Heart-Healthy and Stroke-Free: A Social Environment Handbook

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Chapter Six: Practical Methods—Photography and Videography

Chapters Introduction Chapter 1: Getting Started Chapter 2: Preventive and Medical Services Chapter 3: Heart-Healthy Living Chapter 4: Quality of Life Chapter 5: Direct Observations and Windshield Surveys Chapter 6: Photography and Videography Chapter 7: Key Informant Interviews Chapter 8: Library Resources and Newspapers Chapter 9: Searching the Internet Chapter 10: Worksheets Chapter 11: Heart Disease and Stroke Resources

Photographs and videos can complement your project with useful visual information. Visual documentation can help illustrate changes in the community, from demographic shifts to economic and urban development, to environmental changes, and facilitate comparison of multiple neighborhoods or communities. Libraries are excellent sources for photography, videos, films, or slides of the local area (See Practical Methods: Library Resources and Newspapers below). However, you can create your own photographs or videos of the study community to suit your particular needs.

Getting Started

The first step is procuring the necessary equipment. If no digital or 35 mm camera is available, single-use, disposable cameras may be an economical option. These cameras take pictures in quality comparable to most models of 35 mm cameras. A digital camera is particularly useful, because you can store photographs in the camera (potentially hundreds of them, depending on the amount of memory and resolution), view the photographs as you take them, and delete those you do not want. The quality of pictures a digital camera can take is measured by its resolution, or megapixels (millions of pixels). You can purchase additional or larger memory cards, which allow you to take more pictures. You might also check into renting a digital or film-loaded camera.

Digital cameras are equipped with software for your computer. Be sure to note the system requirements before you buy. Once on a computer, the photographs can be stored, copied onto a data CD, or printed.

Video recorders have the advantage of recording sound as well as images, but are typically more expensive than the other survey equipment. If your organization does not own a recorder, and none is available on loan from staff, you need to review both your data collection needs and financial resources to gauge whether you can justify the purchase of this or any of the other technologies. As with cameras, renting might be an option.

Taking Pictures and Making Videos

As mentioned above, be conscientious while recording still or video images. You can learn more about the principles of good photography from a professional photographer, a manual, or the Internet.

Depending on the questions your observations are meant to answer, you can make a visual record of many components of the social environment. Some examples are

• Locations of schools, hospitals, libraries, grocery stores, and restaurants.
• Types and locations of recreational facilities such as parks, walkways, hiking trails, or state parks.
• Sprawl, new roads, construction of new stores, or other signs of economic development.
• Dilapidated or closed stores or businesses.
• Locations and types of housing.
• Wilderness areas or wildlife refuges.
• Tourist attractions.
• New developments that may not be current on documentation, such as maps or tourism brochures.

What About Including People?

Most of what you document will be places and buildings—a hospital, a library, or a park. You should try to avoid photographing or videotaping people’s faces if they are recognizable, so you won’t have to ask permission. One option is to take the photo from a distance. Another option is to use photo-editing software (with digital photos or 35 mm photos scanned into a computer) to blur or block out people’s faces.

If you do want the people in a photographic or video image to be recognizable, you should use a standard photographic release form. A photographic release is a concisely written form that the photographed person signs, allowing the photographer to use the person’s image and alerting the photographed person of his or her rights attached to or annexed with this allowance. Most universities and professional photographers have such release forms that you may be able to use to get ideas in generating your own.

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Date last reviewed: 07/09/2007
Content source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion