CHRIST PLACE PHOTOGRAPHY
We’re so excited that you are interested in joining our photography team. Our main goal is to share the Christ Place culture with our followers. In order to communicate effectively, it is essential to follow a brand guide while documenting and editing photos for Christ Place Church. The following guide will give you detailed instructions on how to best document and edit to meet the needs of Christ Place. We acknowledge that each individual photographer has their own preferences and creativity, but as a volunteer for Christ Place we are asking that you adhere to the following guidelines.
DOCUMENTING
One of the most essential parts of the photography process is knowing what your capture goal is before you even start. This gives you focus and purpose, and it helps you be more efficient with the time you have to document. We would like to receive 25-30 edited photos from you each time you shoot for us.
When shooting in the worship center (main, college, students, or kids), it is more important to capture the audience worshiping than the people on stage. This promotes a worship culture within the congregation. Seeing fellow audience members pouring their hearts out in worship encourages them to do the same. We would like for you to follow the rule of capturing 70% audience and only 30% of the stage.
When capturing the speaker, be stationed on the front row before the end of the last song. You will likely be able to capture a smiling moment as they are first greeting the audience, and you will be less of a distraction since you are already stationed at the front. After you capture your close up, you can exit the front row and get a wider shot of the speaker with the room. Both of these should be done quickly so that you are not a distraction. Once you have captured both sets of speaker photos, you should exit the worship center.
When capturing the lobby (main, college, students, or kids), it is important to get happy faces. Focus on greeters, coffee shop workers, volunteers in the alcoves, people hanging out in the bridge, etc. It is okay and encouraged for you to interact with the people you are documenting. It will make them feel more comfortable for you to let them know that you’d like to take their picture. Feel free to even pose them for a better shot. The church values the joy of authentic community, and that’s exactly what we want to capture in these moments. We’re capturing smiling faces, who are excited for others to be here or join us. The lost community around us wants to see down-to-earth people.
When capturing the parking lot, focus on greeters and shuttle drivers. We want to tell a story. We want to show off our volunteers who dedicate their time to helping people get from the car and into our building. Ask for them to smile and wave. This also shows outsiders that we are excited for them to be there, and we will help them get to where they need to be.
When capturing small groups, evaluate each situation carefully. You never want to interrupt a critical moment. Try to capture them at the start of a class or meeting time. If you are capturing an off-campus group, it is best to contact the leader of the group and let them know you are coming. It is okay to rearrange the group to put people closer together. Ask the group to interact with one another and smile. Focus on faces. You should capture a group in less than five minutes. You do not want to take up their time or be too much of a distraction.
EDITING
This part is essential for keeping all of our photos on brand. We have provided presets for different scenarios around campus for you to use. A preset is a great starting point, but it can easily be used improperly. The only things you should have to edit are the exposure and white balance. Below are examples of correct and incorrect use of the presets.Always respond to messages (If you don’t know the answer, screenshot it and send it to your supervisor to find out the answer)
EXPORTING & FILE SHARING
Once you export your photos, you need to upload your edited files to our Dropbox account. You will be sent a Dropbox File Request via email for the event/date that you documented. Please follow the instructions to upload your edited photos into that folder.
TURN AROUND TIME
If you are following both our capture goals and editing process, you should be able to give us the photos you capture that day. We are looking to get 25-30 edited photos from you each time you volunteer. Because we are giving you an exact capture focus and a preset to edit with, it should not take long to edit. For example: If you are documenting the 9:15 service, once the preaching time starts, you should be able to sit down and edit your photos during that time. Lobby and parking lot interaction all slow down during the preaching time as well, so you should be able to edit those photos during the preaching time. This is also applied to any midweek activities you may capture. The benefit of this is that we can post things on the day and week that they took place. It allows Christ Place to be more genuine in what we are posting.