Photo Submission Guidelines

Film

Film (positive or negative transparencies) is still our preferred format. As yet, digital cameras do not provide the continuous tone quality and colour control that traditional film offers.

Use professional, fine grain film. We highly recommend Fuji Provia 100f or 400f. Use a professional photo lab for all processing as well. Shoot at various exposures (bracket) with an eye to retaining shadow and highlight details, especially in direct sunlight.

Digital

To achieve the best quality for our production requirements we require that all digital photos be submitted in ‘RAW’ format. Most higher quality digital cameras now offer this format in your image quality settings. If you are unsure that your camera is capable of shooting in RAW format consult your manual or your camera manufacturers website.

DO NOT COMPRESS, CONVERT or ALTER YOUR RAW FILES IN ANY WAY. (We will take care of that at our end.) Please ensure that your camera is capable of shooting at a resolution of 5 megapixels or greater to ensure sufficient file size and image dimension for reproduction.

If you cannot provide us with RAW digital images, then it is imperative that you shoot your photos at the highest quality that your camera is capable of. Consult your camera’s manual. Reducing image quality to reduce file size will render the photos unusable for our purposes. Always remember with digital photos you can always reduce the size or resolution, but we cannot increase resolution or add pixels as this degrades the quality of the image. If in doubt, always use the highest resolution or largest image size settings.

We offer an FTP website for uploading larger files. Email us for instructions.

Shooting Tips

Use your flash to lighten hard shadows on a bright day. Use your camera’s built-in flash or use a standard flash unit. Check the flash unit’s specifications for fill-flash settings. Shoot many different perspectives and angles, include close-ups and distant shots. Give us plenty of options: shoot the same subject from a variety of angles and points of view. It’s imperative to shoot both vertical and horizontal images of your subject.

Photograph people being themselves in their natural environment. Capture their expressions, emotions, energy and, most importantly, their eyes (take off those sunglasses!). Take advantage of ideal lighting situations such as before and after sunrise and sunset, and don’t let bad weather stop you as it can create some great mood shots. Meter off of a 50% gray background for best exposure in manual mode. Take extra time to set up your shots. Double-check your composition, focus and lighting/metering. That little extra care can mean the difference between a successful cover shot, a great opening
spread and a mere snapshot.
FOR COVER CONSIDERATION:

We are always looking for great images for cover consideration. The critical thing to remember when submitting images is to allow sufficient space around and on top of the subject for cover lines, logo, bleed, etc. Only vertical images will be accepted!

Photo Identification

All images submitted must be accompanied by accurate caption information either on the image amounts or in a separate, labeled document. We can’t over emphasize the importance of accurate photo captions. Provide as much detail as you can, such as: who, what, when and where.

Usage Rights

We purchase one-time North American rights. Fees will be negotiated by your editor or art director. All photographs are returned to the photographer after publication. We ask that you refrain from selling images used by us to other American and Canadian publishers for a period of three months.

We circulate lists of future photo needs and would be happy to add you to our stock list files and contact you if we need any photos. Please email your contact info to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it