Cropping your photos?

Do you crop your photos when sending them to a company? This is my first time sending photos to a company requesting them, and I am not sure if I send the cropped edit or the original and let the company edit them and crop them. What should I do? Need to know ASAP - tonight...

Thanks

-Alan

It really depends. The "better" companies have their own art department. Art departments consist of a staff that work full-time with images. They process images and create graphic designs for a living. When sending images to these companies, you really need to send the entire image. These people will know a cropped image instantly, and sending a cropped image makes yo look like a real amateur. Trust me, I have learned this the hard way.

If you are sending to a company that does not have full time, professional graphics staff, then chances are they will never know you are sending a cropped version of the image.

Another thing to remember is not to sharpen any images you submit. This is another thing that raises the red "AMATEUR" flag immediately. No professional designers or art directors want to receive an image that has already been sharpened - they like to do this themselves, according to their preferences and output size.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #16626019
It really depends. The "better" companies have their own art department. Art departments consist of a staff that work full-time with images. They process images and create graphic designs for a living. When sending images to these companies, you really need to send the entire image. These people will know a cropped image instantly, and sending a cropped image makes yo look like a real amateur. Trust me, I have learned this the hard way.

If you are sending to a company that does not have full time, professional graphics staff, then chances are they will never know you are sending a cropped version of the image.

Another thing to remember is not to sharpen any images you submit. This is another thing that raises the red "AMATEUR" flag immediately. No professional designers or art directors want to receive an image that has already been sharpened - they like to do this themselves, according to their preferences and output size.

So what should one do when being asked just to email the images? I have never had to send images before and I did my edits and crop to make the photo the way I wanted it to be seen. They never said anything about sending just a raw file and I honestly never thought about sending anything other than what I edited.

As I said, it depends on who you are sending them to. Is it a large company with it's own imaging & design/art department? Or is it a small company where the person doing layout just does it part-time along with all of their other non-photo-related duties? The answer to this will determine how you should process the files prior to emailing them.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #16626132
As I said, it depends on who you are sending them to. Is it a large company with it's own imaging & design/art department? Or is it a small company where the person doing layout just does it part-time along with all of their other non-photo-related duties? The answer to this will determine how you should process the files prior to emailing them.

Pretty sure its scenario B that you described. The mag is a side project for him. Obviously, if he came back to me and requested something different I'd do that but as it stands I just did what I would normally do to edit and process them how I wanted them to appear visually.

It also depends on what type of image and what it will be used for. Journalistic images aren't retouched, advertising image are etc.

the flying moose wrote in post #16626118
So what should one do when being asked just to email the images? I have never had to send images before and I did my edits and crop to make the photo the way I wanted it to be seen. They never said anything about sending just a raw file and I honestly never thought about sending anything other than what I edited.

Make sure you have a payment agreement with them.

Send an invoice with the images.

If they saw the images from your website, or wherever, I would provide the exact images they saw without cropping.

Naturalist wrote in post #16626428
Make sure you have a payment agreement with them.

Send an invoice with the images.

If they saw the images from your website, or wherever, I would provide the exact images they saw without cropping.

Thanks for the advice but these photos were being taken for them. All that stuff had already been taken care of.

the flying moose wrote in post #16626179
Pretty sure its scenario B that you described. The mag is a side project for him. Obviously, if he came back to me and requested something different I'd do that but as it stands I just did what I would normally do to edit and process them how I wanted them to appear visually.

Maybe I'm being dense, but have you asked the customer?

-F

You probably should consult with them to determine the shape of the "hole" in the page in which they intend to user your photos. It doesnt make much sense for you to crop to one aspect ratio only to find they plan on using another. If you have a good relationship with these folks work with them to get the best crops that will work with them.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16627059
You probably should consult with them to determine the shape of the "hole" in the page in which they intend to user your photos. It doesnt make much sense for you to crop to one aspect ratio only to find they plan on using another. If you have a good relationship with these folks work with them to get the best crops that will work with them.

+1 This is true even when you are dealing with a good art department. Larger enterprises will, in fact, often have some rather detailed requirements/suggestio​ns not only on aspect ratio but color space, etc.