Adviser Update Adviser Update Fall 2017 | Page 14

opportunities. Make a photo- of-the-day assignment to work in daily grades. Let them find inspiration and opportunity is all around with covering their campus. They’ll realize on their own that it’s not the gear — it’s practice and experience as the best teaching tool. 4. Learn the exposure triangle using manual mode. Students like control. Help them gain full control by learning the exposure triangle—shutter, aperture, ISO. Using program mode can help students test the lighting situation, but then they can use those readings to set up their own shots when they switch to manual mode. Train them to read the exposure compensation bar. New photographers should go to scrimmages and practices with veteran staffers to practicing shooting. We use our staff GroupMe to share images and 5. Learn rule of thirds. MARGIE M. RAPER Margie M. Raper, MJE, advises student publications and teaches journalism and photojournalism at Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas. She is proud to share her passion for scholastic journalism with her students, see them grow as storytellers and celebrate their achievements. She serves as the president of the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, JEA News Gathering Curriculum Leader and on the board for the Gloria Shields All-American Journalism Workshop. photos of the camera settings to coach when a coach is not available. There are also apps like Pocket Light Meter to help students set exposure on their DSLRs. Camerasim.com and Photonhead.com are my favorite websites for teaching exposure triangle to beginners. Composition rules are important, and there are a lot of them. Start with the foundation of rule of thirds. Engrain the tic-tac-toe board in every photojournalist’s mind. Start there for solid images, and the other composition rules will develop from there. Along with training the students to identify composition in photos, consider giving them only prime lenses to work with (50mm fixed prime example). Eliminating the ability to zoom forces students to get creative with photo composition. 6. Make a shot list. A concept has to go through the story pitch process with editorial decision makers. Add storyboarding and photo planning as part of the story pitch workflow. Let students discuss potential photo ideas before a story takes place to help them anticipate composition opportunities.