Do you remember when photo shops started offering one-hour service on developing film and making prints? What an advancement we thought that was! Today with digital photography every moment can be photographed and seen in an instant. A photo can be shared on social media or with Grandma hundreds of miles away in just minutes. Digital photography has made such a huge impact on society and publications like our very own Hermann Sons Life newspaper.

While we still receive printed photographs, the majority of the photographs the Hermann Sons Life newspaper publishes are now digital photos received through email. The hard photo prints we do receive are scanned and turned into a digital format.

I edit each and every photo. I convert color photos to black and white, crop, size, adjust brightness and sharpness, all in an effort to achieve the best image for reproduction in the Hermann Sons Life newspaper.

Most of the photos we receive can be edited and reproduced just fine, but others not so much. Communications Director Kathie Ninneman and I never want to reject a photo due to poor quality, but unfortunately it does happen from time to time.

As a journalism major in college, I was required to take a couple of photography classes. These classes were not my favorite and I am in no way a professional photographer – and that was way before digital photography! But over the years I have learned a bit about what it takes to create a good-looking photo for our newspaper.    

The most common problem with un-publishable digital photos or poor quality photos is they are just too small so they become blurry and distorted when sized for the newspaper – the resolution is not high enough. You can see in these photos the result of higher and lower resolution. A higher resolution and width size will always get better results. Now I could get into DPI (dots in printing) and PPI (pixels per inch) but it can get quite detailed. There are countless sources online on how to adjust size and resolution. Your camera’s manual also has information to help adjust your camera’s settings.

In basic terms, resolution is the quality of the image. As the resolution goes up, the image becomes more clear, sharper, more defined and more detailed.

We need your photos to be a large file size for the newspaper. In general, your images should have a resolution of 150 to 200 dpi for newspaper print. Always check your camera settings before you shoot and select the highest resolution and largest file your camera has. Digital cameras generally create images with a resolution of 72. We can accept photos with a resolution of 72 but only if the width is large. If your photo is at a 72 resolution and you crop and reduce it to about two inches wide and email it to us, when I re-size it for the newspaper it will become so distorted it won’t work at all. It should be at least 10 inches wide if at a resolution of 72.

Now if you are going to put a photo online, let’s say for your lodge’s website page or Facebook page, the resolution and file formats for these images need to be much smaller than for print images so they can load quickly. A good size would be 72 resolution and about 4 to 5 inches wide. Most image editing software gives you an “optimize for web” option – this will take care of it for you.

Here are some more guidelines for submitting photos to the Hermann Sons Life newspaper:

• When shooting your photo, make sure all subjects are well-lit. When using a flash, be sure to keep some distance between you and your subject(s).

• Watch for movement. It can be hard to notice motion while shooting but a blurry photo will be the result.

• Be aware of the background behind your subjects – are there deer antlers on a wall that in the photo will appear to be growing out of your subject’s head?

• Avoid very large groups. The individuals will be so small they will be hard to see if at all. It’s better to shoot smaller groups if possible. This is especially true with large dance classes performing on stage. You will get a much better photo if you focus in on two or three dancers instead of the entire stage.

• The closer you are to your subjects the better.

• Shoot more than once – this will give you options for choosing the very best photo.

• Please do not print out your photo on your home printer and submit a copy – paper copies do not reproduce well at all.

• We can accept cell phone photos if they are good quality – high resolution. When sending a photo from your phone use “actual size” or the “large” option.

• Submitting color photos is fine – I will convert them to black and white.

• When submitting a printed photo please do not submit photos smaller than wallet-size.

• Always provide a brief description of what’s happening in each of your photos and identify all the subjects.

• Photos should always include a person. I know Kathie will not run a photo of just a cake - even if it’s the lodge’s 100th anniversary!

A poor quality photo will probably look even worse once printed in the newspaper. I try very hard to edit and improve each photo but if it’s a bad photo to begin with, it just will not print well.

Keep in mind photos submitted to the Hermann Sons Life newspaper may be used on our website, Facebook, for sales materials or for advertising.

If you are unsure about sizing your photos or have any other questions, please contact me and I will be happy to help you.