Taylor the Teacher

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I’ve only just bought a digital camera. I stubbornly held on to the film as long as I could.

Took individual digital pictures of the kids to print out so they could each make a MySpace-style “profile” to put up in the classroom. I’m usually one of those “no fun in first 3 weeks” kind of teachers, so this felt like a gamble to me. But I’m going to do this every year. It was great.

But I’ve taken some of them three times now. Many of the retakes are African-American students, but not all. I’ve attached external light sources to every available desk and overhead cart (that the 2 — oh no, 3-prong extension cord is long enough to reach with the 3 — oh, no — 2-prong other extension cord) to try to light their faces, but their photos keep coming up dark. But they don’t look dark on my LCD on the camera, or on the computer before I print them. So, I don’t really know there’s a problem until I’m tying up the only color printer in the school for about three hours, and having the pages of pictures dutifully delivered to me 2 or 3 at a time by bored library workers.

About 20 of my 150 (too many!) students are in this group of retakes. What can I do? I have a Cannon PowerShot S2 IS (or is it 1S?) Any help?