Choosing, editing graphics

Choosing photos

• Try to find the image that helps the reader the most understand the news. Your photog will likely provide you with either a photo or a choice.

• You make sure image size isn’t too small to do any good (or too large, don’t use image just to fill up space) when you crop/design

If your photo is your dominant piece of art and it is horizontal, plan to run it at least 3 columns wide. If your dominant photo is vertical, run it as least two-three columns wide. Vertical photos more than three columns wide take up massive amounts of space and are rarely used except in special layouts.

If the photo is to be used as secondary art – that is the second or third photo on the page – it should be large enough to make visual sense but not so large that it competes with the dominant photo for the viewer’s eye. If the secondary photo is horizontal, size it for two columns. Larger will work only if the dominant photo is four or five columns wide. If a secondary photo is vertical, try it in one or two columns. (Mug shots often used to draw reader into story. Can be small, even ¾ inch by 1 inch.)

Standalone photos

Instead of a story, you use a visual and a longer cutline.

Packaging photos

Can have more than one photo for a story. Make sure one is more dominant than the other. Try for variety (i.e. not same distance, etc.) And do it well.

Mugshots

Use your judgment. Good to break up text. Good if people might want to know what someone looks like. Don’t overdo it.

Online

• Photos likely will be a size to match a template

You can also package online

Photo illustrations

They need to be done well. This was not.

• Once you’ve selected and sized an image, now you must decide how to crop

• Rule 1: Learn the “rule of thirds” – draw an imaginary tic-tac-toe board and crop it so key images are closer to the intersections of the lines than the center of the picture.– Example: Guadalupe

• Rule 2: Watch out for square pictures – usually less interesting than horizontal or vertical. So second guess self when cropping in a square.

• Rule 3: Give moving objects a place to go: leave space in front, etc. – Example: bike

• Rule 4: Be careful when amputating body parts, don’t hack at joints, i.e. elbows, knees

• Rule 5: Pictures are not made of rubber. If they are too short, etc., you can’t pull. Pictures must be enlarged proportionally, if increase height, must increase width.

Rule 6

• Placement. Never separate the headline and start of story with photo.

Editing informational graphics

• Presenting information in boxes provides additional points of entry into stories and additional info for people to scan

• Copy editors watch for info in stories that could be told in boxes, i.e. tabular data, pull-out quotes, helpful hints

• While the responsibility of boxes falls on copy desk or graphics desk, at growing number of papers, reporters are encourage to prepare the boxes. Reporters at least encouraged to have an idea for graphic from start to avoid ordering last minute and having sub-par graphics

• Editors must remember to check graphics for grammar, misspellings, facts, if information in graphic is different than in story.

10 principles for editing graphics

1)Assume nothing2)Doublecheck any sequence of numbers or

letters, can be transposed or omitted3)Make sure text and references in graphics

correspond and agree. The reporter and graphic artist could have used different sources/year, etc. for material

4) Reread all headlines, letter by letter5) Use a calculator to check numbers in charts

and tables6) Use an atlas or map to doublecheck the

location and spellings of cities, counties, roads, etc.

7) Don’t skip anything, even credit line8) Again, be extra careful with first headline,

line, etc. Errors here especially noticeable9) Read every word, if little, letter by letter, if

longer, syllable by syllable10) Familiarity breeds contempt – can always

ask for another set of eyes to look at it.

Graphics check