Images For Submission to Newspapers

I just thought I would ask what methods you adopt for reducing image size in order to submit to publications(newspaper​s primarily). At present I set the image to a resolution of 300 and then use the "save for web" option on photoshop to reduce the size at 100% quality down to say 500k or thereabouts.Is there a better/faster way?

Regards

Nigel

I generally go for 25cm along the longest edge, at 200dpi. It seems to be what most papers I deal with want.

RAW files seem to start life at various DPI .. well the ones I have just looked at seem different. JPG start at 72 it would seem.. In photohop how do you change res without changing sizes?

For newspapers, crop the image to approx 2000 pixels along the longest edge and save at jpeg quality 8... that will do the job 95% of the time. File size will vary (mainly) depending on the ISO... but it'll generally fall somewhere in the 350-600Kb bracket.

The dots per inch dpi figure is a bit of a red herring. You don't need to worry about modifying the dpi figure (or pixels per inch ppi figure for that matter)... changing it won't make any difference to the image you're sending over (errr... unless you resample the image - not recommended and generally not necessary). All you need to worry about are the physical dimensions in pixels... i.e. are there enough pixels for the printer to work with?

So, if you submit an image to a paper that is 2000 pixels across and the publication wants to print it at 200dpi, that means they can print it at 10" across... i.e. 2000/200 = 10.

Enough waffling for now!

EDIT: OK... more waffling. If a publication specifically asks you to send an image at, say, 300dpi, make sure you ask them how big they are likely to print it You could send them an image that is 300 pixels across... and, yep, that would print at 1" wide at, yep, 300dpi but 300 pixels would be no good if they wanted to print it at A4 (11" x 8" approx)... then you'd need to send 3300 pixels along the longest edge... i.e. 3300/300 = 11".

---- Gavin

In the days of hard copy the answer was easy, now it is all digital I find that different magazines and newspapers have different standards. So far I've found it has paid to make a quick phonecall the first time I'm supplying pictures to a particular magazine and then note what they prefer. Seems to depend upon the quality of the magazine or paper whether they want TIFF or JPG. Sometimes they specify a size and/or other requirements that you can usually adjust under IMAGE>IMAGE SIZE. Occasionally it has been they need it quickly so it goes as an attachment but more often where speed is not of the essence they like a CD.

UK newspapers will be more than happy with an image that is around 2000px along the longest edge. It's also a manageable size for transmission from location by FTP or e-mail on deadline. If your image is likely to end up on the front cover or splashed across two pages (and you'll probably have an idea that this may happen), you might want to send a slightly bigger file

I should say that I've never come across a newspaper that has requested a TIFF file... but then again I've never been published in a glossy magazine type supplement

Yep, for high quality, glossy magazines, all bets are off and larger file sizes can be required... and, sometimes, in a TIFF format rather than a jpeg. I have had a few clients that have specifically requested images at 300dpi to print at 15" across... therefore I have had to up-res the original file slightly using specialised software.

---- Gavin

My local once a week paper never make any rules.. they take anything and it prints well... had some big back page pics in colour and look well even original jpg so would ahve been 72

But a daily paper I do for now say MAX 20cmW 15cmH and MIN 100dpi
DPI must effect file size.. so how best to set to 100dpi without effecting cm size?

DPI relates to the printer - i.e. it's an end user parameter.

As a photographer, you can just work with the actual pixel dimensions of the image.

Put it this way...

If you size an image at 1000 pixels across, the end-user could do any of the following:

Print at 10" across at 100dpi
Print at 5" across at 200dpi
Print at 2" across at 500dpi
Print at 1" across at 1000dpi

...and so on... and so on... an infinite set of possibilities.

As a rule of thumb, newspaper images will be printed at 150-200dpi. Therefore an image at 2000 pixels across will print (pretty well) to 10", i.e. 2000/200 = 10.

Technically speaking, we (the photographers) can deal (if we want to) in pixels per inch (PPI) whilst the printer will deal in dots per inch (DPI). You can simply relate their DPI requirements to the image dimensions you send them.

In a nutshell, PPI is an (arbitrary) software feature (it's a measurement of Resolution) and DPI is a feature of the printing hardware.

You can try it yourself in PhotoShop: Go to Image > Image Size, makes sure the 'resample image' box is NOT checked, and then change the PPI (Resolution) to your heart's content, the pixel dimensions and, as a result, the file size will NOT be altered.

EDIT: If you check the 'resample image' box and then modify the PPI, you are adding/subtracting information to/from the image which will inevitably have an impact on the quality. The file size WILL be altered and that is a result of changing the actual number of pixels within the image. Again, you can experiment with this in PhotoShop and see what I mean.

---- Gavin

Should have made this clearer.

One art director said she wanted 600dpi and 45MB TIFF. When published it was approx. 4inches square! And comparison with similar quality magazines could easily have been coaser than 200dpi. They don't always know what they need as compared with what they want.

Sorry.. I do tend to panick post sometimes when I should do more experimenting first... then panick post

Thank you for those answers, so next question.....what do you use to resize.....just photoshop or is there something better to resize a number of files quickly?

I tend to use ACDSee for general viewing, resizing and renaming batch files
www.acdsee.com

OK as this comes under the subject header... whats the score re sports pictures to more than one newspaper.. lets say paper A and B both want pics from a game.. is it OK to send same. should it be agreed first that they are unique or ? Do you just send all publications the best or a couple each?

Editors expect exclusivity from a single photographer.

In my experience it is only when you happen to be the only photographer present at a major news event or something unrepeateable that they accept the stock images that you've supplied to everybody else, but you should tell them that this is what's happening. Very unforgiving lot if you haven't been open with them, editors, they're under a lot of pressure to be first or best.

What about running it through noise reduction software after you resize it? Does that help much or make things worse for the paper?