Even though I work in a communications-based medium, sometimes things aren't as clear as I'd like them to be. That goes for the photographs I want to run in KIT CAR, but it's true for the information that goes into the magazine, too.
For those who buy KIT CAR off the newsstand, you may have seen the 32-page Buyer's Guide pamphlet that was included with the September '04 issue (they were bound together in a "poly-bag," which is basically a sealed plastic bag). A few months back our company sent out requests to every company that we know about alerting them to send in updated information on their company; things like new addresses and Web site information but also updates on their product line and pricing.
Many companies responded, but most did not include photographs of their vehicles and, if they did, they were of not of publishable quality. The same can be said of companies who send us press releases concerning their latest product, and most times these bad photos are due to the new world of digital photography. But the newest of photographic mediums typically is not the culprit; it's the operator of the equipment.
If you were to take out a magnifying glass (or lupe) and look at a color photograph printed in a magazine, you'll see the image is actually made up of tiny colored dots. There is a ratio, based on how many dots per square inch (or DPI) there are in a photograph, to how big an image can be enlarged. Have you ever seen a photograph printed in a brochure or magazine that has tiny sharp squares running through it where there is supposed to be a smooth curved line? That's a case of where the dpi wasn't sufficient enough for a photo of that size. For magazine publication, the magic number we look for is 300 dpi at the finished size of the image. An image printed at 300 dpi will be half the size of the same image printed at 150 dpi (the less dots per square inch, the smaller the finished image size will be).
Because most computer screens have such a low ppi (pixels per square inch) requirement to operate, you can get away with a 72 ppi image on a computer screen or Web site and it looks great. However, that image printed at 300 dpi will be 1/4 the size. Most computers will allow you to view the "properties" of a photograph, and it will give you the size of the photo in inches at whatever dpi you choose (and many times you can change the dpi settings for each photograph you're working with on your computer).
A good rule of thumb to follow is that a magazine needs an image in the 1.5 million to 2.5 million (in other words, 1.5 megs to 2.5 megs) byte range to be able to publish the photo at a clear and respectable size without pixelization (those rough, square edges). Smaller images look great on a computer screen but, for magazine work, you need the larger images to work from.
With digital requirements out of the way, the second photo requirement is a clean, uncluttered image. By that we mean, if let's say the image is of a car, then don't shoot it with parking lot lines around it (reflecting in the paint), trash in the gutter, distant telephone poles looking like they're rising magically out of the hood (customers may request that option), cars parked in the background, or the sunlight hitting you in the face (the sun should be behind you-but mind your shadow).