Recruiting photography for school that looks natural

The cry of focus groups when they review most educational recruiting pieces seems to always say they want natural looking photos and not setup.

The problem is not setting up photos or trying to just grab what you can to get a natural look, it is hiring the right photographer. Also, it is a team effort of the school setting up the situations by having students, teachers and the right situations with enough time for moments to become "REAL."

Focus groups need the right questions

After having spent the last twenty plus years as a photographer shooting pure photojournalism, where you capture what happens in front of the camera to shooting for advertising pieces, where there are stylists arranging everything in a photo; my experience says most focus groups are asking the wrong questions.

“Do you like the photo?” is not as good of a question to see if the photo was successful as a question like “What did you learn from the photo?” You can even have a photo again on a questionnaire from your recruiting materials and ask, “Does the photo help you see what a typical dorm room looks like?” You could even have a follow up question “What could improve the photo to show you a dorm room?”

The reason I have come to this place about evaluating photos is my experience with truly “real” photographs. I have spent many years shooting “photojournalism” for magazines, newspapers and wire services. You do not change a thing in these photos and you do everything you can use composition, lens choices, lighting and timing to communicate the mood and reality of a situation.

Often a photojournalist’s photos are not “pretty” pictures. Photographers will even use their composition to create more conflict to add to the mood of the photo. Having a focus group evaluate war photos with the typical questions we ask “Did you like the photos?” will give you results which would say the photographers were not successful.

Often what you get by just grabbing shots here and there.

The difference with some planning and adding a light to the scene can make.

Make your photographic coverage strategic

How can you know the right moment to take a picture unless you have a fairly clear idea of what the subject means and what you are after? When you are interested in a subject, you want to learn more about it. You dig below the surface values to the truth beneath. That way you get to know it intimately and are able to photograph it understandingly.

Why are we taking this photo? Are we trying to show teacher to student ratio? Are we trying to show what a dorm room looks like? Are we trying to show diversity and how well everyone gets along on the campus?  You need some understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.

Understanding does not necessarily mean a technical knowledge of the subject. 

It is about seizing the right moment. It might be setup or as in the case I just floated into a meeting and shot.

Understanding is interest, sympathy, curiosity, the human element of the equation.

Are you photographing who you are or what you want to be?

While photojournalism will give you “real” photos, sometimes reality for recruiting will keep your institution on the same path rather than to where you would like to be.

This is where what I call the “sitcom” photography works best. We all know the sitcom isn’t real, but it can create such a reality we are all tuning in to see “Who shot JR?”

Spontaneous moments in a hall with two guys who are obviously close friends will communicate diversity better than sometimes setting something up.  However, it needs to be prevalent on your campus or you will not capture it just because you have a photographer there. Plan for creating moments and letting the photographer have time to just capture things along the way.

This is the type of photography where the school has determined where they want to go and then create communications pieces to help them attain the goal. For example if you want to be more diverse in the future, you will need to show diversity. If you keep it real, you would then research to find those situations where diversity exists already. Then you would photograph those situations and play them prominently in your piece.

While this is setup, I worked hard to get the expressions to sell that they are a community with diversity.

As one person put it “You don’t want to be the lone raisin in a bowl of milk.” If everyone works to help the school to become more diverse it can be done.

As you can see there are a few ways to communicate your message using photographs. The ideal scenario is to have “reality” photos. If you had a photographer go to everything you did this year—then maybe you would get the reality you need.

Shooting at The Citadel and a Roman Catholic high school is easy as compared to the clothing problems introduced in most other schools. 

Sometimes “reality” isn’t what you want to show. The student wearing another competing schools T-Shirt. A student with major over weight issues or skin problems can detract from the message. This is why so often we re-create reality like the sitcom. If properly planned, you will tune in and want to know more about your school.

Capturing joy of students makes students want to come to a place like The Citadel, where they will spend a lot of time being told what they will do.

Photographs are made of light, mood, texture, form, and line. The value of techniques lies in how they are used. Techniques by themselves are barren. To come alive with meaning, they must be employed interpretively. This is where I come in. Give me a call and let’s make your recruiting photos—REAL.