Submitting pictures to papers. What's required?

.Longshanks.

Maybe this is a bit of a silly question, but what needs to be included / excluded when submitting a picture to the national papers?

I’ve been asked to take a few snaps at a work event for the other half over the weekend and they’ve since asked can I also send them onto the papers. This sounds easy (google --> newpaper --> contact details) but I’m thinking there might be more to it than that?

<silly questions>
-What size do you suggest / resolution? ….Too big and emails take aaaaages. Too small and quality wont be there.
-Include all my details on metada
-I have to presume jpeg format?

Anything else to be included?

Paulw

Longshanks100 wrote: »

<silly questions>
-What size do you suggest / resolution? ….Too big and emails take aaaaages. Too small and quality wont be there.
-Include all my details on metada
-I have to presume jpeg format?

It can vary.

In general -

file size around 1mb. Make sure the image has space around the main characters as the paper will crop to suit the space they have in the article.

Include your information and especially the caption within the metadata.

Yep, jpg format.

PCPhoto

its not a simple as google ....newspaper....contacts .

some of the papers don't check emails regularly and only check their FTP (File transfer protocol) .... which details are supposed to be only given to full-time working photographers.

I had to submit my email address to one of the national papers a couple of years ago as they were not accepting emails anymore (except in case of emergency as a backup), everything is FTP only..... some of the papers have spam filters and recognised email addresses are allowed through while unrecognised email accounts go into a seperate folder/file - this basically means they will look in the second folder/file ...if they are looking for an image.

I sometimes get phonecalls asking if I have pics of XYZ .... I reply with ...I sent that in 30mins ago ... and they then go .... oh right ...here it is !
sometimes I phone picdesks to confirm they got images (when I'm doing shifts for them) ....or if I sent pics of a news story.

EDIT: as Paul says ... CAPTION is VERY important....must be in the "file info" section of photoshop

.Longshanks.

Hmm, that's kinda of what I thought might be happening. The original deal was just to transfer the few pics via email / CD. The paper element only came into it a few minutes ago.
Don't want to disappoint them (& could open few doors...). What to do?

homer simpson

Do you mean a paper as in the irish times or something? if yes sorry i aint got a clue but if its a paper such as a local area paper, just phone in and say your looking to submit photo's of "X" and they will pass you through to someone, i have submitted photos a few times into the letterkenny post, and even the Donegals peoples press once, i just phoned up and was told to call into the office and ask for "joe" brought the memory card with me, and he brought me to his comp opened the files and asked me for the details, who was int he photo ect, and that was it (it wasnt a paying job mind you, they are only local rags after all)

P.S. hope its relavent otherwise ive just ramballed on about nothing really ,

ValueInIreland

homer_simpson wrote: »

Do you mean a paper as in the irish times or something? if yes sorry i aint got a clue but if its a paper such as a local area paper, just phone in and say your looking to submit photo's of "X" and they will pass you through to someone, i have submitted photos a few times into the letterkenny post, and even the Donegals peoples press once, i just phoned up and was told to call into the office and ask for "joe" brought the memory card with me, and he brought me to his comp opened the files and asked me for the details, who was int he photo ect, and that was it (it wasnt a paying job mind you, they are only local rags after all)

P.S. hope its relavent otherwise ive just ramballed on about nothing really ,

My advice is NOT to turn up at a major Newspaper (unless of course you have a MAJOR exclusive- and I don't mean Mary McAleese opening an Old folks home) and expect anybody to "process" your images. Do your homework, ring and ask for the Picture Editor (Larger papers) or Editor and ask if they are interested in pictures from your event.
Ask them what they do and don't want. As the lads said though, it will always be a JPEG, About 1Mb when saved (level 4-7, not High). Captions were also mentioned, MUST be provided in the IPTC header (called File Info in Photoshop) - Do Not confuse with File NAME!!.
What was not mentioned, is what a caption should contain. It is not good enough to send an e-mail with 5 pictures with the details in the body of the e-mail and just the names of the subjects in the e-mail. Every image must have a full caption that tells you (the reader) everything you need to know about a picture.
Think: Who, What, Where, When (how is sometimes relevant). Also, as well at putting your name in the Copyright field, put your contact details in there also (obvious when you think about it).
A poor Caption: John and Mary in Kinsale. Ansel Adams
How it could read (and help to sell the picture):
14/04/10* John O'Connell, Banteer and Kerry Katona Look-a-like (Moira O'Caroll**, Riverstick get in the spirit of things at the fancy dress garden party held during the Kinsale vintage car rally***. Picture: Ansel Adams.
* Date Taken
** This is why you put your contact details in- so things like unusual (wrong?) spelling can be checked!
*** Better not to say Today, Yesterday, Sunday etc., as the date at the start says this and you don't know when / if the picture will be published.

hoganpoly

What if you havent got photoshop

Paulw

hoganpoly wrote: »

What if you havent got photoshop

Then you need some application that can edit the exif metadata and add the caption info.

Ballyman

There are loads of free ones like Picassa, XnView, Acee Dcee etc. as well as paid ones like Lightroom, Photoshop, Photo Mechanic etc.

I would imagine the vast majority of photo editors, whether they are free or paid, will have some kind of metadata application built in. You can even do it using Windows if you are badly stuck. Very badly stuck!

Thecageyone

I was at a talk in Navan camera club the other night, and the speaker suggested putting your name to every image you upload. Anyone know how to do this in lightroom? , as that's what I normally use. Should you do it for images that you don't plan to sell or submit anywhere? Just in case.

Paulw

Easy to do in Lightroom.

You can always create a Metadata preset, with your own details (copyright, contact, etc).

For adding captions, you do this from the Library mode, Metadata panel on the right. Add the title, caption, copyright info in there.

Thecageyone

Ah cool, found it. You have to be under 'library' not develop mode.

Ballyman

When you've created a Metadata preset with your copyright info it it like mentioned above, then every time you import a pic into Lightroom you can have this preset automatically attached to it so your name etc. is on every pic you have.

Press the Import button and on the bottom of the pop up you have the option to Apply Information. Select the metadata tab and find your preset. This should automatically attach every time in future unless you change it.

ValueInIreland

Thecageyone wrote: »

I was at a talk in Navan camera club the other night, and the speaker suggested putting your name to every image you upload. Anyone know how to do this in lightroom? , as that's what I normally use. Should you do it for images that you don't plan to sell or submit anywhere? Just in case.

I would do it for any image leaving my computer - Even sending to Family or friends - because they can end up anywhere.