St. Joe's Photo Guidelines

         We want your photographs!

         The Communications Committee plans to begin using photographs - your photographs - on this web site, on bulletin boards, in newsletters, as submissions to the Georgia Bulletin, and with news releases that will go to various media outlets around the area. Please provide the committee with whatever you can, be they digital photographs or prints from your film camera.

         Following are some tips that you should keep in mind as you shoot photographs at various parish activities.

If you have a digital camera:

- Always use the highest-resolution setting it has. This will enable us to format photos for the Web pages, make prints if necessary, and even provide them to local newspapers for publication. In general, every photo should have at least one dimension (i.e., height or width) that contains at least 1,600 pixels. If you have any questions about the best way to set your camera, please email Photo Coordinator Amanda Wilson at stjoes_news@yahoo.com. When you email, provide Amanda with all of the image-size options your camera offers. Please email your digital photos to Amanda at stjoes_news@yahoo.com.

        - Some digital cameras allow you to save files in more than one format. Some examples are jpeg (or jpg) and tiff. Saving the photos you shoot for St. Joe’s as a jpeg (or jpg) file is best.

        - Even on bright, sunny days, use "fill flash" if your camera has it. That is, even in an automatic-exposure setting, change the flash so that it fires every time you shoot a photo. Doing this will help soften deep shadows that can show up in photos taken in very bright sunlight. In fact, using auto-exposure with fill flash is probably the way to go unless you have a good bit of photography experience.

If you have a film camera:

        - It’s not necessary to have a photo CD made when you have your film developed. We can scan prints made from negatives and return them to you.

         - You can drop prints off at the parish office, and they'll get to Tim and the Communications Committee ASAP.

       - The suggestion above about using "fill flash" still applies. Using auto-exposure with fill flash will give you some pretty high-quality prints.

General tips:

        - If you are taking a group photo, please provide identification. Always provide names from left to right, as they appear in the photo. If you have multiple rows of people, go from front row to back row, listing the names of people in each row from left to right. Don’t guess about spelling. If you have any question at all about how someone spells his or her name, ask them - or have them print it for you.

        - If you are taking photos that will include youngsters, always make sure their parents or guardians know that you are taking photos for St. Joe’s, and make sure you have the adult’s permission. In general, it is best to identify children only by their first name and the first letter of their last name (e.g., Bill J., Mary K., etc.).

        - If you are shooting some kind of action photo (e.g., sports photos), always use the "sports" or "action" setting on your camera. If you use manual settings, choose a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second or faster. This will give you the best chance to freeze the action and get a quality photo.

Thank you for contributing to our efforts