LAST MONTH, Phil Riner began discussing his project of teaching digital photography and prosocial behavior skills to inner-city fifth-graders. This work led him to generate some very specific procedures for camera care and use. Phil also taught the students some simple rules for taking better photos. These rules fell into four broad categories: framing (what the students called closer), angle, the of thirds, and negative space. Last month, Phil ended Part 1 with a discussion of framing. This month, he picks up where he left off. -- Royal Van Horn Angle To help the children eliminate clutter from their photos and capture only the people -- or parts of people -- of interest, we introduced another concept. While examining their work, the children discovered that some pictures were taken by climbing higher or crouching lower or moving left or right order to change what was seen the background. When asked to describe what was occurring these pictures, the children identified that the angle was changing, and another of composition was born: Think about your Note that our did designate the best angle. It just reminds the children to think about it. From the standpoint of developing prosocial behavior, we capitalized on the idea of angle as a metaphor for trying to see social situations from many points of view. Talking about social situations turn suggested inspiring themes for photographs such as being a friend, needing a friend, smiling, and helping others. (The photo reproduced below illustrates the use of angle.) Rule of Thirds As the children took more pictures, practiced basic camera operation, and experimented with composition, we began a series of exercises designed to increase students' awareness of framing options. Readers may recall that, as explained last month's installment of this column, we had rigged up a TV to display the photos we were discussing. For one lesson, we used a dry-erasable marker to draw a tic-tac-toe matrix on the television screen. Then we displayed a picture that the students said they liked. Using a laser pointer, several students took turns outlining the basic profile of the person or people the picture. After several interpretations, one student was asked to approach the television screen and, using the marker, to quickly outline the basic elements of the photograph. (By turning to an unused channel, the student's outline and the basic matrix could be easily seen.) After a number of these outlines had been drawn and copied, the children began to see patterns the pictures. The first observation of a repeated pattern was that the middle of the picture was never used by itself. The children observed that the focal point usually straddled one of the vertical lines and often a horizontal line as well. They had discovered the rule of thirds. This states that the focal point of a picture should be at the intersection of a vertical and horizontal line. This is an exceptionally complex concept that the children simplified as not the middle. By the time these basics were acquired, the children had earned a press and were able to operate independently about the school with the cameras. The press pass was a photo ID printed color on a business card and laminated. The pass contained the school name, logo, mascot, and the project theme Making Good Choices on one side; it had the student's picture, name, signature, and the slogan I make good choices on the other. If teachers the lower grades needed photographs of classroom activities, student photographers with press passes in good standing were sent to attend to the requests. The students accumulated a large collection of photographs as well as valuable experience being the responsible expert. In reviewing their pictures, students continued to identify those photographs that they enjoyed most. …