How Photo Editors select photo for magazines?

How Photo Editors select photo for magazines?

 

Please let me know if this forum is not the right place to post this question

 

The reason that I am asking this question is that next week there will be winter carnival here (in New Zealand). And I

found that I will have chance to post my photos of this carnival to one of the local news paper and maybe they will

select and print it.

 

I was thinking and want to know that what is important for a newspaper or magazine photo editor when they want to

select a photo from lots of photos of an event and print it.

 

What is important when you want to do event photography? And what should be considered?

Why the photos that is taken by professional magazine photographers is different not from technical view but from

event and how they capture an event

 

I was thinking that I can�t take some long shots photos that shows people and environment and event or I can take

some close up of people

 

I know I asked many question. I can summarize it like this

 

I want to ask professional photojournalist give me some advice about event photography so maybe I will have chance

to see my photo printed on news paper

Is this a contract freelance job, or an invitation to local snappers to post their best work to a web site?

 

I could be cynical and say happy children and/or dogs will get the best play. Will you be working with a reporter? Publications want photos that tell the story of the event -- something very strong that says 'winter carnival,' whatever that involves in your neck of the woods. At the same time, you need a very original photo that will cause readers to pause and look as if they are seeing this annual event for the first time.

 

If there is some kind of competition involved, you will need photos of the winners, and for all photos, you will need to get the names of people who are prominent in the picture and easy to identify.

 

The more story you can tell in your pictures, the better chance you will have. The more story you can supply with your pictures, the better chance you will have. You're right. Long shots won't cut it unless they are absolutely perfect. The name of the game is involvement and you will need to be in close.

Dear Josef

It is an inviration . I like it when u say "Tell the story of the events"

What makes a photo from an events to be able to tell story ?

And i like to countinue this discussion and want to aks you

How you can supply more story with your picture?

A photo editor picks on whether or not the photos give the viewer some idea about the event. I don't think most event photos show "story," they show "atmosphere" or "character." The photos of an event I shot (I did have a media pass, which may make it easier) can be found <a href="http://www.spirer.com/folsom2007/">here.</a> The idea is to capture the feeling so someone can see what was happening.

I should add that you never know what the story that the photos accompany is going to say so shoot a fairly broad variety of photos. The link I gave above is for a set of photos culled down from about 100 that I showed and 400 that I shot.

Having worked as a Photographer for a paper, local faces to doing something interesting that identifies in context the milieu you are trying to cover.

What do your eyes tell you abouyt the formal qualities ofthe photogrpah when you look atthe best news photos ina

newspaper or magazine? By formal qualities imean: light, composition, color (if used), arrangements of forms

(especially if the photo is black and white)? Now wha tdoes the photo add to the narrative to the story, what

does it say that the words in the caption or the accompanying story can't ?

 

What powerful of emotional response does the photo create in the viewer? Does it stir the emotional and

intellectual imagination?

The local paper and 4-color magazine in Vermont often used and paid me for local event images.

 

I suggest calling the editor or photo editor if there is one and asking what the specs are for printing as well as if it matters if it is vertical or horizontal (some papers have preferences of more of one than the other) as well as what "they" are looking for. The story may be already being worked on and some key factors may be written about that you could focus on for the event. For instance, we also had a Winter Carnival and one of the focuses of the article was going to be the ice sculptures so I made sure I took lots of photos of ice sculptures.

Another planned story was on the snow volleyball tournament which I made sure I shot. Good Luck~

'Story' in newspaper-talk doesn't necessarily mean 'narrative.' It mean the total event as far as locations, people, activities and so on. You want to make the viewer feel like a participant.