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

Error! Error!

   A freelancer wants to know if it is alright to ask an editor whether, after her article is edited, she can review it before it is published. This is an important question. Why? Writers make mistakes that slip past editors. Editors mis-edit. Layout people make mistakes.

   Can you spot the mistake layout made with this image? (Clue: read my cutline.)

“This screen shot shows the view of the proposed control tower (left) and the current tower (right) …” *

   With every new editor I make this simple, one-time offer: “I’d be happy to review my article after you have edited it and after it has been laid out.”

     Expect one of three replies:

1) No.

2) Yes to just the text.

3) Yes to text and layout.

   * The image I submitted had two towers (See the little spike on the horizon, left?), but layout cropped the right-hand one out. The error made it into print. (Layout people do not read cutlines before chopping, and I don't think editors review images that closely.)

Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014