Submission of photographs to Birding World
Good quality bird photographs are always welcomed by Birding World. Lesser quality photographs are also welcomed when they depict particularly rare birds. Photographs should be sent to the editor:
Steve Gantlett,
Birding World, Sea Lawn, Coast Road, Cley next the Sea, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 7RZ
Most rare bird photographs are taken in digital format nowadays,
and these are normally best sent by email. If you have a number to choose from
of a particular rarity or scarcity, please send a good selection. We are always
particularly on the lookout for good ‘different’ or ‘action’ shots, as well as
nice ‘portrait’ shots. Exclusive images are welcomed.
DEADLINES
Ideally, rare bird photographs should be sent just as soon as they
are taken. Rarity photographs are organised and indexed for use that month as
they come in (as well as permanently filed for possible later use). They are
then short-listed a full week before the end of each month (ie on about the 24th
of every month), with better quality or particularly important images slipped in right up
to the very last minute of the month. Birding World always goes to
print on the last day of the month, but photographs received then will normally be in
good time for the following month!
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS
The subject of the best formats in which to submit digital photographs is a long
and complex one, but it is normally best simply to send the original, straight-off-the-camera files, without any computer cropping or
adjustments at all. Reducing image sizes before sending can compromise the
quality of the final printed image, while previous cropping can restrict our
choice of page-layout for photographs.
Jpegs
Jpegs are very acceptable and are easier to handle than Tiffs. Normally, jpegs
that are about 2Mb each provide absolutely plenty of information for good
quality reproduction of photographs but, in practice, jpegs as low as 1Mb –
or sometimes even lower – can and do make lovely Birding
World half-page sizes. As soon as a jpeg is re-saved, it loses some
quality so, particularly when jpegs are sent, it is normally best not to crop or
adjust them in any way.
Tiffs & Raws
To do full justice to the amazing quality that digital SLRs
are capable of (as opposed to digiscoping) tiffs are definitely better and
16-bit (rather than the standard 8-bit) images can be beneficial too, especially
when more subtle plumage tones and features are present. However, if the shots
are not super-sharp, tiffs have no practical benefit over jpegs and are just
more difficult to handle because of their larger file size than jpegs. Most raw
file formats can be accepted by Birding World too.
Adjusting photographs
Although original 'straight-off-the-camera' files are normally preferred,
experts in Photoshop are very welcome to adjust the exposure and file sizes of
their photographs before submission. If you consider yourself an expert in
Photoshop (Do you fully understand ‘Curves’ and ‘Hue/Saturation’?) and you can confidently enhance the exposure and
sharpness of your photographs without overdoing it, please do. Please do not use
Photoshop trickery to materially alter the photographs, however, although it
is acceptable to remove, say, a particularly offending twig from a photograph.
Cropping Where a bird is very small in the original image size, it may be cropped before submission, although remember that resaving a jpeg potentially loses some quality. Do not over-crop, however, and consider that a photograph which has plenty of surround to the bird can be used both ‘tall and narrow’ as a single column in Birding World, or at full-page width, depending on our space availability.
Image resizing Birding World actually
prints at 300dpi, but digital photographs should not be resized unless they have
first been confidently adjusted to best possible exposure and sharpness if
necessary. Also, it is most important to remember that it is the final image as
it appears on the page that is printed at 300dpi, not the (relatively) uncropped
image supplied: the bird in the image may or may not be heavily cropped on the
page by us to suit our final page layout. Thus, if reducing a large image size down to
the optimum image size for printing in Birding World, the
bird in the image – and not the whole image of the bird plus its surroundings –
should be 300dpi at 6 inches (the approximate full page-width of Birding World).
Occasionally, we may even want to crop a file very drastically (eg to
publish just the head of a bird), but this may be prevented if the file has
already been reduced in size. If in doubt, please send the original file, or at
least do not reduce the file size.
Photographs by email
Email is the preferred way to received photographs. Generally, full resolution
versions of photographs are welcomed in the first instance. Only if there are
many images to choose from and original file sizes are much over 4Mb is it
really worth sending low resolution preview versions first. Individual emails of
up to 20Mb can be accepted, but for more than this (or when there are several
approaching this size) it is best to post the photographs on CD (monthly
deadline allowing).
CAPTIONS
As well as the species name, it is essential to provide
the locality, month and year of each photograph supplied. The first two in
particular are most important, because they give vital information on
geographical variation/subspecies and on the timing of plumages and any moult
visible in the photographs.
CONVENTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS
Just as original digital files give the best reproduction, from those who have
not yet gone digital, the originals of other forms are also preferred (slides or colour
negatives). We can work from prints too, but this gives an inevitable slight drop in quality. Because
we have our own professional quality scanning equipment, submitted slides and colour negatives can be returned
almost by return of post.
COPYRIGHT
We thank all photographers for the photographs they submit to Birding
World. Photographs submitted are kept on digital file. Whether they are
published in Birding World quickly or at a later date, a fee is payable for each one published and the copyright remains
with the photographer.
