Beauty & Beholder

   After I posted Pen & Camera, a reader asked, “What is a publication-quality image?" Here are some basics considerations for what to offer your editor:

1) File size should be minimum 1MB* jpeg;

2) The subject must be in focus, properly exposed, not backlit;

4) The shot should be uncluttered, well composed;

5) The subject matter should be clean**, intact;

6) Scour shots for embarrassing background, like nudie calendars (no joke, been there);

7) People places should have people in them;

8) People must not look scared, asleep, depraved;

9) Workers must wear appropriate safety equipment;
10) Last but not least, the photo has to support your story.

Isn’t this gorgeous? (Photo: Héli-Boréal)

* 1MB is a goal, not a law. As little as 600Kb can work, but files lots larger than 1MB give layout the option to make the shot bigger on the page.

** Unless you are telling a dirty story.

Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014

Pen & Camera

   Editors love writers who can handle a camera. Big-budget magazines hire photographers but industry publications, aka B2B magazines, can rarely afford that luxury. If you want an edge on the freelance pack, learn to handle a camera just as well as your pen. It will make a critical and moneymaking difference.

I steadied my Nikon, elbows on a workbench. Auto exposure gave the shot a good sense of motion at 1/8 sec. I cropped tightly.

   Study a photography book. Take a course. Put published photos alongside your current efforts. Can you do better? Study composition. Corner a pro. Think “publication-quality.” Buy a real camera. Shoot, think and shoot again. If you can take credible photos to submit with your stories, you are worth more to your editor than a same-quality writer who cannot. This is a fact.

Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014