Preparation
Daniel, or a member of Daniel’s crew will need to be present during the setup and shooting process. Include them in scheduling communications.
Photo shoots occur on the last Thursday of each month. The following list of people need to be emailed when a shoot occurs in the Multi-purpose room (Note: The Multi-Purpose room is not available during the summer):
- gbarg@mail.utexas.edu
- ian_campbell@mail.utexas.edu
- davidcannon@austin.utexas.edu
- mmilburn@austin.utexas.edu
- daniel.garza@austin.utexas.edu
Update the Google doc sign-up sheet. The date of the shoot and the time slots need to be updated. The doc needs to be public to everyone and the person in charge of scheduling should host this Google doc. Here is an example:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkZ6riBbUDDqdEdDNTRXWV9JTU9idFNXVEtvZnhwSmc
Scheduling
In general, a proactive approach has been taken to target each department. Two methods of scheduling have been attempted. The staff members have been emailed directly and the staff contacts have been emailed and told to forward the information to their staff. Both attempts have been hit and miss in terms of response rate. Suloni suggested that in the future, we contact the staff directly, but personalize each email with their name and only include that person in the TO field of the email. AJ has been making his way through the departments one and a time. As of May 2012, the following departments have been recently contacted:
- COLA Admin
- African and African Diaspora Studies
- Department of American Studies
- Department of Anthropology
- Department of Asian Studies
- Department of Classics
- Department of Economics
- Department of English
- Department of French and Italian
- Department of Geography and the Environment
- Department of Germanic Studies
Note: Keep track of who we have recently contacted. In the future, it is intended that we branch out to Centers, Institutes, etc. as well as Faculty.
Tim and AJ drafted the following email to send out to staff/faculty:
Subject Line: Monthly studio portrait photo shoot for Web photos
Body:
Dear [name],
The Video Services group in LAITS takes new or updated photos of staff once each month for display on each department’s staff list on the Web. I’m writing to ask your help to encourage your department staff for whom we don’t yet have a Web photo or those who would like a new photo to sign up to have their studio portrait photo taken.
The process is quick – each session should take no more than 15 minutes. After we take each photo we prepare and crop it for Web display.
WHERE: MEZ 2.206 – the Multi-Purpose Room
WHEN: [insert time and date here]
HOW: Please choose a time at the link below
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkZ6riBbUDDqdEdDNTRXWV9JTU9idFNXVEtvZnhwSmc
CONTACT: FIRST AND LAST NAME <email address>
<!—– end draft email —–>
Note: Make sure you test the link before you send the email!
Making the Index Cards
Either the morning of the shoot, or the day before, look at the Google doc schedule to determine the names of those to be photographed.
Using this website: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/webapps/eidlisting/
… look up the EID for each person and write that EID on the front of an Index card. On the back of the index card, write their full name. Put the cards in order based on the schedule.
Getting the Multi-Purpose Room computer ready
Create a folder on the Desktop called “yyyy-mm-dd_id_photos”. Within this folder, create a folder for each person using the following naming convention: “last-first-EID”. Within this folder, create a folder called “_select”.
Make sure the card reader is stationed at the computer you will be previewing the images on. Sometimes it gets moved to the editing suite with Daniel’s team.
Production
Work with Daniel’s crew to setup the Multi-Purpose room (see separate guide).
Once the talent arrives, give them their index card and have them sit in the chair (or stand if that’s what the room is setup for).
Take a test shot that includes the index card. Confirm readability of the EID and then take the index card away.
Tell them to look straight through the camera with a welcoming face. It may be necessary to describe the purpose of the photo and how small and cropped it will be on the COLA website.
Take several shots at each of the following angles:
- Straight ahead
- Slight profile / angled shot to the left
- Slight profile / angled shot to the right
- Acting shot* left
- Acting shot* right
*Acting shot = tell them “look down at this mark on the floor, and when I say go, I want you to look up at the camera as if your best friend just walked through the door”
Depending on the person, you may need to get creative in order to get the money shot.
Once you have a good set of photos, take the card out of the camera and tell them “let’s take a look at these on the computer to see if we have one you like”.
Put the memory card in the card reader, navigate to that person’s photos and drag them into the “last-first-EID” folder. Select all the images and “Open With” the “Preview” app.
Go through each photo and find the best one. It is helpful to use command-minus to shrink to picture to the size it will be on the COLA website. Once the “select” photo is selected, mark the last 4 digits of the file name of the select on the index card for backup purposes and then copy and paste the select photo inside the “_select” folder.
Thank the person for coming and you are done. Rinse and repeat.
Once shooting is done for the day, move the “yyyy-mm-dd_id_photos” folder to the “Projects” volume and email the following information to Suloni:
- Path to “yyyy-mm-dd_id_photos” folder
- Names, depts, and emails of every person you shot that day
This is the end of this part of the process and therefore this guide.
Suloni will then move the files to their proper location and assign a design STA to perform the postproduction work. This same STA is responsible for inputting the final cropped picture into the COLA db.