Chiltern Society PhotoGroup

Taking photos on Outings and for Projects

OUTINGS
On PhotoGroup outings bear in mind that unless there are exceptional circumstances we can only accept a limited number of photos per member. We will brief you about this at the location and may guide you about some subjects we would specially like you to take; if so, don’t feel too constrained and by all means shoot other subjects as well.

PROJECTS
When you volunteer to photograph a Chiltern location this may be a town, a village or a group of villages or hamlets. In all cases the first step is to do some research to find out about the history of the area and any buildings etc of interest. Sources are websites, local libraries and information centres. Doing this basic research should enable you to include everything important and to supply informative captions.

How many photos?
Whatever number you think is appropriate: similar sized locations on our website will be a guide, but no more than 100 photos (which in any case would only apply for big towns). Bear in mind that almost certainly our website editor will not publish all you submit as it’s usual for us to make a selection.

Expenses for Projects
You may claim expenses of between £10 and £20 depending on the size of the project. Contact Barry Hunt (chairman@chilternphoto.org.uk, tel 01494 713345) about this when you have finished your project photography.

More help
Don’t hesitate to ask our project co-ordinator (John Fitzgerald projects@chilternphoto.org.uk, tel 01296 668833) or our website editor (Quiller Barrett webphotos@chilternphoto.org.uk tel 01442 871249) if you have any queries as you progress.

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH ON OUTINGS AND FOR PROJECTS
Look at the PhotoGroup’s website www.chilternphoto.org.uk to see if we have already published any photos of the location. If they are good quality there is no need to shoot them again. Also look at other channels (Taplow and Beaconsfield typify the quality of photographs and captions we strive to publish).

Consider if a Property or Person Release form is necessary (for photos taken on private property or ones that show a recognisable person). There is more advice on the PhotoGroup’s website: click on ‘Photographers Guide’ and go to ‘Legal constraints’Photos that show the location in context, e.g. a village viewed from the top of a nearby hill to show how it relates to surrounding features.

Distinctive buildings, structures and features that characterize the location, for example churches, shops, houses, pubs, railway and bus stations, village halls, bridges, farms, streams and rivers. Don’t just shoot ‘pretty postcard’ subjects, when it is appropriate we need to see the bad and the ugly too. And we do like some quirky, more light-hearted, subjects.

Any subject matter that is likely to change in coming years.

Church exteriors and interiors You will often find leaflets in churches that will guide you about what to shoot and they will provide information for your captions.

Houses Not just big expensive ones. Take more modest dwellings as well; they may illustrate cottages, or houses on estates built at different times for different interesting reasons. If a subject is typical of many at the location say this in your caption. Try to photograph a building from a viewpoint that shows a side of the structure as well as the front so that its size can be appreciated.

Exposure
Use a high-resolution setting and a low ISO on your digital camera so you get the best quality. Always try to expose to get some detail in the sky; err on the side of exposing for the highlights not the shadows.

Sending your photos to us
In general we prefer to receive your photos without any manipulation but if you wish to straighten the horizon or verticals and do some cropping that’s fine. We will do whatever manipulation we consider necessary to make your images suitable for publication.

There is usually no need to adjust the image size and resolution. As a minimum we prefer images to be around 300ppi with the longer side 7ins (2100 pixels). Of course big files will take longer to upload to our server (see below) so you may want to limit the size of each photo to no more than about 10MB. Use JPEG format.

It is essential that the file name for each photo is unique. Please delete the camera-generated file number. The file name should be prefixed with the initials (in CAPS) quoted in para 2 of the Licence you signed and be a short descriptive caption and the month/year the photo was taken, e.g. QB St Mary’s font Taplow 05_2011.jpg.

We like to publish extended captions with our photos and very much welcome additional information which should correlate with your file names and be sent in a Word document attached to an email (see below). Don’t hesitate to include your own observations about the subject matter: the more your personality comes over, the better.

We prefer you to use our Upload page so that more than one of our website team can access your photos on our server. Click here follow the instructions. Be patient, uploading takes time. If you get stuck please contact support@chilternphoto.org.uk. Send an email to webphotos@chilternphoto.org.uk when you have finished uploading. We will acknowledge safe receipt (or otherwise!).

Please print this and keep it for reference.

 
October 2011