Category Archives: Tips for Journalism

Camera Tips, Pittsburgh, Tips for Journalism

Getting the Right Picture with an iPhone Camera; Campus Sights

Among all the unique qualities of Point Park University, the best is the campus sights located right in the heart of Pittsburgh.

Walking around, it is hard to not stop and take pictures of the unique architecture and all the skylines.

But how do you get the right picture? This is a common issue for many students as they don’t always carry the proper camera equipment and only have the camera on their iPhone.

How can you tweet a picture of your new home if your pictures are turning out too light or too dark?

In a lesson with PPU Grad student Rebecca Lessner, we learned how to do just that.

When taking pictures on an iPhone there are a few settings that can help you achieve the right picture.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. In photography it is the range from the lightest point to the darkest point that can be seen in a photo. When taking a picture, turn on HDR and your subject will be properly lit with a better balance of contrast.

Sky walk
Boulevard of the Allies Sky walk
Academic Hall

Though you cannot always rely on this effect, oftentimes it will help you achieve a greater picture.

Use the AE/AF Lock on your iPhone to access a perfect focus and exposure in a photo. To do this, hold your screen on the area you want to focus. You will notice a yellow box appear quickly around that area and your screen should read “AE/AF LOCK”.

CMI

This is most effective in videos because it will stay focused on the subject you want instead of switching to a new subject.

The last and easiest tip is to just tap on an area where there is too much light coming into the picture. This should also help balance the light exposure in a photo.

Hello Bistro
Studio View

It is best to never take a picture with too much light behind your subject, however if you can’t get to an area with better lighting, just tapping the screen will do wonders

Adjusting the light and color levels after taking a picture is also always resourceful in getting the picture you’re looking for.

Try using these tips to achieve the best pictures of your campus and all the surrounding sights..

Camera Tips, Duquesne Incline, Interviews, Mt. Washington, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Penguins, PPG Paints Arena, Snapchat, Tips for Journalism

Interactive Media Workshop Recap, First 2 Days

On day one of this years Interactive Media Workshop, we learned a lot of interview skills as well as the usages of phone cameras, mainly the usage of Snapchat in day-to-day life for journalistic use.

The first thing that we did this week was learn about how to use and conduct a professional interview.

We learned that a good reason to conduct an interview is for writers block, it can give extra information needed for the writing being done. We learned many tools for good interviews, including smiling, silence, open-ended questions, superlatives (or extremes, meaning questions using the words “best” or “worst”), control (for the journalist to remember that they are in control. It is always okay to stop and ask questions), flow and details (or specifics).

A big tip for all journalists to take up is you must always pulling the thread. Andrew Conte said, a question you should always ask at the end of an interview is “is there anything that I should’ve asked you,but I didn’t?”

After the lesson on interviews, we headed over to the Duquesne Incline for a photo walking tour.

But first, we got a lesson on Snapchat photojournalism. We learned about the usages for Grids on our iPhone cameras, as well as the HDR and AF Lock functions.

When we got to the incline, we took a lot of  pictures of the view of Downtown Pittsburgh from the Mount Washington Overlook.

Today, on day 2 of the interactive media workshop, we learned about more tips for interviews, we got a lesson from David Grande.

We learned about Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, that the truth is out there and to always be fair and balanced. Those are the cores of good journalism. As well as research, interview and observation.

We learned not to engage, but to instead listen and be silent. Give them the uncomfortable tactics of journalistic interviews.

“The here, the now, but I’m gonna spell here this way… [hear]”, said Grande.

We learned about how we should always be quiet and listen, engaging makes you lose impact.

We should always resist the temptation to have a conversation, to ask short, neutral questions.

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug” (Twain).

We also learned this and the inverted pyramid. We learned about the lead and the body, the news peg and the who, what, where, when, why and how.

We also learned about the readers preferences, how they normally prefer shorter stories, that they will normally only read about the first two paragraphs and that you should always rank the importance of the information given. We learned that space isn’t consideration, but time is.

We learned that, “stories stop, they don’t end.”

Shortly after the lesson, we took a trip to the PPG Paints Arena and learned a lot of the reasons that the building is promoted and built the way that it is. We learned about the importance of hidden stories in the architecture of the building.

We learned about the jobs that you can get through the Pittsburgh Penguins and internships, we also learned about the PPG Paints taking over the Consol and all other economical decisions that were done.

They talked to us about all of the stuff that goes on in the building and everything that happens within the large group of people working there.

They told us to “find a job that fits our personality”, and that makes us happy.