In this assignment you will demonstrate ability to pre - visualize your images. Photographers may or may not have a prewritten s
hot list, but they almost always have some idea how and where to be in order to capture an image, whatever the assignment. Previsualizing compositions is a key to success not only in photography, but in every field of graphic design.
Skill in previsualization comes with experience, and that experience comes with the use of compositional and framing techniques and an understanding of points of view.
Scenario:
You are the head photographer at a local newspaper, and the editor requests photographs for an upcoming 4th of July Parade. She wants to publish the photographs with an up-lifting community-focused story. She is requesting photographs that focus on family and local business/government interaction with the community.
She wants at least:
one overall wide shot of the parade
one medium shot
one close-up
The parade will typically feature the high school's marching band, the mayor riding on the back of a convertible, state pageant winners performing their best princess waves, local sports teams throwing candy to children, community-made floats, local non-profits with large banners walking down main street, clowns riding unicycles, and decorated military marching.
There will be spectators with lawn chairs, flags, pets, and children playing. Food vendors will line the downtown’s main street serving BBQ and hotdogs, ice cream, and snow cones.
Can you envision a Fourth of July parade in your mind? Can you imagine all of the people and activities both in the parade and those watching the parade?
Now visualize the photographs that should be taken for your assignment. For each of the three types of photographs you know you'll have to take, what subject would be the most important to capture and WHY?
The Assignment:
Provide a list of 6 specific photos—two (2) for each of the wide, medium, and closeup images which are needed for the article—that you would shoot to fulfill the assignment. What would you look for as the foreground subject? What would be in the background? What would be the point of view?
List your 6 photo ideas in a Word document, with a two or three sentence description of the type of image (wide, medium, close-up), your camera's point of view, how you imagine you'd compose it (don't simply say you'd use the rule-of-thirds; be more specific), and why this would be a strong image for the article. Include a cover page with your name, the assignment name, and the course.
