Contributing to the Southern Region Media A Short Guide
We welcome all ideas, articles, hints and tips, location recommendations, photographs, and event reports for inclusion in the Southern Region media. This is a simple guide to help you prepare your submission and assist us in ensure the finished article adheres with the society’s branding policy and marketing strategy. There are a number of ways in which you can contribute:
Newsletters It is always great to receive feedback to & contributions for the newsletter, whatever the format. Contributions tell us two things. Firstly, you are likely to have read your current newsletter, and secondly, you wish to share your contribution with your region, which is great. Occasionally, individuals are deterred from contributing by a lack of confidence in their spelling, or command of the English language. Or you may wonder as to the value of your favourite short cut to your peers. So firstly I wish to allay those fears by simply saying, getting it down and emailing your contribution is far more important than forever going over your piece for spelling or grammatical errors. The reality is, that your piece is likely to be edited to fit the available space, so let us worry about the final piece! We welcome all ideas, in particular educational and instructional articles, hints and tips. If there is no space available in the newsletter, then your contribution will be considered for inclusion in an online blog at www.rps.org.
Photographs supplied for print should be of sufficient pixel dimensions to satisfy the standard publishing requirement of 300 pixels per inch at the dimensions of the printed image. However, that doesn’t mean they need to be huge in size. They don’t. If the image is to be printed to 4 inches in size on one edge, in a newsletter for example, then it should be a minimum of 1200 pixels along that edge. All photographs must be credited with the authors name and link to the author’s website where possible along with the title of the image.
Photographs should be supplied in jpeg format, and in CMYK colour for print, otherwise, RGB colour for web use.
Text should be double spaced for checking, and saved in a .doc or .txt format. Keep unnecessary words to a minimum. In terms of length, depending on the article, we are looking at anywhere between 500-1000 words.
Advice should be tailored to appeal to the majority of our readers. However you may have specialist knowledge or a niche interest in photography that you wish to share with us and we welcome these. Articles on particular interest include:
Sharing knowledge in a specialist field of photography. Basics of photographic theory and practice. Feedback on distinctions advisory days and the assessment process. The practical steps you took in preparing for our distinction, printing and mounting. Ideas on your society distinction Statement of Intent. Reviews on photographic equipment and how to use it. Areas that may appeal to members of specialist interest groups, (nature, travel, medical, documentary etc) Practical advice in all areas of photography. Event reports (society events and external) Reports on exhibitions. Personal projects and ideas for inspiration.
Online blog Specialist knowledge may be better presented in a blog, where space can be given to further reading, explanatory notes, and references. Alternatively blogs are useful publish very short articles where only reference is needed to a single image or to a photographers website. Blogs are also useful for ongoing themes and articles about photographic Quick tips & hints.
Photographs should be 585 pixels wide by 390 pixels high and in jpeg format. No article can be published without a photo to compliment it.
Rotating Slider images It is always great to feature member’s own images on the RPS Southern Region web pages. This helps to keep the pages looking fresh and exciting and showcases your work to the world! You can send one of your images for inclusion on the rotating slider that appears at the top of the main Southern Region page. Please name your image file with: Title of image by your name & honours if applicable (e.g. Bluebell Woods by Paul Gilmour LRPS). Images should be jpegs that are sized 1085 pixels wide by 605 pixels high. Please crop your image to these dimensions to prevent them from stretching or appearing distorted. You may find it useful to know that the image slider will cut the top & bottom off your image so what will actually be visible is the centre 1020 pixels wide x 380 pixels high, so any elements on your image on the far corners for example may not show clearly. Because of the slider being in landscape format, images that are themselves landscape / horizontal format with sufficient space around them works best.
Social media You can also contribute by sending links, reference to images or websites, or submit photos you may wish to share online. Remember posts on Facebook and other social media sites are public and no personal data should be shared. Facebook is also useful to share important news and update members of what is happening in the region. Facebook is a simple and accessible way to stay in touch share ideas and comments.
The Southern Region currently makes use of the following social media platforms:
https://www.facebook.com/rpssouthern
http://www.meetup.com/RPS-Southern/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/rps_southern/
Not forgetting of course the discussion threads on the RPS forum https://www.rps.org/rps-forum
We welcome your contributions!
Finally, we would love to hear from you with your potential submissions. Please email southernmedia@rps.org. Thank you for your continued support in building an informative yet interesting publication that every member of the region can enjoy.
The Southern Region The Royal Photographic Society