Tips for submitting your freelance portfolio to photo editors

Looking for freelance work and sending a CD portfolio to potential employers?

National Post is a newspaper with very small photo staff and relies heavily on freelancers. On almost daily basis we receive freelance portfolios on CDs. As associate photo editor in the paper, I was exposed to many of those portfolios and, on more than a few occasions I admired the courage of photographers competing for work in a newspaper with wedding picture portfolios or family pictures. Here are some of the things to have in mind when putting together a photojournalistic portfolio:

1. Inform yourself about the type of the publication you are sending your CD to. Buy a few issues, or browse them in the library, but pay attention to what kind of pictures and what styles are used. While self-confidence is certainly a good thing to have, be realistic when judging whether your skills can produce the quality of photography the publication uses. If needed, try to get an opinion of someone you can trust to be realistic.

2. Now that your friends assured you that you are better than those guys who already work for the paper, put together about 20 to 30 of your best photos which fit the profile of the publication. For example, the Post is heavy user of nicely lit business portraits, so we expect to see a variety of such pictures in a portfolio. Some other newspapers use more news photos or features, so assemble your work accordingly. However, do not send ONLY one kind of photos. Approximately one third of the selection should showcase the publication-style photos. Remaining two thirds should contain your best work, showing versatility and skill.

3. Now that you have a selection of pictures ready to send, you need to put them on a CD. Some photographers include a slide show program, some send photos as .eps files (for reason beyond my comprehension). Photo editors are usually too busy or too impatient to go through the process of learning how to use another application or converting and decompressing oversized files. Therefore, keep it small and keep it simple. You are sending a CD, that means your pictures will be viewed on a computer screen. Keep the files at 72dpi, that is enough resolution for the screen. Save them as jpeg - that is the most common format which can be viewed in any application.

Many photographers are trying to impress by using fancy slide-show programs, or even sending slide shows as movies. It could be a big mistake not to give the editor an option to pause on some photos. To my experience, the best presentation is a simple, self-contained web gallery on a CD. Always include captions with your photos. Adobe Photoshop and many other photo manipulating software can create html (or web) pages with caption extracted from IPTC ("file info") data of the photograph. Such portfolio is simple, clear and can be viewed on any computer platform in any web browser. Make sure to mark your "index" or start page file clearly. Something like "start_here.html" is good.

4. The last thing - make sure to include all your contact information. Preferably, write or print them on the label of your CD.

For more tips on interviewing with photo editors, please check previous post.

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Workflow tip: how to expedite picture editing

My system for quick editing and filing on deadline

As an addition to my previous post about editing photos after an assignment, here is the system I developed which helped me file fast and never miss the deadline. To save time, I do not import photos into Photoshop until I have picked my final selection in PhotoMechanic.

1. Copy all photos from memory cards to the computer. Unless absolutely necessary, avoid editing from the memory card – it is faster to browse through pictures residing on the computer than through a card-reading device. It also removes the possibility of the files getting damaged while being read and re-saved from the card. I usually shoot with two cameras and copy pictures from both cards to two separate folders on my lap top.

2. Using picture browser (I use PhotoMechanic), edit pictures in one folder, choose (“tag” in PhotoMechanic) the photos you like, then copy them into a new folder. To avoid having files overwritten if another file has the same filename, I rename selected files using PhotoMechanic’s copy-and-rename function. Repeat the process with photos from another folder and copy the selection into the same location.

3. Open the folder with all selected pictures in image browser (PhotoMechanic) and batch caption them with a generic caption for that assignment. Names and particulars will be added later. Make the final selection by picking only the pictures you consider the best.
Here I quote Stephen King from his book “On Writing” – when re-editing his manuscript he advises to “kill your darlings,” meaning to be merciless editor of your own work and kill all unnecessary photos. Leave only the best of the best. Try to imagine what would you like to see in the paper as a reader. If you have doubts whether a photo is good enough to be published, it probably isn’t.

4. Open the final selection in Photoshop for color correcting, cropping and final captioning. My generic caption contains the location, date and the event description which will be the second sentence of my AP-style caption (check my previous post on proper captioning). In this step I add the first sentence, containing the names and description of what is in picture.

5. Send pictures via ftp or any other method your employer uses. Try to send all edited pictures at once so the editors can see the whole selection and make the final choice for publication. If the pictures are arriving with long gaps between the two (i.e. some colleagues prefer to send each picture after they correct it in Photoshop and before they move onto the next one) the chances are that the ones you sent first will be picked even if they are not the best.

6. (Optional) Since you saved time following this method, pack your equipment and go to have a drink! If you find these tips useful, you are welcome to buy me one too. :)

Editing photographs: do not overfile, do not underfile, but where is the middle ground?

How many photos from an event should be sent to the editors?

In already forgotten times of film photography, the restricting factor was amount of film used, which needed to be processed, then scanned. Photographers shot less and edited their materials more carefully, resulting in less pictures on the editor’s desk. Digital cameras changed all of that. Now photographers, liberated by practically unlimited storage for digital pictures, shoot hundreds of frames in an event that used to be shot on a single roll of film – that’s 36 frames for those out there unfamiliar with that artifact. The editors, in turn, end up going through dozens of, for example, portraits, differing from each other by a slight tilt of a subject’s head. When photographers can not decide between several almost identical frames, they tend to send them all to the editors. And, just as often, they complain afterwards: “why did they use that picture, when I gave them the better one?” The fact is – you gave them the lousy one too!

Each of us out on the field has the opportunity to control the quality of pictures that are being used. We just need to make sure only the best photos are sent to the editor. Usually, one shot per situation is enough. Instead of sending a “variety” of similar shots with insignificant changes in detail, focus on creating different situations by changing the angle, lights, background, scene, or the pose of your subject. The same rule goes for portraits too, unless the subject’s expression changes radically between frames. Even then, one shot of each different expression should suffice – one smiling shot, one serious shot, one crying shot, etc.

In newspapers world, from a smaller event involving small number of subjects, i.e. news conferences, portraits, etc., 5 pictures is often enough, in choice of vertical and horizontal shapes whenever possible. It all changes, of course, with the importance of the event – if there is a chance that the event will be considered for the front page, wider selection would be wise – another 3-5 strong pictures, for example.
Bigger events such as protests, celebrations and similar, with many different participants, will need more pictures. From my experience, a choice of 10 good shots including verticals and horizontals, details and overalls, is usually enough. The questions I ask the editor when being sent on an assignments were:
- How big are we playing the event? or How many pictures are expected from it? – meaning how much space for coverage the newspaper has? If it’s a one-picture story, it falls under small event.
- How many photographers from our paper are going to be there? – if there are more of us shooting the same event, we should edit tighter and send less pictures each than if only one is covering the whole thing.
- Do we need filers from it? – file pictures, to be used later, can be sent separately.

Magazines operate under different rules. Magazine photo editors prefer wider selection of photographs per story to choose from. That means wider variety of different situations, rather than greater number of similar shots. To establish exactly how many is too many, the best way is to talk to the photo editor when starting a new job for a magazine, or a newspaper.

As a conclusion, how many photos we file from each shoot draws an image of what kind of professional we are:
Sending too many photos usually shows inexperience and/or indecisiveness. It could be justified if a photographer didn’t have enough time for proper edit and decided to rather give too much than not enough.
Sending too few photos shows hastiness and/or a photographer unfamiliar with the need of employer.
To find the balance, get familiar with the need of the publication and the style of photographs it uses, then talk to the photo editor about how many is enough photos per assignment.

Guidelines to proper photo captions

All you need to know about captioning your photographs, but never bothered to ask

You shot that awesome image, but didn’t have time to caption it! Sure, it made the front page, but now it sits in eternal darkness of digital archives with no one able to find it, because the caption is incomplete or the names are misspelled.

As a photographer, I found that the least thrilling part of preparing the pictures for filing to the editors was – captioning it. Only when I started working the desk as an editor and a researcher, I realized how important proper caption is. Whether working on staff in a newspaper, magazine or an agency, or as a freelancer hitting the market all by yourself, same rules apply – the more terms relevant to your picture are included in caption, the more likely a photo researcher or a potential customer will find it. After all, the main purpose is to have a good photograph used more than once, which means it has to be easy to find.
Since all the search goes through the text embedded with the photograph as a caption, IPTC or file info, a standard widely accepted in the English speaking photography market is the AP (Associated Press) captioning standard:

The caption should follow a simple formula. The first sentence describes what the photo shows, as well as when and where it was made. The second sentence gives background or other significant information. The caption should end like this: (Photographer's Name/Newspaper Name).

Student’s guide to AP Style Photo Captions gives a following example and explanation:

Victory signs held high, Peggy Broxterman leaves federal court in Denver, Monday, June 2, 1997, after a jury convicted Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Broxterman’s son was killed in the blast that claimed 168 lives. (Photo/Kevin Moloney)

Your caption MUST answer these questions:
1. WHO is in the picture? Are the names spelled correctly with the correct name on the correct person? Are ages included for minors?
2. WHAT is in the picture? Complete the story.
3. WHEN? The DATE the picture was taken, including the day of the week, day and year must appear in the body of all captions. Your images will be history some day.
4. WHERE was it taken? Be specific. Follow AP style for geographic locations. Use city, state and country.
5. WHY? Explain the circumstances, but avoid hyperbole. Remove as many adjectives as possible from the final caption.
6. Is it specific?
7. Is it easy to read?
8. Is it grammatically correct and written in AP style?
9. Did you check your spelling? Avoid spell checkers. Use a stylebook and a dictionary.

Captions are generally made of two parts, each composed of one or more sentences. The first part, almost always written in present tense, describes the action seen in the photo (see the first complex sentence in the above example). The second part gives context to the image. This part is usually written in past tense (see the second sentence in the example) and describes why the action, situation or content of the picture is important or interesting. NEVER WRITE A CAPTION WITHOUT HAVING THE PICTURE IN FRONT OF YOU!

Using Adobe Photoshop’s File Info, here are captioning guidelines for all IPTC fields:

Description
1. Document Title: either the assignment name or the name of the photo,
2. Description: this is the caption field - it needs to be AP style, completely filled out (5 W's & H), with complete ID's on all subjects within the photo
3. The Caption Writer (“Description Writer”) box should list the initials of the writer.
4. Keywords: any words that might give a basic description of the photo
5. Copyright Status: slide the menu so that it reads copyrighted. With this option it places a copyright symbol © at the top window bar of the photo when the document is opened
6. Copyright Notice: Your Name/Source, © and Year.

Origin
1. Date Created: the date the image was made,
2. City: the city the image was made,
3. State/Province: the state or province the image was made
4. Country: the country the image was made,
5. Credit: you, the photographer
6. Source: institution or publication the image was made for
7. Special Instructions should list things such as, Stand Alone Photo if it is a feature, date of file photo, advance line or outs and limitations (i.e. "INTERNET OUT").