Photography

Photography plays a central role in conveying the spirit of CALS. With a focus on our fascinating community, our ambitious work, our unique spaces and the vibrant textures and details of the CALS experience, CALS photography should always lead with an emotional connection to people, science and Cornell. These examples set the scene for the kind of photography that should be used in applications including digital, print and advertising.

Overall, photography should feel dynamic, natural, vibrant and unstaged, and convey unusual perspectives. Here are some points to consider for achieving the CALS Brand photography style:

• In layouts, juxtapose images that differ in scale and distance for variety.
• Maintain high photographic quality and even, natural light whenever possible.
• Any photo editing should be subtle.
• Black and white should be used sparingly—when appropriate to suggest a shift in mood or tone or to break up a longer editorial piece of collateral.
• If using stock photos, avoid staged, cliché photos that could easily belong to any other college or university.
• Avoid artificial filters or color washes, harsh flash photography and poor lighting.
• Photographs fall into four main categories: Portraits, People in Action, Spaces and Micro/Macro, outlined in more detail below.

Capture people in their natural element or environment. The image should convey ease and personality through candid and dynamic body language, even when posed.

Highlight objects and props that help tell a subject’s story. Favor soft, even, natural light and interesting, backlit settings. Hunt for intriguing details and juxtapositions.

Research and collaboration in action. People working, engaging and collaborating with each other. Two or more subjects should be actively doing something, ideally together.

Find focal points of action to draw the eye. Create intimate or unusual perspectives with low or close camera angles. Capture honest, spontaneous moments of thought and connection.

Showcase the diversity of CALS and Cornell through unusual perspectives. Shoot architecture and spaces from atypical locations and views that are new to even longtime faculty.

If it looks like it’s already been in a view book or on a postcard, try another angle. Or focus on a new or unusual detail alongside the architecture.

Emphasize scale by capturing people and movement alongside architecture, and try to find different times of day to capture different kinds of light.

Find the vibrant, somewhat mysterious details and patterns that tell a bigger story and make you look closer. Showcase the natural and man-made rhythms that appear on a small scale and when you zoom way out (see also Spaces).

Seek unusual views of familiar settings and tools of the trade. Go behind the scenes and beyond the naked eye. Bring out bright and neutral colors.

Think about how you can add impact to CALS stories and assets with vibrant, science-focused images. Try first to solicit these kinds of images from faculty and students, but also license image from providers such as Corbis, Getty or Nikon’s Photomicrography Gallery.

To help with our community’s storytelling efforts, we’ve developed a broad collection of imagery from across our college — thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images taken in our new brand style. This royalty-free collection is available to all CALS faculty and staff through a section of the main please let us know.

How to Access the Photo Collection

All CALS faculty and staff can access these images through the Cornell Photo image library, once they’ve logged in to the system with their Cornell NetID and password.

Important access details:

• If it's your first time logging in to the archive, it may take a short time for the system to process your request.
• Your access to the Cornell Photo image library is assigned by your university employment status upon the first time you log in to their system. If you first logged in as a non-CALS employee, you may experience some difficulty viewing the CALS brand photography collection.
• For any access issues: Contact the system administrator at widen-support [at] cornell.edu. Please allow a response window of 2-3 business days for a response.

Time-sensitive photo needs: Contact CALS Marketing and Communications

• If you are experiencing issues and have a time-sensitive photo need, please reach out to us at cals-comm [at] cornell.edu. We will be in touch as soon as possible.