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Pictures
A picture is really worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, those words
can either be good or bad! Vibrant colorful photographs of students actively
participating in events will help create interest in any page. It should be
your goal to place at least one quality photograph on each page to
break up text.
Photography should play a powerful role in communicating our personality; it
is the medium best suited for conveying our progressive, engaged, and timeless
attributes. We want to paint a picture of the Case brand: Real. World. Impact.
Photographs must accentuate, support, or complement the informational content.
In our experience, less than 10% of the pictures taken by students and staff
are suitable for use on web pages. That means you should not hesitate to take
more pictures than you might need, and get them at a variety of different
events.
What makes a picture unusable?
The following are examples of what we see in photographs that cause them to
be rejected for inclusion on the website. There is always room for
interpretation, though, and some of these things may occur for artistic reasons.
- Out of Focus
Blurriness is the number one reason that a picture is rejected. It isn't
necessary for the entire picture to be in focus, but at least one element or
person must be in sharp focus. Other people or objects in the picture
can be out of focus, and when done correctly, it actually adds visual interest
to the photo.
- Bad Lighting
This is the second most common reason for a picture to be rejected. This
usually happens with indoor shots where the room is not sufficiently lit and a
flash is required. Outdoor activities and brightly lit rooms are usually not a
problem. If it is dark enough that you are using a flash, don't expect to get
a good picture of a large group. The range of your flash is only about ten
feet. Don't get too close, either. The flash can wash out your subjects.
- Distorted Color
A number of issues including bad lighting can cause colors to be distorted in
a picture. Some cameras also have settings to deliberately alter the color in
a photograph. Colors, especially flesh tones and easily-recognizable objects
should be represented in their true colors. Some minor problems (i.e. "red
eye") can be corrected with editing.
- Too Many Staff
Many pictures tend to focus on faculty, staff or student staff. They are easy
to get pictures of because you know them and they are always happy to pose for
you. Seeing a lot of pictures of staff does not help students see themselves
as a part of your program, though, and especially noticeable if your staff
wears a uniform or other identifiable clothing. Limit the number of times your
staff are represented (especially that one person that seems to be in every
picture), and make sure they are always actively engaged with students in the
photo.
- Posed Pictures
Posed pictures are great for your scrapbook to remember all of the great
times you might have had at an event, but they do little to show someone else
that an event was exciting. There is always a place for that occasional
group photo. In general, though, if you had to "prepare" for the picture, and
everyone is looking at or making some effort to do something for the camera,
it probably isn't going to be interesting to anyone that wasn't there. Capture
what the group was doing before or after the picture instead!
- Portraits
A picture of a single person sitting in a chair smiling at the camera is
not even remotely interesting. There may be a place for this sort of
photograph in an information page about that staff member, but portraits are
not suitable for general use.
- No Context
Pictures must complement the information they are presented with. Even if a
photo is good in every other way, it may not be used if it would not be
obvious how it links to your program.
- Facial Expressions and Gestures
Be conscious of facial expressions, especially those that may not be
particularly flattering to any of the subjects in the picture.
- Just Plain Boring
This is one of the hardest problems to completely describe, but some pictures
are just plain boring. Many of the issues have already been covered here, but
there are always more examples: people standing in line, people sitting in an
auditorium listening to a lecture, someone giving a lecture, a picture of a
building.
- Stock or Web Photography
Our goal is to show the Case experience. How do pictures from other sources
help reach that goal? In most cases, they don't. In addition, there are
additional costs or copyright issues that would need to be addressed before
they can be published online. There is a very limited role for stock
photography in certain situations, and that is generally not on pages
describing student programs.
What makes a good picture?
In a photo journalistic style, people photos should be as appealing and
natural as possible, with a feeling of spontaneity rather than posed perfection.
Unexpected cropping and composition can be create the forward-moving and
powerful image we want to communicate. People in motion or at rest and involved
in their surroundings show our commitment to engaging in the learning process.
The following are elements of an effective photograph:
- Quality lighting and color
- Vibrant colors
- Use of focus (parts of the photo may be blurry)
- Use of action or motion
- Unexpected cropping and composition (the person or main object is not
necessarily centered)
- Engaged subjects (for photos involving people)
- Diversity of subjects
Preparing the Picture
The IT Operations Group will help prepare photographs for use on the website:
- Selecting high-quality photographs from a bank of available photos
- Cropping to provide a unique view of the subjects, when possible
- Resizing to predefined sizes dictated by the Case web template (see below)
- Compressing photographs so that they load quickly for site visitors (under
50K)
- Convert photographs to formats supported by popular web browsers (GIF,
JPG)
Standard Picture Sizes
Following are the standard picture sizes for templates and standard layouts.
Other sizes can be used in plain content pages that do not have any particular
layout. The size and quantity of these pictures must be appropriate for the
amount of copy on the page.
- Departmental Home Page (with top menu): 270 x 180
- Departmental Home Page (no top menu): 315 x 210
- Departmental Section Page (with top menu): 220 x 190
- Independent Program Home Page: 315 x 210
- Sidebar Template: 220 x 220 (other heights can be used)
- Right Floating Picture (standard page): 220 x 220 (other heights can be
used)
- Detail List Pictures (standard pages): 160 x 120
- Regular Portrait Pictures (standard pages): 120 x 160 (not yet
finalized)
- Small Portrait Pictures (columnar pages, news items): 75 x 150
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