Photography Merit Badge

1. Safety: hazards, weather, and the digital safety video Requirement

Two parts. The first covers the hazards of photography and how you would prepare for weather, sun and water. The second is a video that five different merit badges require.

2. Seven terms that decide whether a picture works Often forgotten Requirement

All seven are compulsory and there is nothing to choose. Four of them come back in requirement 4, where you have to demonstrate them with a camera, so this is not vocabulary to be recited and forgotten.

3. The parts of a camera, and how an exposure is made Requirement

Two explanations in one requirement, and the second is the harder: what physically happens when you take a picture. It needs no equipment and nothing arranged, so it can be done at any meeting.

4. Demonstrate two terms with a camera: choose two of four Often forgotten Requirement

FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS. Two options, and each is one subject photographed two ways. The four options map one to one onto four of requirement 2's terms, so choose the two you understood best. Every image made here is excluded from requirement 7.

EVERY PHOTOGRAPH YOU MAKE HERE IS SPENT. Requirement 7 must use images other than those created for requirements 4, 5 and 6, so the four images this requirement produces cannot appear in your photo story. That is not a reason to do less here, it is a reason to know the total before you start: about seven images for requirements 4 and 5 together, then eight to twelve entirely separate ones for requirement 7. There is a second thing worth knowing about this requirement. Its four options map one to one onto four of the seven terms you explained in requirement 2: angle of view, light, depth of field and composition. Nothing on the badge says so. Choose the two terms you understood best, and check what your camera can actually control before choosing the depth of field option.

5. Photograph three subjects: choose three of six Often forgotten Requirement

THREE MORE PHOTOGRAPHS, on top of requirement 4's four. Two options need other people to agree, one needs an animal to cooperate, and the nature shot needs nobody. These images are also excluded from requirement 7.

THREE MORE SPENT IMAGES, AND TWO OF THESE OPTIONS DEPEND ON OTHER PEOPLE. Like requirement 4, everything photographed here is excluded from the requirement 7 photo story. On the choosing: a close-up of a person and two to three people interacting both need somebody to agree and to be somewhere at a particular time, and the animal shot needs an animal that cooperates. The nature shot needs nobody and nothing arranged, which makes it the dependable choice when your other two are waiting on other people. A troop activity is the easiest single place to collect an action shot and people interacting on the same day.

6. Software: describe what it does, then do one thing Often forgotten Requirement

THE DESCRIPTION IN THE STEM IS COMPULSORY and is not one of the three options. Costs no new photographs, since it uses a photo you have already taken, but that photo is then excluded from requirement 7 as well.

7. A visual story, from images you have not used yet Often forgotten Requirement

THE LARGEST PIECE OF WORK ON THE BADGE. Eight to twelve images, none of which may be any photograph made for requirements 4, 5 or 6. An event you document, or a topic that interests you. Plan this first: everything else can be shot on any afternoon.

THIS IS FIFTEEN TO NINETEEN PHOTOGRAPHS IN TOTAL, AND THE BADGE NEVER ADDS THEM UP. Requirement 4 is four images: two options, each photographing one subject two ways. Requirement 5 is three more. Requirement 6 needs no new image, because it uses a photo you have already taken. Then this requirement wants eight to twelve, and none of them may be any of the ones above. The trap is not the total, it is the order. Shoot a good afternoon, spend your best frames on requirements 4 and 5, and you arrive here to find the strongest images you own are the ones you may not use. PLAN THIS REQUIREMENT FIRST, or at least alongside the others. Everything else on this badge can be photographed on any afternoon; the photo story needs an event or a topic decided in advance, a plan, and your counselor's approval before you shoot any of it.

8. Three careers, then one of them explained Requirement

Careers only: unlike many badges in this library, there is no hobby alternative here. Identify three, pick one, and explain how to prepare for it, what education and training it needs, and why it might interest you.

Counselor signs it off Milestone

The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.

Usually comes after 8. Three careers, then one of them explained.

Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.