Photos Art

COM 365

Graphics I

guidelines

• Every photo should have center of interest– In focus, well composed

• Every photo should look natural– Not people pretending to do things

• Every photo should have cutline

• Ideally every face should be at least size of a dime

Bad photos (and solutions)

The guy at his desk:Need a pic of him doing something besides pretending to talk on the phone.

Chuck Chen, who came to the United States from Taiwan in 1979, transformed a $2,000 investment into a $ 10 million computer company, which he runs with his wife, Mei Fan (center).

The bored meeting:Find out what meeting is about, then go shoot a photo to illustrate that. Or use mug shots with liftout quotes. Or…

Photo of a hearing, conducted by a local Congressman, related to military research and development.

Emma Totheroh, 7, shines light on the page while her dad, Todd Totheroh, both from Bloomington, reads The Best Mother Goose Ever to her during Camp-Read-A-Lot at Fox Creek Elementary School. The school was named the first Blue Ribbon school in McLean County.

The execution at dawn:Need a shot of these award winners actually doing what makes them newsworthy.

The “grip and grin”:Again, need a photo of what makes them award winners. Otherwise just run a mug shot.

Bad photos (more solutions)

• Crop more aggressively than normal• Reshoot• Use other art

– Chart, map, liftout quote, etc.

• Bury it– Use small, down the page

• Do without

Humor: “Muppet” rides in a small wagon being pulled by an antique tractor driven by Dave Weidner, during the 2006 Schaumburg Septemberfest parade. By Mark Black, Daily Herald (HM 2007 POY)

Good pictures

Sports: Mesquite High football players Jeremy Hernandez (3), Jamaal Washington (2), Brian McGee (33), Greg Greene (34) and Dionne Dumas (21) sit in the hallway outside their locker room after their loss to Allen in the playoffs. By Louis DeLuca, Dallas Morning News (2nd Place, POY 2007)

News: The lifeless bodies of children killed by the Israeli bombing of Qana are rushed from the scene to waiting ambulances. At least 16 children were killed in the July 30th attack on Qana. By Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times (First Place, POY 2007)

• Studio shots: Used for features, fashion, portraits for personality profiles

Portraits of men who played in the Negro

Baseball League when it was the only place they could play by Michael Bryant, Philadelphia

Inquirer.

Photo illustration for story about the dangers of online cyber predators. These cyber predators pretend to be young to gain the trust of their victims. By Kyle Green, The Roanoke Times (HM POY 2007)

• Photo illustrations: Photo created in which actors, props are posed to make a point.

Food Illustration for story on avocados. By Patrick Tehan, The San Jose Mercury News. (1st Place, POY 2004)

Photo Illustration for story on breast cancer. By Arthur Hochstein for Time. (1st Place, POY 2004)

Sizing photos

• Photos need to be enlarged / reduced proportionately

• Otherwise become distorted

• In other words if you change the height dimension to 125% then the width dimension must also be changed to 125%

Enlarged proportionately

>>

Enlarged disproportionately

Height greater than width

Width greater than height

>>

Halftone• To print continuous tone art/photos need to

reduce photos to series of dots• Halftones made by

shooting print thru special screen or reprocessing photo digitally

• Rows or lines of dots measured by lines per inch

• dpi - number of dots a digital image contains• lpi - number of dots per inch in a halftone screen• The dpi should be twice the lpi

– If you print at 100 lpi, then scan/save at 200 dpi

– Newspapers: save 200 dpi, print 85-100 lpi

– Magazines: save 300 dpi; print 133-150 lpi

– Internet: 72 dpi

Dot gain

• Difference in paper contributes to dot gain– Newsprint

• Most dot gain• Highly porous and course• Dot gain of about 20%

– Coated paper (used by magazines)• Paper given a varnished coat which helps seal the paper and

results in less dot gain• 8% dot gain• Need this to print high quality photos, art

File formats• jpeg

– Compresses file by discarding redundant pixels

– Can save at various quality levels

– Reduces files to about 1/12th of original size

– Used for emailing and posting online

• tiff– Common format for saving and printing digital images

Types of art

• Line art– Composed of solid blacks and whites

Who is More in Tune?Leopoldo Mendez, 1932, Woodcut

• Grayscale (b&w photo)– Uses up to 256 different shades of gray

Photo spreads

• Keep one photo dominant• Use display headline• Keep text blocks modular• Use a grid• Add a little white space

Photos

UVUVUVUV

UVUVUVUV

The page on the left looks dull

because the art is all the same size and shape. The

page on the right mixes shapes and sizes and looks far more interesting.

weak good

UVUVUVUV

UVUVUVUV

The page on the left seems bottom heavy and poorly

balanced. The page on the right

uses the same elements, but uses

the dominant photo at the top.

weak good

UVUVUVUV

On the page on the left one cutline

butts up against the headline,

another against a leg of text. On the right page both problems have

been fixed, resulting in a cleaner look

weak good

Cutlines

UVUVUVUV

On the page on the left one cutline

butts up against the headline,

another against a leg of text. On the right page both problems have

been fixed, resulting in a cleaner look

weak good

White space

UVUVUVU UVUVUVU

Trapped white space