The Media, cannot always do a custom photo shoot for each news item they cover. And sometimes, Web journalist are happy to give a small article about it, if their posting can be supported with some hot visuals. This is where your photo collection becomes of great value. It is a good idea to have some great shots available, on demand, as long as they meet editors’ and journals’ and web standards, so they can be used to feature your story.
Here some basic tips and why:
Have your photos ready in high resolution. (A picture that will cover a magazine page needs to be at least 300 dpi at 8″X10″. A smaller picture will not give you a cover, so you may as well have a large picture ready.)
A) Look at you collection, analyze which are the most often asked-for pictures. This will give you great insight into what the media wants. Do not hesitate to get these shots professionally re-photographed from time to time to maintain a fresh and contemporary look to your product or destination. Be ready to provide new angles, new views or different times of the day versions. (The journalist gets tired of the same old shots.) It is not the product or the destination which is a deterrent, it is too often how it is portrayed.
B) Do not underestimate the keen EYE of a professional photographer. Whether the purpose is fashion, documentary, action, or scenic, a pro does give a shot that visual twist that makes it something like: great, attractive, actual, fresh, powerful and charged with emotion. (Discuss with your photographer the essence of what the pictures should be and launch them on a shooting “spree”. To get a great shot even with pros, it often takes hundreds of clicks.)
C) You cannot hire a top photographer, o.k., and sometimes some good snaps are all you can manage at the time or moment. There is nothing wrong with that. But do not forget to polish you photo skills a bit. Our experience has been that most snaps become unusable because 3 simple precautions have not been taken: - WHITE-BALANCE
Insure you get the white-balance right to compensate for the light conditions (indoor, outdoor, flash, etc. No camera does this by itself, you have to make a selection in the menu of each photo-camera. - RESOLUTION
Insure you take your picture in the best resolution possible (saving your file as jpegs is fine but delivering RAW files is questionable). - EXPOSURE
If you are not sure about your light exposure, use the auto-bracketing, so you end up with 3 shots (from light to dark, you can always choose the best one afterward).
Oh, I almost forgot my secret tip: use a tripod or lean against a solid object, if you can, as you take the shot. For some pictures, a blurred effect, makes the shot but in most cases there is nothing sharper than sharp.
- Polishing compound
If this is all seems too complicated, you may brush up you skills by making a few tests. Where to start? What is white-balance, right exposure, etc.? We found great straightforward polishing info on this site among others: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm
Photo skills: a bit of digital polishing
Here some basic tips and why:
Have your photos ready in high resolution. (A picture that will cover a magazine page needs to be at least 300 dpi at 8″X10″. A smaller picture will not give you a cover, so you may as well have a large picture ready.)
A) Look at you collection, analyze which are the most often asked-for pictures. This will give you great insight into what the media wants. Do not hesitate to get these shots professionally re-photographed from time to time to maintain a fresh and contemporary look to your product or destination. Be ready to provide new angles, new views or different times of the day versions. (The journalist gets tired of the same old shots.) It is not the product or the destination which is a deterrent, it is too often how it is portrayed.
B) Do not underestimate the keen EYE of a professional photographer. Whether the purpose is fashion, documentary, action, or scenic, a pro does give a shot that visual twist that makes it something like: great, attractive, actual, fresh, powerful and charged with emotion. (Discuss with your photographer the essence of what the pictures should be and launch them on a shooting “spree”. To get a great shot even with pros, it often takes hundreds of clicks.)
C) You cannot hire a top photographer, o.k., and sometimes some good snaps are all you can manage at the time or moment. There is nothing wrong with that. But do not forget to polish you photo skills a bit. Our experience has been that most snaps become unusable because 3 simple precautions have not been taken:
- WHITE-BALANCE
Insure you get the white-balance right to compensate for the light conditions (indoor, outdoor, flash, etc. No camera does this by itself, you have to make a selection in the menu of each photo-camera.
- RESOLUTION
Insure you take your picture in the best resolution possible (saving your file as jpegs is fine but delivering RAW files is questionable).
- EXPOSURE
If you are not sure about your light exposure, use the auto-bracketing, so you end up with 3 shots (from light to dark, you can always choose the best one afterward).
Oh, I almost forgot my secret tip: use a tripod or lean against a solid object, if you can, as you take the shot. For some pictures, a blurred effect, makes the shot but in most cases there is nothing sharper than sharp.
- Polishing compound
If this is all seems too complicated, you may brush up you skills by making a few tests. Where to start? What is white-balance, right exposure, etc.? We found great straightforward polishing info on this site among others:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 4:42 pm and is filed under General, Photography, Tips and Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.