Lats & Atts tries to use pictures from our readers on the cover of our print magazine whenever we can. We love seeing our readers “out there” living the cruising life – at the helm, exploring islands, beaches, wherever the trade winds carry them! Here’s a few things we look for when selecting a picture for the print mag cover.
Show Us Your Face!
Pictures of sailors doing sailor things are our favorites! But dark sunglasses, hats (shadows from the visors), and under the bimini top (with photos, shade is NOT your friend), can obscure people in dark shadows and are difficult to print. We know it’s tough when you’re out on the water, but if possible, try to remove hats and sunglasses before snapping that awesome shot!
Sunsets – NO, Sunlight and Blue Water – YES
While sunsets look amazing on backlit screens with millions of colors, they do not transfer well to the print process of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black ink-on-paper. Tranquil, turquoise seas in mid-day sunlight do reproduce well – and who doesn’t want to be lounging in a sunny, teal blue anchorage?
Clear The Decks
Try to check cup holders for beer cans, bottles, sunscreen, etc. Clean, uncluttered pics, keep the focus on the subject and sailing fun.
Shoot Vertical and Leave Some Room
While we are normally pro-landscape for shooting photos, vertical images work best for our portrait oriented cover. Try to center the subject and don’t zoom in too close. We need space around all sides for our logo, headlines, print bleed, etc.
Image Resolution
Most modern cell phones can take a high quality, high resolution picture now. Usually an image that’s 2MP (mega pixels) or above will work. A rough image size of 8.5 x 11 or 2550 x 3400 px is what we’re shooting (pun int.) for. Of course, the higher the resolution, the better!
Thanks again to all our readers who have sent in their sailing pics over the years! Looking forward to more in the future! Send your pics to photos@latsatts.com with a brief description of Who, When, and Where. We’ll post them on our website and they could be selected for the print magazine cover!
