact each business. Require that a business card or design is submitted for each ad sold.
   • Give commissions or a bonus to students who sell ads.
9. Plan Full Color
   only if you’re not doing an all-color book
   • Take four Roughing-Its, staple and fold them down the middle. Number them from 1 through 16.
   • Take this 16-page signature and use it to “rough in” your title page, opening spreads and student life spreads and/or any other signatures that will include color pages.
   • Plan the color for one flat or the other or both. Try alternating 4-color with spot color on different flats.
   • Plan to cover activities on your color pages that will occur at least one week before your color deadline.
   • Refer to your “Basics” booklet (in Your Kit) for more explanation on signatures and flats.
10. Make a Style Guide
    • Have each member of the staff make a notebook of graphic and typography samples collected from magazines and brochures. (Ask your reps for a list of good publications.)
    • Review the samples and choose ideas that the staff would like to include in the yearbook.
    • Make a style guide for each section that will include the layout style for that section, the type of headline to be used, and the style for copy and captions.
    • Using Roughing-Its, have staff members use photos and copy from magazines to mock-up double page spreads for each section of the yearbook.
11. Organize Staff
    • Select and Editor-in-Chief who is experienced, knowledgeable, and most of all, a coordinator of people. He/she must be able to encourage others to perform.
    • Choose a good writer with strong personality as copy editor and a good organizer as photo editor. Finally, you should have a financial editor or business manager who is very responsible and who can also motivate people to work.
    • Divide up the remainder of the staff into sections of the book: Student Life, Academics, Clubs and Organizations, Sports, Seniors, Underclass, and Faculty. Be sure that each section has a good writer and a computer expert.
    • If you wish, you may select editors for each section.
12. Sell Books
    • Decide whether to have a one-day sale or a one-week sale. You will sell more books in a short period of time than you will sell all year.
    • Prior to the sale, put up posters, make announcements over the PA, send letters home and in general, try to get the students excited about the yearbook.
    • Remember to include dates and prices in your advertisements.
    • Juat before the sale, have a yearbook rally and have guest speakers talk about the importance of their yearbooks. Be ready to take orders that day.
    • During the sale, assign several students to man the tables at convenient locations.
    • Keep tabs on money and receipts.

Kingman Academy Middle School in Kingman, AZ, figured out a way to do it. They got Guardian Air (an emergency air ambulance company) to take them up for free.

I’ve pasted an article about it below, or you can go to the Kingman Daily Miner  website to read the original post by Aaron Royster.

KAOL students take flight for yearbook photo

KINGMAN - Some of the Kingman Academy Middle School yearbook staff got a new perspective on their peers - thanks to Guardian Air.

On March 25, Guardian Air pilot Mike Mickelson took students Sarah Christiansen, Sana Khan and Bryce Todriff with respiratory therapist Pat Alred and flight nurse Jill Swape on a flight above the school. With four cameras, a few with batteries that died mid-flight, the trio took more than 50 pictures to make sure they got a shot for the yearbook in their limited trip.

“Everything turned out great and we got a good picture,” Todriff said.

The aerial shot of the students and faculty in formation for the yearbook is an annual tradition, Khan said. This year the students voted to form a coyote paw print, representing the school’s coyote mascot.

In past years, the Arizona Department of Public Safety has accommodated the yearbook editors with a helicopter trip to take photographs. Due to budget constraints, DPS notified Kingman Academy Middle School they wouldn’t be able to assist this year, Khan said.

“We were all really sad because we wanted to go up for three years,” Christiansen said.

That’s when Todriff said he had an epiphany. They could turn to Guardian Air and request the ride.

The students were briefed on safety before the stepped on the helicopter. While the flight was less than 10 minutes, the trio exuded enthusiasm about their experience.

“It was phenomenal,” Khan said.

The flight crew was friendly and joked with them, Khan said. It helped ease the tension for Khan, who found the experience way different than flying in an airplane.

It was the first time Khan and Christiansen flew in a helicopter.

“I was really scared,” Christiansen said.

Both Christiansen and Khan said they got a great view of their classmates, and a look from above of their respective houses.

As eighth-graders, it will be the last time Christiansen and Khan will get the opportunity to fly in a helicopter to take a yearbook photograph for the middle school.

For Todriff, it was his second time flying in a helicopter. He had previously flown with the Arizona Department of Public Safety on a ride-along.

“It was fun,” Todriff said.

Todriff will get a shot at a third ride next year, when the seventh-grader said he plans on working as a yearbook editor.

Dan Miller of the Nashville News wrote this article about a study of yearbook photos and smiling. I’ve pasted the article below, but if you want to read the original, click here.

“The other day a friend mentioned to me some provocative research he heard discussed concerning high school yearbook photos.

“Apparently the study concluded that people who had been smiling in their yearbook photos were happier, more contented people 30 or 40 years later, when compared to those who weren’t smiling. The researchers also used some method to determine whether the smile was a big, genuine smile, or a “forced smile” like the one on the nerdy guy shown here.

“I went online trying to locate that research…. and while I couldn’t track down that particular study, I did find some compelling facts about smiling.

“For example, researchers somewhere studied more than 16,000 photos of students from kindergarten to college and discovered that girls and women smile more frequently than boys or men. This didn’t surprise me…. but, just for the record, I went back through my personal high school and college yearbooks and did a quick count of smiling faces.

“Sure enough… they were right… the number of smiling young women was far greater than the smiling young men. Of course the girls had reason to smile. Most of them had fresh, attractive faces, whereas many of the guys looked like the doofus pictured here. Here was another interesting part…. up until about the 4th grade, boys and girls smiled about equally…. but then, at around age 9 or 10, the girls started smiling more than the boys, a pattern that continued right into adulthood.

“Part of the reason, I suppose, is that when you’re about to have your picture made, you have to make a quick decision whether to smile or not smile. Girls just naturally seem to want a pretty smile, while boys seem to prefer the angst-filled persona of a James Dean or Marlon Brando…. hoping to avoid forever being haunted by the toothy grin of a Wayne Newton-style publicity shot.

“Or it could be because photographers will often ask their subjects to practice smiling. No self-respecting guy likes to admit he’s gonna stand in front of the mirror practicing his smile.
But based on personal observations of my sisters and daughters, it seems to me that young girls can often spend hours at the mirror practicing — not only how to smile — but the proper angle to hold their heads while smiling.

“So the bottom line here for young people is… when you get your yearbook photo taken, smile…. it’ll pay big dividends in happiness somewhere far down the road. And make it a big, genuine smile… not the halfhearted variety like the dork pictured next to this column. I’ll close with a nice little thought about smiling, from an anonymous writer, that I happened across on the internet:

“A smile costs nothing, but gives so much.
It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give.
It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature’s best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.
Some people are too tired to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.”