Equipment for Photographers
Q. I
am an amateur photographer, and I am interested in some of the
technical aspects. I imagine that all of your photographers now use
digital cameras. If so, do they use 35mm format digital cameras, or a
larger format? What format do you receive these photos in -- RAW or
JPEG?
-- Patrick Reardon, Fort Worth, Texas
A. Yes,
all of our photographers are equipped digitally. We currently use
35mm-format Canon Mark II's and 5D's with a variety of lenses from 10mm
to 600 mm. We have Hasselblad and large format equipment that shoots
film. Our photographers are also equipped with lighting equipment -- 2
strobe heads, battery packs and filters.
We receive the photos in JPEG format. Good luck shooting!
Photographing the Person in the Story
Q.
I read a lot of newspapers. I've even worked for a few. I love the NYT
for its quality of writing, reporting and photography, so this is a
very small complaint: It seems that more often than not when a story
starts with a "person," the main photo is of someone different. As a
former reporter, I know that it can be difficult to always coordinate
with the photographer. And sometimes, the best shot is not the person
used in the lead.
But
it really does seem like the NYT has a particular problem with this. Is
it because the paper is just too big and reporters/photographers just
don't work together? As a reader, it's very distracting and frustrating
to read a lead, wonder what the person looks like and then see the
photo, which is of someone who is buried elsewhere in the story. Like I
said, small complaint. Keep up the good work.
-- Joe Kolman
A. First, thank you for the compliments.
This
happens for a couple of reasons. Sometimes the reporters work on a
story for some time and request that we shoot a variety of subjects,
not knowing at that stage who will be the lead of the story. We try to
shoot who they think will be important, but as they report and work out
the details, and write the piece, things change. Sometimes the more
interesting picture is not the lead, and we would like to engage the
reader as quickly as possible. The reader frequently goes to the
picture first, then to the caption and then to the headline.
Fuzzy Color Photos
Q.
Why are so many color photos out of register in the print edition? This
has been going on for years! I would rather see a clear black-and-white
photo than one in color that is seriously out of register, which most
of them are. Doesn't the technology exist to correct this problem? If
not, let's go back to black and white.
-- Ann Kirschner, Brooklyn
A. A
picture is "out of register" when the color plates on the printing
press are not perfectly aligned. With four separate plates (cyan,
magenta, yellow and black) running at super high speeds, they
occasionally fall out of alignment. When this happens, the picture
appears out of focus or badly executed. Keep in mind that our printing
presses are bigger than two-story houses, while it only takes a few
millimeters to have something end up out of alignment. We go to great
lengths to minimize the number of out-of-register copies of the papers
that go out, but the reality is that some do.
Image by Darren Rowse
Image by Darren Rowse
