Most photos will not fit on the broadsheet page. Usually, they are too large and must be reduced to fit your dummy. Reducing the size of photos is a matter of proportions. Essentially, you will be reducing the height and width in proportion to each other.
You must put crop marks on your photo to show the paginator how you want the photo to be cropped. These marks are essential, even if you are not cropping anything off the photo.
Look carefully at the content of every photo before deciding whether to crop it. The content of the photo should be your most important consideration. Do not crop out anything that would alter the meaning or intent of the photo.
Once you have decided what to do with the photo, put your crop marks on the top and the left side of the photo. If you want to run the photo full frame, put the crop marks on the edges of the photo. If you decide to crop in on the photo, put the crop marks in the appropriate places.
After placing the crop marks, measure the distance in picas and points. Likely, you will have to estimate the points. You should have a photo reproduction order with you. Enter the width and height of the original photo onto the photo reproduction order.
Generally, you will know one other dimension: the width that you want the reproduction to be. Usually, you will get this width from your dummy or grid chart. For example, if you want your photo to be four columns, you can look on your grid chart or dummy to determine that it should be 51 picas and 8 points.
Before you do the math, you must convert the points into a decimal. Fortunately, the decimal equivalents are on your photo reproduction order. If not, divide the points by 12, the number of points to a pica. Add the decimal to the number of picas.
The rest is simple: cross-multiply and divide by what is left. You don't even need to know the formula for proportions. You then must convert the decimal back into points by multiplying by 12. When you add the points to your answer in picas, you have the length of your photo.
Let's try an example:
- You crop the photo and measure between the crop marks.
- The photo is 30 picas wide and 46 picas deep.
- Record these dimensions on your photo reproduction order.
- You want a three-column photo, which is 38 picas and 6 points.
- Looking on the photo reproduction order, you find that the decimal equivalent of 6 points is 0.5. You enter 38.5 as the width of reproduction.
- Cross-multiply and divide by what's left. Here, multiply the final width of 38.5 by the original depth of 46 and divide by the original width of 30 to get the reproduction depth.
- 38.5 x 46 = 1771 / 30 = 59 picas.
- The final depth came out even. If it is not, round up to the next pica so you will have plenty of room for the photo.
- The final dimensions are: 38 picas and 6 points for width and 59 picas for depth.
- Draw a box with those dimensions on your dummy. Write the slug on the photo, along with the dimensions.
If you don't have a photo reproduction order, use the following formula:
original width original depth
--------------- = ------------------
final width final depth
Fill in what you know, usually the original width, original depth and final width. Cross-multiply the numbers and divide by what is left.
We also use proportions when determining the size of stories in bastard measures and for jumps of stories in bastard measures.
Back to Class Readings