If you are a student worker or work exclusively off-campus and can not schedule an appointment with the photographer, you may choose to have a helper take a photo of you with a high-quality mobile phone. This photo must meet the following criteria in order to be approved for use on the website. Camera A professional-grade camera is not necessary. Cameras in newer-model smartphones take high-quality photos that are more than sufficient for a webpage. Avoid old phones. Please do not use any special digital effects or filters, such as iPhone's Portrait Mode. Orientation and Aspect Ratio All portrait photos must be in a landscape orientation. If you are using a cell phone to take the picture, make sure you are holding the phone horizontally, not vertically. Most cell phone photos are in a 3 x 2 (width by height) ratio. This will provide ample room for cropping the photo to fit the website’s 16 x 9 required ratio for portraits. Background Each college or administrative office is permitted to select its own background as long as every portrait is taken in the same exact spot and from the same angle. Consistency and uniformity are the goals. For example, a series of portraits taken along the same decorated wall is consistent, but if they are not all in the same spot, or are at different angles, they are not uniform. Please make the effort to be both. If you are unsure of the official background of your college or office, check with your local web administrator. If you are a fully remote employee and cannot come to campus for a photo, please select a background in your home that is well lit and free from objects in the background. A plain, painted wall is best, provided it has appropriate lighting. Read the next section for more detail. Light Take the photo in a well-lit area. Ideally, the light source should be bright, but indirect so there are no harsh shadows or bright glares on the subject or on the background. Avoid direct sunlight or fluorescent lights. Do not use a flash. Subject Smile, please! The subject of the photo should stand relatively close to the background and turn their face to the camera. They may choose to angle their body slightly to either side if they wish. The helper taking the photo should stand far enough away from the subject so that the frame contains the subject’s torso from approximately the navel to several inches above the head. (This gives our staff plenty of room to crop the photo.) When finished, your subject should look something like this on the camera screen: (*Note that the background in the bottom row is consistent and mostly uniform. The photographer has chosen an interesting background with a dynamic angle that is aesthetically pleasing, but challenging to maintain strict uniformity. A simpler, yet effective approach is to choose a flat, neutral background such as the painted wall in the top row.) Submission When you are finished taking your photo(s), please email the original high resolution file to the OMC's web team at webmaster@uah.edu. Do not edit the original photo or apply any special filters, effects, or backgrounds. We will process and upload the portrait to the website for you. If the size of your photo files exceeds the limits of your email account, upload the files to a Google Drive folder, share that folder with webmaster@uah.edu, and email a link to the folder to webmaster@uah.edu. *NOTE: Photos that do not meet UAH standards will be rejected and will need to be retaken. If you have concerns or questions about your photo, do not hesitate to contact us at webmaster@uah.edu.
