This is a presentation during one of my coaching and mentoring sessions with Diakonia's Lake Victoria Rights Programme at Church of Uganda Planning, Development, and Rehabilitation (PDR) Department (CoU-PDR). PDR is the social services arm of the Church of Uganda focussing its work on the fight against poverty, disease, illiteracy, injustice, and marginalization of the poor in society.
2. PREPARATIONS
Just as in all work, it is important to create a
structure for social media work and digital
documentation.
3. Did you prepare?
1. Begin with a meeting
2. Decide what the editorial needs are
3. Select what services and tools to use
4. Choose when you are going to be most
active
5. Set up accounts
6. Procure tools
7. Start building your network
8. Put someone in charge
25. DOCUMENTATION
Digital documentation is telling your
organization’s “story” (the work you
do, people you help, funds
distribution) in a way that people find
compelling, concise and original.
Usually using photographs, videos or a
combination of both.
26. DOCUMENTATION
First consider:
1. Who are you trying to reach?
2. How will they access the
photograph(s)?
3. What message do you want to convey?
4. What action are you trying to prompt?
28. If you are going to give
statistics, SHOW and TELL
Cases of child
defilements have
reduced by 20% from
2013
29. How will people
access your photos?
1. Exhibitions
2. Online slideshows
3. E-mail
4. Press
5. Demotix
6. Social media
30. How to take good
photographs
Four elements are vital:
subject, composition, light,
and exposure
31.
32. The Subject/Focal point
Every photograph must have a subject and if
you cant determine the subject just put down
the camera
33. Putting your Subject in focus
Every photograph has a point of interest—and that point should
be clear to the viewer. The viewer’s eyes should not roam
aimlessly around the frame. They should be guided to the point
of interest
36. Light
Light is the most important element in
photography. The fundamentals of seeing
light include exposure, quality, direction,
shadows and highlights
37. Exposure
Properly exposed Over exposed
The amount of light captured in a
photograph, and how to control it
38. Exposure
Properly exposed Over exposed
The amount of light captured in a
photograph, and how to control it
39. Quality of light
Warm Cool
How “soft” or “hard” the light is, and the
difference between “warm” and “cool” light.
40. Quality of light
Warm Cool
How “soft” or “hard” the light is, and the
difference between “warm” and “cool” light.
41. Direction
The position of the light source relative to the
scene. Never point a camera to the window
42. Shadows and highlights
The darkest and brightest regions in a photo,
where details become hidden. Use flash to fill in
44. Final tips
Closer, Closer
“Get closer”. Make the object of your shot
stand out. If you can’t move closer
physically, use a longer lens.
Think before you press
Always think about what you are trying to
say with an image.
45. Final tips
Sense of Scale
A cow standing in a field helps us
comprehend the extent of the pasture. A
sense of scale can be achieved by including
something of known size, such as a person,
a car, a tree, or an animal, in the picture
beside it.
Shoot from different angles
46. Almost everyone today owns a
mobile phone with android and
camera.
Photo: amos
You have no excuse for not
documenting and sharing online
48. That all folks.
Thank you for
listening.
WhatsApp: 0729355550
Twitter: ochiengamos
FB: Amos Ochieng
Work: amos@pixelskenya.com
Notes de l'éditeur
Where is COU-PDR with social media, digital documentation
Do you have a facebook page, website, twitter handle, blog, camera, audio recorder
Who is in charge? Admin? Content contributors
Explain what is facebook
BEGIN WTH A MEETING
It is important for the whole staff to be involved in social media work. Don’t leave it to the communications person only.
DECIDE WHAT THE EDITORIAL NEEDS ARE
Do you want stir up debate, use online petitions as an advocacy tactic, share stories of change?
Do you want to receive feedback about your work? Discuss
what expectations you have on your work with your beneficiaries, audience e.t.c or you just maybe you just want to brag your results to your donor.
SELECT WHAT SERVICES AND TOOLS TO USE
For a programme that needs to do quick updates, Twitter might be best, while Facebook might be better
for building relations and for in-depth information. Starting up a blog if you cant afford a website might be a better option. Most often you will be using a combination of these.
New services are forever replacing old ones, so knowledge about them is
a perishable good.
Procure the necessary tools: Camera, Sound recorder, mobile internet via smartphone or portable router, laptop if you don’t have one already.
CHOOSE WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO BE
MOST ACTIVE
Reflect on when your audience is active on social media. Some common
peaks are around 8 and 9 in the morning, when people are commuting to
work, around lunchtime and after 8 pm when parents have put small children
to bed. By keeping an eye on when your posts are re-tweeted (RT), i.e. when
they’re reposted on Twitter, or when people comment on Facebook, you can
determine when your visitors are active. Try to adapt to that
SET UP ACCOUNTS
First have your own personal account
Create account (s) for organization and let everyone know; share it with partners, announce on mailing list, ask colleagues to make noise about it, its your official contact put it on your
Letterheads, email signatures and all communications internal and external
PROCURE TOOLS
Source quotations, do a requisition and buy the necessary equipment that will get the work done
Take time and learn how to handle and use the tools. Everyone should know how to use the tools without supervision.
START BUILDING YOUR NETWORK
Use hashtags very very much
Ask colleagues, friends, partners..anyone who might be interested in your cause to Like your page, follow you on twitter, read more about the program on your blog, comment on facebook etc etc
PUT SOMEONE IN CHARGE
Appoint a person to have the main responsibility of managing your social media (social media editors) but that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who should work in social media
Explain what is facebook
Who uses WhatsApp?
How do you usually use it
If you don’t have the budget of setting up a website, here is an option.
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Who are you trying to reach?
If its Caro, you are trying to reach; Caro wants results. SHOW her RESULTS.
SHOW her that due to demand from community, we constructed a police post
Lets say due to demand from the community, you constructed a police post, take a picture of the police post and share, place it in your report
If you are going to give statistics, SHOW and TELL
Other ways your audiences can access/consume the photographs;
Exhibitions
For a start consider your office as the venue for your exhibition (like in Diakonia’s office). It’s a good a way of constantly remind the staff about what the organization mission/areas of focus.
Launch of the exhibition is an event that can be presented as news.
Online slideshows
If you have been to most LVRP workshops you may be familiar with this.
Slideshows allow your audience to browse through a selection of images with accompanying captions and credits, but from the comfort of their home or desk. They retain control over the speed they go through the work, and can return as often as they like to go through the photos and information over multiple visits. Additional information can be signposted with links or downloadable resources.
E-mail
Disseminating photos by email can be an effective way to get them in front of your target audience but the message has to centre around a single high-impact photo, capturing attention and drawing it to information or a call to action.
Press
Getting images of change makers and beneficiaries into the press can be a fantastic result, since it introduces the issue being dealt with from the perspective of the affected community/people involved.
Demotix
(www.demotix.com) is a ‘citizen journalism’ websites that give a platform to showcase work while at the same time putting the work forward to the international media.
Social media
Whether as a way to reach new people with outputs, or as a way of linking and mobilising action. Whichever social media tools you are using, you must consider how images could feed in to enhance visibility and impact.
Consider image hosting platform Flickr
Other creative uses; T-shirt exhibitions
Beneficiaries wearing T-shirts with captioned photographs on one side and the advocacy message on the other or issues of concern can be visualized in a word cloud and printed on T-shirts and caps. The more people you gather, the more intriguing it will be, and the more likely it will be seen as a stunt worthy of media coverage.
Remember that those involved must completely understand what they are contributing to and what the messages on their T-shirts mean, otherwise this is manipulation and reflects badly on the programme and Diakonia as an organization.
Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph
HANDS ON
How to focus on your subject/focal point and make it clear to the viewer
Aperture is the size of the hole of the lens through which light travels, and is measured in f-stops. When the aperture opens up (lower f-stops: f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4), more light enters the camera, resulting in more light being captured. When it’s reduced (higher f-stops: f16, f22, f32), less light enters. More importantly, aperture also affects how blurred or sharp certain areas of the photo are, also known as the depth of field.
For a uniformly sharp image — especially in shots of landscapes or architecture — a higher f-stop is used. This keeps both the foreground and background of the image in focus. However, because the aperture is reduced, you’ll require a much longer shutter speed to capture the same amount of light, so that your photo does not get too dark.
HANDS ON;
Introduce Tripod, monopod
HANDS ON;
Introduce Framing line of sight, aerial, oblique, cropping
HANDS ON;
Shoot to the window
HANDS ON
How to adjust exposure
Exposure is essentially the amount of light that falls on film or the sensor of your camera, resulting in the overall lightness or darkness of a photo. Measured in stops, or exposure values (EV).
On modern cameras, you’ll see a scale that reflects these values, typically over 6 to 9 stops, with 0 EV being the balanced value as judged by the camera.
Exposure is essentially the amount of light that falls on film or the sensor of your camera, resulting in the overall lightness or darkness of a photo. Measured in stops, or exposure values (EV).
On modern cameras, you’ll see a scale that reflects these values, typically over 6 to 9 stops, with 0 EV being the balanced value as judged by the camera.
Depends on natural light, can be changed during post production, mobile phone tools
HANDS ON
How to use flash
Increasing strength of flash
ISO
With all other factors constant, a low sensitivity (ISO 100 to 800) results in darker images, while higher sensitivities (ISO 3200 onwards) result in brighter images. High ISO pictures are often “noisy,” in that they become grainy or contain discoloration. As a rule of thumb, ISO is set to the lowest possible value that can achieve the desired shutter speed and aperture.
Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph
Which of these elements have you ever considered while taking a photograph