Perhaps you would like to comment Ailsa, not on my images, but the editors position on a potentially emotive subject.
I think my standpoint on this probably differs from 99% of other magazine editors, because Outdoor Photography, Travel Photography and Black & White Photography are all photography magazines, not magazines that use photography. As such, photographers, and readers (who, to me, are both the same thing, of course), want to see the picture being treated with respect, which means reproducing it as closely as possible to how the photographer saw it.
I try to avoid tampering with the photograph as little as possible, but sometimes it's unavoidable. For example, often the designer has to crop a picture in order to use it on the front cover. Sometimes this means only shaving a little off the sides or top/bottom to fit the A4 aspect ratio. At other times it might mean cropping from a horizontal to a vertical, but this is only ever done with the permission of the photographer, and if this is the case I always try to reproduce the photograph in its entirety elsewhere in the magazine.
For general use inside the magazine, if I feel a picture needs cropping to be 'improved', I'd prefer to use an alternative.
As for running pictures across the gutter, I've had a handful of letters over the years from readers asking me not to do this. Although I understand their point, it's something I only do if the photograph suits such a treatment (ie, there should be enough 'empty' space for the gutter to run down, so it doesn't interrupt the eye as it scans across the page). If I didn't print pictures across the gutter, the largest size I'd be able to use a landscape format photograph would be half a page, which would be a shame - and would make the magazine look a bit 'samey' throughout.
Very occasionally I will allow the designer to place a caption on a picture, but I try to restrict this to technique features rather than the 'big picture' features such as interviews and reportages.
As a magazine editor you have to balance design with content. If the magazine looked like crap, nobody would buy it, so you do need to be led by design to a degree - I refuse to be dictated by it, however.
As for borders around a print - if the photographer has printed their image that way, then that's how I'll reproduce it. If they haven't, then I would never in a million years add anything created in Photoshop! Vile![/i]
I think my standpoint on this probably differs from 99% of other magazine editors, because Outdoor Photography, Travel Photography and Black & White Photography are all photography magazines, not magazines that use photography. As such, photographers, and readers (who, to me, are both the same thing, of course), want to see the picture being treated with respect, which means reproducing it as closely as possible to how the photographer saw it.
I try to avoid tampering with the photograph as little as possible, but sometimes it's unavoidable. For example, often the designer has to crop a picture in order to use it on the front cover. Sometimes this means only shaving a little off the sides or top/bottom to fit the A4 aspect ratio. At other times it might mean cropping from a horizontal to a vertical, but this is only ever done with the permission of the photographer, and if this is the case I always try to reproduce the photograph in its entirety elsewhere in the magazine.
For general use inside the magazine, if I feel a picture needs cropping to be 'improved', I'd prefer to use an alternative.
As for running pictures across the gutter, I've had a handful of letters over the years from readers asking me not to do this. Although I understand their point, it's something I only do if the photograph suits such a treatment (ie, there should be enough 'empty' space for the gutter to run down, so it doesn't interrupt the eye as it scans across the page). If I didn't print pictures across the gutter, the largest size I'd be able to use a landscape format photograph would be half a page, which would be a shame - and would make the magazine look a bit 'samey' throughout.
Very occasionally I will allow the designer to place a caption on a picture, but I try to restrict this to technique features rather than the 'big picture' features such as interviews and reportages.
As a magazine editor you have to balance design with content. If the magazine looked like crap, nobody would buy it, so you do need to be led by design to a degree - I refuse to be dictated by it, however.
As for borders around a print - if the photographer has printed their image that way, then that's how I'll reproduce it. If they haven't, then I would never in a million years add anything created in Photoshop! Vile![/i]
