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Volunteer Toolkit: The Penn Stater Magazine Photo Guidelines
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We welcome submissions of photos for possible use in The Penn Stater magazine. We’re always looking for quality photos of alumni and friends participating in various activities—whether a reunion, a chapter event, a National Service Week project, a trip as part of the Alumni Association Travel Program, or another alumni-related event.

Because of space limitations, we’re not able to publish every photo we receive. Here are some guidelines to enhance your chances of having your photo published in The Penn Stater:

1. Candid shots are usually more visually interesting than posed ones. Try to get shots of people doing something—and the more active, the better. Photos of activities like service projects, baseball outings, and so on tend to be more interesting than, say, photos of banquets or receptions.
2. Outdoor photos often turn out better than indoor shots. You’ll get natural lighting, and you’ll avoid harsh flash and red eyes.
   
3. Photos taken in a scenic setting (for example, on Alumni Association Travel Program trips) often work well. Look for a background that is recognizable or otherwise helps convey a sense of “place.”
   
4. We’re always looking for photos that show diversity—ethnic minorities, for example, or perhaps older people interacting with children.
5. It’s great if one or more people in the photo are wearing a Penn State item, such as a hat, t-shirt, or sweatshirt. (Don’t overdo it, though—too many Penn State items in the photo can make it look like a page from a bookstore catalog.)
6. A Penn State banner in the photo is often helpful.
7. Notice where the light is falling in relation to the people you’re photographing. Are people’s faces in shadow? Is the area behind your subjects brighter than the subjects themselves? This can happen indoors, for example, when the people you’re photographing have a window behind them—or outdoors, when the people are standing in the shadows on a sunny day. Many point-and-shoot cameras have a “fill flash” feature that’s useful to activate in such situations.
8. We tend to avoid the following kinds of photos:
   • “Grip-and-grins” (two people shaking hands and smiling).
   • Check presentations.
   • A speaker at a podium, or in a panel discussion.
   These kinds of photos rarely have enough visual interest to capture the reader’s attention.
9. We also shy away from:
   • Photos of people eating (these tend not to be very flattering).
   • Photos in which people are holding a glass of wine or beer (unless it’s integral to the event, such as a wine tasting).
10. If a photo is out of focus, too dark, or too grainy, we’re unlikely to use it, no matter how good it might be otherwise.

Tips for Taking Group Photos

1. When possible, try to include a banner—whether from Penn State, the Alumni Association, or a particular affiliate group—in the group photo.
2. Don’t be afraid to get close to the group. Make sure that they fill about three-fourths of the frame. Otherwise, there will be so much background that the people in the photo look tiny and distant.
3. Once you’ve got the group set up for the photo, take at least two or three shots. That way you have a better chance of getting at least one version where everyone is looking at the camera and everyone’s eyes are open.

A Word About Digital Photos
We can and do use digital photos. The trick here is to make sure the resolution is high enough—a photo that looks good on a computer screen might look fuzzy or bitmapped on a magazine page. To be of publication quality, it should be a minimum of 300 DPI when sized to about 3.5” by 4.5,” though we can sometimes use smaller images. Your best bet is to set your digital camera to the highest image-quality setting, usually "Fine." (You'll notice that the number of photos you can fit in the camera will be smaller.) Please send us the image exactly as it comes out of the camera; we'll take care of cropping, lightening, resizing, and/or sharpening. Photos can degrade if they're tweaked more than once. Send the photo as a JPEG or a TIFF file attached to an e-mail.

Submitting Your Photos
Send photos to The Penn Stater magazine, Hintz Family Alumni Center, University Park, PA 16802, or by e-mail attachment to pennstater@psu.edu. Be patient: we work pretty far ahead, so a photo we receive today might not turn up in print for six months or more. And, again, please remember that we can’t use every photo we receive. Finally, please let us know if we need to return the photos. Thanks!