Photography
Capturing Your Campus Experience
Photos help us tell our story in a vibrant, visual way. They give our audience a glimpse into our culture and personality as an institution. They portray the life a potential student can anticipate at A&M-Commerce. With the right photo, you can inspire, motivate and engage future Lions.
Choosing Photos
Knowing what to look for in a photo can be a challenge. Here are some guidelines that will help you choose the right photo.
- Career outcomes and real scenarios graduates would face in their field
- Moments of greatness. The moments in their jobs when they feel like they are living their dreams or when they think, “This is why I do what I do.”
- Candid photos that represent a typical day in their program
- Hands-on activities; avoid typical lecture-style settings
- One-on-one scenarios that show the care and attention a student can receive
- Group activities that capture teamwork and community
- Candid photos that represent the authentic, everyday life of students
- Extracurricular activities and ways to get involved on campus
- Both varsity and intramural sports
- School spirit, particularly around big games
- Architecture of the buildings, residence and dining halls, etc., preferably including people
Photo Best Practices
When possible, use soft natural lighting from a window or shaded outdoor area. Direct lighting from camera flashes or the mid-day sun can look too bright and create harsh shadows.
Create an engaging, organic scenario. Expressions should be natural yet right for the situation. Not every shot needs to be happy. Focused or proud is also good.
We want to promote our university, not our competitors’. Avoid those individuals or come prepared with shirts they can change into.
Unless you're shooting a sporting event, an excessive amount of blue and gold or TAMUC logos can seem unnatural and forced in everyday settings.
Light can filter through leaves and create distracting and unflattering patches of light on your subject. Find a different location; or if there's just a few, edit them out.
Stylistic Photo Choices
Take your photography to the next level by strategically (and sparingly) using these techniques.
Enrich Blue and Gold Tones
Turn up the saturation on blue skies or golden lights.
Embrace Natural Sun Flares
Flares can give a photo a sense of hope and aspiration when done well.
Add a Blue Gradient Map
Use this technique in a photo grid to maintain your focal point and avoid visual chaos or create a background for headline copy.
Portrait Style
For our standard portrait style, the intent is for the subject to confidently “own” their space. We center our subject with a simple (non-distracting) background. Body positioning and posture should reflect confidence without appearing rigid. If possible, light should be focused on their face to heighten the sense of drama. This should cause the bottom half of the photo to be darker, highlighting the subject's face. We shoot from a low angle and at an adequate distance to eliminate lens distortion.
Talent Release Policy
Our talent release policy allows us to record and publish content we capture of our subjects through photo, video or audio. It also gives us the creative freedom to choose the best shot or footage that fulfills the goal of the project.
We require signed talent releases for the following scenarios:
- Minors (must be signed by a parent or guardian)
- Portraits
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Contact Us
- Office of Marketing and Communications
- 903.886.8143
- [email protected]
- Binnion Hall, 140
- 1500 Education Drive
- Commerce, TX 75428