pictures for articles

[chillies]

Thanks for all the input re: ' A ' and  ' AN ' Here's a more general question:
When you are writing an article for a magazine and they suggest that pictures can be included, but do not specify in what form i.e. printed off or still in the digital card etc... what would you send them?

I am intending to purchase a digital camara, so that I can send of said pictures as I write articles - someone told me my work would stand a better chance of being accepted if acompanied with photos.

Also, What type of camera should I look for as far as Megapixles are concerned, I am certainly no photographer.

[SuzieHarris]

Hi Chillies,

As a rule, if you send for the writer's guidelines from your intended magazine - which you should always send for first, in my opinion - it will cover this issue.

As for the digital camera, go for the best you can afford. There are some pretty good deals on 7 megapixel cameras atm, but try to stay away from 'interpolated' ones, it means the megapixel number would only be possible via the software. Try to go for a 'true' megapixel camera for the best results.

In the UK Jessops (www.jessops.co.uk) have a wide range, offer finance, and are very helpful.

Suzie x

[Nick]

Usually nowadays magazines DO stipulate what form they prefer photos to be sent in. This info will appear in the magazine's writers' guidelines, which quite often nowadays are published on the web. If no information is provided, I would always ask the editor what he/she prefers. A quick phone call or e-mail should be sufficient to establish this.

One thing NOT to do is send a lot of full-size digital photos unsolicited in a huge 1MB-plus e-mail. The chances are that it will blocked by the recipient's e-mail system anyway, but if it is not the editor will simply curse you for tying up all her bandwidth. A common method nowadays with digital pix is to send low-resolution 'thumbnails' by e-mail in the first instance. If the editor likes what she sees, she may then ask you to burn the full-size photos to a CD and send it by post. Some editors do still prefer colour transparencies though.

As regards cameras, I'd say any modern digital camera with a resolution of 5 MP or better will be more than sufficient for the average article writer, unless you really intend to get into photography in a serious way.

Finally, could I just mention that my course Quick Cash Writing has an entire module devoted to photography, which goes into much more detail than I have been able to do here. More details at www.quickcashwriting.com.

Hope this helps,

Nick GM

[robert1704]

Hi Nick,

I am Robert. A very short reply. When you take a picture with your digital camera for a magazine, according my experience, a jpeg with high resolution will mostly do.

Robert