How to create a READ poster for your classroom.

As a photographer I'm always looking to photograph interesting people and places.  Until recently I started to create interesting pictures instead of just waiting for them. Creating fun photographs is a lot of work but it pays off.

My dad Blaine Paradise is about to start his 20th year of teaching and needed something interesting to put in his room for his students.  After 5 minutes of brainstorming we decided to recreate a READ poster for his room.  After all, he is a reading teacher.

We decided to to do the shoot in his living room with him sitting on his favorite chair.  Dads everywhere know what I'm talking about.  The following tutorial is how I created a READ poster.  It's not that much work and it's a lot of fun.

1.  Find a location inside or outside that you the model are comfortable in.  If the location makes you happy and relaxed it will show in the picture.

2.  Take the time to iron your clothes and get dressed up in your outfit.  The outfit can be anything.  Basketball clothes if the set is on a basketball court, or casual clothes with an apron if it's a kitchen shoot.

3.  Set up the lighting for the shot.  I had my Nikon SB-600 flash on a light stand with a radio trigger set to manual mode.  I had the flash bounce off the white wall to my left so that it would soften the light.  I also had the white balance set to incandescent and put a 1/2 CTO gel on the flash. I also had a silver reflector on the other side of my dad so that it would reflect some light to the other side of my dad's face.  The camera setting was ISO 800, 1/200 at F/4.0 and focal length was 28mm.  

4.  Have the photographer compose the shot using the rule of thirds with you holding your favorite book.  Do a variety of poses and smiles and choose the right one in editing. Have fun with it.  Also add a void of space either above or below you for the text.

5.  Import the images into your photo program of choice and prepare to add text.  If you don't have a program or if your current program can't add text download Picasa 3 for free from google.

6.  Add the READ text in huge lettering and then add in smaller text __Your Name___ for America's Libraries or @ you local library.

7.  Export the image twice.  One small for the Internet and one original size for the actual poster. I export as a jpeg.

8.  www.samsclub.com has the best price for 20x30 inch posters, around $9.00 each.

Here is a sample of Blaine's new posters.

The twilight poster was done using Rick Nunn's technique, visit http://ricknunn.com/how-i-shoot-lowkey-portrait/.