Solving the Mystery of Publicity Photos

You have seen some pictures that could be publicity photos. In the process of looking at the pictures, you have noticed some similarities. Without taking another look at the pictures, try to answer the following questions:

• Are the pictures black-and-white?
• Do most of the pictures feature people?
• Do most of the pictures include action, or at least implied action?

Check your answers by taking a peek at the illustrations. As you can see, the photos are black-and-white, most feature people, and most convey at least the feeling that some activity is taking place. These three ingredients can be found in some of the best publicity photos published in your local newspaper.

EXERCISE: Take a look at a local newspaper, preferably a weekly newspaper. See if you can find pictures that might be publicity photos. Use the criteria you have established to help you find likely candidates. Then turn super sleuth and see if you can tell the staff photos from the photos that might have been submitted by publicity photographers working with local individuals, groups, and organizations. Start by identifying the staff photographers; check the newspaper's nameplate for a list. Any photo that does not carry a credit line for one of the newspaper's staff photographers could very well be a publicity photo. Try to name the "planet" of its origination. Try to figure out the photo's mission.

It Helps If They Wear Nametags

Some newspapers actually give credit to publicity photographers and/or to the "planet" for which they have devised these creatures known as publicity photos. This practice makes it a lot easier not only to spot a publicity photo but also to determine its origin.

Even photos not wearing such obvious "nametags" often offer hidden nametags. Perhaps there is an easily identifiable poster, button, or bulletin board included right in the picture itself.

The name of the individual, group, or organization seeking to attract public attention may be spelled out in the picture's caption. Then again the information may appear in a story that accompanies a captioned picture.

EXERCISE:

1. Underline, circle, or otherwise highlight the "nametags" -- hidden or obvious -- that have helped you complete your identification of the publicity photos you have found.
2. Look for the address and phone number of the "planet" -- the sponsoring individual, group, or organization -- in the telephone directory. If the "planet" is not listed, you will need to do some more detective work. Try to identify the power behind the "planet;" for example, the church behind the church-affiliated organization. Make note of that address and phone number.
3. Call or write for information about the photographer responsible for creating each publicity picture you have identified. Keep a list of these names as possible resource people. Contact the photographer responsible for the publicity photo with the most impact. Ask how he/she took it.

By now you are probably itching to get started on your creature. But wait a minute. Before you can create one of these little aliens you need to find a "planet" with a mission.

You do not have to look too far to find an individual, a group, or an organization that needs a good photographer to publicize what it is doing. Your Mom may be a member of a committee trying to raise funds to renovate the local library. Your Dad may be on the fire prevention team at your local volunteer fire department. Your brother or sister may work with an innovative group trying to dramatize the results of alcohol and drug abuse. Even your grandmother, who helps out as a Literacy Volunteer, or your toddler cousin, who attends a local co-op nursery school, could point you in the direction of someone who needs your black-and-white photo skills. And, of course, many 4-H activities could be photographed and publicized.

EXERCISE:

1. Interview your immediate family, your extended family, your neighbors, your friends, even yourself. List the community activities in which your interviewees are involved. Try to find out more about the organizations that interest you. What are their goals? How much do they interact with the general public? Do they depend on the public for funding or volunteer power? Do they currently try to place pictures in local newspapers? If not, why not?
2. Narrow your list of possible "planets" by contacting the person in charge of publicity for the most interesting individuals, groups, and organizations. Ask if he/she ever needs photos taken for the local newspaper.

It may be easier than you think to find a home planet for your first publicity photos. That is because the ability to take, process, and print black-and-white photos in this colorful age is considered by many people to be a rare and special gift.

A black-and-white picture can be the key that unlocks a local newspaper to an individual, group, or an organization. It can open a newspaper's column to shed a little light on someone or something the public otherwise might never see. It can be the link between the few and the many. It can foster understanding or attract a crowd. Perhaps most important of all, a black-and-white picture that appears in the local newspaper can break through a person's selective-reading patterns. It can draw a person's attention to someone or something new and different.

EXERCISE: Browse through as many local newspapers as you can find. When a photo attracts your attention, ask yourself why. Are you already familiar with the subject? If not, what caught your eye? Do the better photos feature more active subjects? Does the activity look like something in which you might like to get involved? Are the better pictures taken from a closer range? As a result, can you see more detail in them? Do the better photos focus on one or two people rather than a crowd? How about the range of tones? Is it likely the original photos had black blacks, white whites, and plenty of gray tones? Are the better pictures sharper, even in newspaper reproduction, than their less effective kin?

Predicting Your Earthly Reception

You have already trained your eye to take the kind of black-and-white picture that will jump off the page and grab the reader's attention. This kind of picture also will attract an editor's eye.

Is there anything that could detract from a really good black-and white publicity photo? Is there anything that could make its reception in a newspaper's editorial office less than friendly?

EXERCISE:

1. Find out what local newspapers your home planet would like to infiltrate. Make sure you know where these newspapers are located and what their telephone numbers are. If possible, take a look at a current issue of any newspaper with which you are not familiar
2. Call the newspaper and ask them to send you their photo guidelines. These guidelines should describe the size (usually 5 x 7 inches) and the finish (usually smooth if not glossy) they prefer in any photographic print they receive for editorial consideration. The guidelines also should include information about how the newspapers want caption and contact information attached to a print. Take special note of deadlines -- day and time -- for photo submissions.
3. Gear up to produce black-and-white photographic prints to the newspapers specifications. Figure out how long it takes you to get from picture to print. This turnaround time will help you establish how much lead time you need to take a picture for a particular edition of any newspaper on your list.

Depending on the particular mission on which your planet wants to send your creature, you will be asked either to set up a photo for advance publicity or to document the event itself. Professional publicists tell us that when possible it is best to tell the whole story. Follow before announcement pictures with after or outcome shots.

Work with the person in charge of publicity to find out exactly what he/she wants. If it sounds like the specified creature would lie lifeless on the table, without the energy to attract and excite people, use what you have learned to turn the assignment around.

Do your best to bias the assignment away from static, posed-looking pictures and towards spontaneous-looking demonstration shots. Show a prizewinning basketweaver, for instance, working at his craft rather than posed with the ribbon he just won. Show nursing home patients enjoying the recreational equipment purchased through a committee's successful fund-raising efforts.

EXERCISE:

1. Expose at least one roll of black-and-white film as you cover your assignment. Try different angles. Try different camera-to-subject distances, concentrating on closer views for more impact. Check the four corners of each picture before you take it to be sure you are not including any distractions. Encourage your subjects to relax. Keep them busy with the activity or event you are trying to publicize. Compose your pictures so that you can see your subjects' faces.
2. As you take your pictures someone, and it very well could be you if you are working alone, should keep track of the names of the people featured in your photos. It is important to spell names correctly in captions submitted with your pictures. It is also important to get permission from anyone not directly affiliated with the planet you are publicizing to use his/her photo and name in pictures submitted to the newspaper. Many organizations already will have created their own model release form.

If your particular planet does not have a model release form, work with the person in charge of publicity to create a form that can be signed and dated by the person pictured. Perhaps a lawyer could be of help in preparing the appropriate form.

C. Make a contact sheet from your negatives. Working with the person in charge of publicity, select the negative that should be enlarged for distribution to newspapers and write a caption for it. Identify all recognizable people in your pictures so that anyone looking at the pictures will have their immediate questions answered: Who's who? Why are they pictured? What are they doing? Consult copies of the newspapers to which you will be sending the pictures for acceptable caption style.

D. Deliver your first publicity prints to the various newspapers in person, if possible, and ahead of deadlines to increase the likelihood that you will have an opportunity to talk to each editor. Explain what you are trying to publicize and with whom you are working. Confirm that your captioned print meets each newspaper's guidelines. Ask if there is any further advice each editor might offer. Keep your meetings brief and professional.

E. Keep your fingers crossed.

Every publicity photo earns its place in the newspaper. There are absolutely no guarantees that an editor will use a picture just because you have done a good job or played by the rules.

Usually your publicity photos will have a better chance if they show something timely, something people might talk about when they get together on a street corner or at the local food market. Some editors like pictures that include dignitaries or other VIPs, as long as pictures of these people do not appear too often in the newspaper. Others are partial to pictures that bring a touch of the season to their editorial pages; for example, a pre-Christmas breakfast with Santa Claus.

Some practices that also should help improve the odds of any particular picture appearing in the newspaper include:

• Submitting a photo that can be cropped horizontally or vertically. It gives the editor more flexibility.
• Sending a different picture to each newspaper on your list. Put the header Exclusive on your caption.
• Giving weekly newspaper editors more time to use announcement pictures by sending them at least two weeks in advance of publication. The pictures become even more timely the second week.
• Sending follow-up pictures as soon as possible after an event has taken place. News value vanishes within days.
• Including the names and phone numbers of contact people who can answer an editor's questions during day and evening hours. Editors need to solve mysteries before press time.

The first time one of your creatures appears in the newspaper, it may look like any other news or feature photo but you will know otherwise. After you finish staring at your creation and showing it around to friends and relatives, you will probably want to clip it out of the newspaper along with any accompanying caption or story.

You now have your first item for your publicity photo scrapbook. In this scrapbook you may also want to note the date the photo was published, the reason why the photo was taken, and the individual, group, or organization for which it was taken. Keep this scrapbook with a portfolio that includes your contact sheets as well as enlargements of the publicity photos of which you are most proud.

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL EXERCISES:

1. Use your scrapbook and portfolio to interest another 4-H photographer in solving the mystery of publicity photos.
2. Recruit other 4-H photographers to form a publicity photography team. Make the team available to local non-profit organizations that need to publicize special events.
3. Work with an individual, group, or organization to take pictures that meet long-range as well as short-range goals.
4. Explore other ways in which photography is used for publicity purposes. Find out how publicity photos get into magazines, on local television, on national television.
5. Try out your new-found knowledge by taking a color photo for a public service announcement on a local commercial television channel.