Finding and Acquiring Photos

Finding and Acquiring Photos

October 31, 2012

What tactics and sites do you use to
find and acquire photos?

Submit your answer 

Housekeeping

 Submit questions throughout on the right hand side
in the chat box

 Resources and presentation will be in Dropbox

 Teresa Gorman, @gteresa, tgorman@npr.org

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What We’ll Talk About Today
I. Be a photo editor: questions to ask while
finding and choosing images

II. 6 strategies to build your photo library

III. Don’t fall for these online photo myths

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Questions to ask:

Remember this?

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Practical Ways To Approach Visual Storytelling
 What is the best way to represent my story —
single image, slideshow, audio slideshow,
video, graphic
 What are my resources?
 Think of the visuals from the beginning of your
reporting

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More Questions to Ask Before Using a Photo
 Which image best conveys the important elements of
the story
 Be ready to argue the editorial relevance of each
frame.
 What aspects of the image best convey the story to
the reader?
 Captions should add editorial relevance to the image,
not justify the use of the image

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Questions to Ask Before Using a Photo
 What is the best visual aspect of the story? Are there
images that illustrate this?
 Which image best conveys the important elements of
the story
 Argue the editorial relevance of each frame. What
aspects of the image best convey the story to the
reader
 Captions should add editorial relevance to the image,
not justify the use of the image
 Does the photo follow journalism principles?

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II. Think Long Term: Create a Photo Library

Photo via Flickr/Ozyman
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Think Long Term: Create a Photo Library

 Save your photos
 Follow good captioning practices
 Share with your coworkers

Some stations use: Flickr, Picasa, Dropbox,
Lightroom, their own services.

Photo via Flickr/Ozyman
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6 Strategies to Fill Your Photo Library

Photo via Flickr/ Eva Ekeblad
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1. Subscription Services
Good for:
 Can use for specific news events
 Resource for higher quality photos

Keep in mind:
 Make sure to use photos in the right context
 May not be able to share on social media
(review your contract)

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2. Make Photos Yourself

NPR’s David Welna in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Photo by WCPN ideastream’s Brian Bull

You are your own best source of photos

Good for:
 Fewer rights questions
 Fewer questions about accuracy

Keep in mind:
 Practice, with your phone and/or camera
 Ask your colleagues to also take photos

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3. Partnerships

Photo by Flickr User Lady/Bird, CC
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Partnerships

Good for:
 Utilizing limited resources wisely
 Expanding reach
 Using your strengths
Keep in mind:
 Be clear about where and how you use
photos in a partnership

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Partnerships: Places to start
1. Volunteers
2. Universities
3. Local media
4. Local bloggers
5. Photo meetups
6. Amateur photographers

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WVXU
 “Win win all around”

 Short and long-term
• Built up photo library

 Used volunteer
photog for special
events, stock
photography

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4. Creative Commons

Photo used with Creative Commons license, via karindalziel
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Creative Commons/ Flickr

Good for:
 Budget friendly
 ‘Creative’ photos

Keep in mind:
 Be careful about licenses
 Be clear in caption about where it is from
 Always have the correct byline

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1. "Attribution" license – symbolized as “BY”

1. “Non-Commercial" license – symbolized as “NC”

2. “No Derivatives” – symbolized as “ND”

1. “ShareAlike” – symbolized as “SA”

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NPR uses this:

 "Attribution" license – symbolized as “BY”
• You must attribute the photo to the source

 “Non-Commercial" license – symbolized as “NC”

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Other:

 “No Derivatives” – symbolized as “ND”

 Means that you can’t crop a photo or edit it

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Other:

 “ShareAlike” – symbolized as “SA”

Means you license your new creation under the
same Creative Commons ShareAlike license.

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http://search.creativecommons.org/

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5. Hand Outs 2.0

Spc. Morgan Chami, a Dayton, Ohio, native shakes the paw of Perro, a military working dog, after her reenlistment
ceremony July 20 at Camp Nathan Smith, Afghanistan. Photo by Spc. Matt Kuzara, DVIDS via Flickr, CC.

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Handouts 2.0

Good for:
 Budget friendly
 ‘Creative’ photos, out-of-date

Keep in mind:
 Be clear in caption about where it is from
 This is usually press, so take with a grain
of salt
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Hand Outs 2.0: Some Examples
 City of Boston Archives:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofbostonarchives/
 Defense Visual Information Dept:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dvids
 National Gallery of Art:
https://images.nga.gov/en/page/show_home_page.h
tml
 National Park Service:
http://www.nps.gov/photosmultimedia/photogallerie
s.htm
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Hand Outs 2.0: Some Examples

More here:
http://bit.ly/handoutexamples

Add your own examples and resources!

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6. The Crowd

By Flickr user
ke0112, CC
by Flickr user tyle_r,
CC 32

The Crowd

 Twitter.com/search

 Facebook.com/search

 Instagram -web.stagram.com/, statigr.am/

 Flickr.com/search/advanced

 Reddit.com

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The Crowd: Verifying Photos Online

Too good to be true?

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Too good to be true?
It probably is.

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But not always

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 Use your news judgment
 Examine the weather and season in photo
 Check clothes/building/vehicles in photo
 Who uploaded it? Message/Call them
 http://images.google.com/

 http://tineye.com

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The Crowd: Ask

Ask
Create community around photos
Include listeners and readers in news
coverage

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Example: Breaking News

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Example: Long Term
Photo of the day series

Sue Washburn heading out to the osprey nest off the Oswegatchie Flow in
Wanakena. Photo: Kristin Rehder. Via NCPR.org

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Example: North Country Public Radio
 Community: Started in 2005, has become self-
sustaining
 “Better quality eyeballs, ” Dale Hobson, web manager,
says.
 Lower bounce rate
 More page views per visit
 Often most popular feature on NCPR’s Facebook
page

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Don’t fall for these online photo myths

Picture via Picture Perfect Pose on Flickr 48

Three Myths About Using Photos Online

1.It's
okay to use anything
that's online as long as I
give credit, because it is
public.

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1. It's okayto use anything that's online as
long as I give credit.

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2. It's okay to use something
if I asked for permission and
didn't get a response, or
don’t know who took a
photo.

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1. It's okay to use anything that's online as
2. It's okay to use something if I asked for
permission and didn't get a response, or
don’t know who took a photo.

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3. It's okay to use
anything as long as I'm
not making any money
off of it.

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1. It's okay to use anything that's online as
2. It's okay to use something if I asked for
permission and didn't get a response, or
don’t know who took a photo.
3. It's okay to use anything as long as I'm
not making any money off of it.

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Photo via Flickr User Thomas Hawk
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Your Assignment
 Search for two images to accompany two
stories
Keep in mind last week’s photo lessons
 Caption each image and email them
to dseditorial@npr.org
 Put your station call letters (ex: WLRN) in the
subject line

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Finding and Acquiring Photos

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