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Does your paper have a written set of guidlines.....
Allan Campbell, Photographer, Assistant
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Lake Oswego (Portland) | OR | | Posted: 1:46 PM on 04.16.07 |
->> Does your paper have a written set of guidlines for photographers outlining what they can and can not do? With the recent manipulation problems I was wondering if you could share the policy that is in place at you work.
At the Sports Shooter Academy, Bert (USA Today) talked about how they can slightly tone and crop but that is it. USA Today would not run a wide angle photo with a large amount of distortion. I had used a 14 MM on my 1D and had bent a door frame in a small boxing gym. The tighter crop made for a better picture. USA Today seems to have a very tight set of standards.
Do any of you work for companies that require untouched files be transmited to the Editor? Does Prepress do all of you toning and crops?
Would you be willing to use a tool like Photo Mechanic to indicate your crop and to caption but not tone your photos? Letting the upstream workflow take care of toning and the prepress work?
How tight are the rules where you work? |
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Dick Whipple, Photographer
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 3:33 PM on 04.16.07 |
| ->> Allan, if you go to Poynter.org (http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=47393) you'll see a copy of the Kansas City Star's photo guidelines. At the bottom of the page are links to other newspapers guidelines. This is an excellent resource if you're wanting to establish written policies for your publication. As for the workflow questions, it is my general belief that the least amount of toning of a picture the photogrpaher does, the more informaiton left in the file for prepress to work with. Having said that, there certainly is a wide variety of competece of some prepress departments. It's best to find out what the preferred process is for the publication you're submitting your photos to. |
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Rodrigo Pena, Photographer
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Palm Desert | CA | USA | Posted: 3:38 PM on 04.16.07 |
->> Allan, I dug up our policy for you and have listed it below. It does not address your wide angle question, but here is the policy in place at our newspaper:
PRESS-ENTERPRISE DIGITAL PHOTO MANIPULATION
POLICY STATEMENT
As journalists, we believe that credibility is our greatest asset. In documentary photojournalism, it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way (electronically or in the darkroom) that deceives the public. We believe the guidelines for fair and accurate reporting should be the criteria for judging what may be done electronically to a photograph.
National Press Photographers Association “Code of Ethics”
1. Photographs provide information to our readers, just as the written word.
2. Photographs should never be considered as page decoration or an element to fill space.
3. There will be no digital manipulation of daily news photos under any circumstances, ever. Any digital enhancement, such as color correction, will be only for the purpose of achieving, in reproduction, an image as close to the original as possible. Digital manipulation will only be allowed for feature prsentations and for some news-feature photo illustrations, such as a focus piece for a Perspective cover But the result must be approved by a senior editor and must be clearly labeled as a “digital photo illustration.”
4. Photographs should never mislead the reader. The context of images
must remain obvious to the reader. Photo illustrations have the potential to be misleading. The use of photo illustrations should be done with care and only in consultation with the photo and design editors and senior editors. It is important to label such illustrations as “ photo Illustrations” to not mislead the reader.
5. Any image that is simply cut out isn’t sufficiently manipulated to earn the “photo illustration” label. We respect our readers enough to know that they can see that we dropped out the background. But if we change the photo in any other way, such as adding a new background, fading elements of the background or building a collage of multiple images, then this WILL be considered a photo illustration. And it must be approved by a senior editor.
6. An image that is dropped out or mortissed will be used as is. No cloning or rubber stamping elements to change its shape or character. Other than dropping out the background, the image must not be “improved” or changed in any way. If you feel there is a sound reason to change an image, it must be approved by the director of photography or the AME/presentation and it must be labeled as a photo illustration. In the absence of the director of photography or the AME/presentation, such efforts must be approved by the deputy managing editor or the editor.
7. Never “fix” a photo by doing such things as cutting out a foreground element that obscures the image, re-sharpening a portion of an image or blurring an apparent flaw. If you’re concerned about something that appears to be a flaw in a photo, take your concerns to a photo editor.
8. When the idea to alter an image arises, take the time to do a reality check!
a. Is this really a good idea?
b. Will readers be confused?
c. Do others get the point?
d. And ALWAYS: Kick the idea up to the next editing level for review. Design editors: If it’s anything outside the norm, please pass along to the photo director AME for design for approval. We edit as a team – when we veer outside our design boundaries, make sure the whole team buys in. In the absence of the director of photography or the AME/presentation, such efforts must be approved by the deputy managing editor or the editor.
9. In all other cases, the overriding rule will be that the reader should never be misled. Any sports photo, feature photo or portrait should never be manipulated in such a way so as to be undetectable to the reader. Removal of items from a photo, the addition of items, or repositioning of items, done in a way that would lead the reader to believe that the photo depicts reality, is strictly forbidden. Any other manipulation should be approved by the director of photography or the AME/presentation, and should always be labeled as a `digital photo illustration.' In the absence of the director of photography or the AME/presentation, such efforts must be approved by the deputy managing editor or the editor.
I hope this helps, Best wishes, Rodrigo Pena |
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Robert Hanashiro, Photographer
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Los Angeles | CA | | Posted: 9:28 PM on 04.16.07 |
->> I would assume most newspapers have ethics and practices guidelines covering things from altering photographs to employee conduct to conflict of interest.
Unfortunately there is no "universal" or "standard" ethics practices document out there for our business.
Many newspapers might balk at the fisheye effect ... straight lines in photographs curved ... and some might find it acceptable. Some allow publication of grossly (on purpose) tilted photographs. Many do not.
I know a lot of this stuff is "common sense"... like you do not alter reality. But there are things like curved lines and tilts that are considered borderline on the "common sense" scale.
If your newspaper does not have ethical guidelines established and written down, they should.
If anything, it is a good vehicle for discussion of these issues among staffers and editors. And establishing what's accectable and more importantly unaccectable could save your job one day! |
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Steve Russell, Photographer
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Toronto | ON | Canada | Posted: 9:57 PM on 04.16.07 |
->> Mr Whipple is right,
The Poynter link he supplied really helped us at our paper craft a Code of Ethics regarding photography.
Our photography code is the result of staff input and incorporates materials sourced from the Austin American-Statesman, NPPA, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, St. Petersburg Times and The Washington Post.
Our Code of Ethics is displayed on the "photo" section of our website at
http://www.thestar.com/article/145048 |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 10:50 PM on 04.16.07 |
->> The basic principle in the several ethics policies that I've written or contributed to was that an image not mislead the reader. If you're going to retouch an image, make it grossly obvious that the image has been retouched and explain it in the caption.
It's impossible to addrss the many techniques that one might employ in production or post-production. But if you follow the principle of "Don't mislead," you're going to be golden nearly every time.
--Mark |
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