Photoshop Rules

[amraeder]

I'm pretty new in the business and was wondering what the rules are at other shops.
Anyway, I was trying to do some fancy photoshop work for main art for a state soccer preview in today's section. I'm filling in on the desk for my boss who has the day off, and apparently he didn't know until recently that we were going to have a preview. So I'm stuck with old art. The plan was just to go to old photos, get some cut outs of players from the two teams from the area going to states, throw them on a dramatic background, maybe add some text, bada-bing, bada-boom.
Well, I got yelled at by the photogs for this.
Apparently we're not allowed to touch a photo with photoshop unless it's for the cover of a special section, and only then with the permission of the ME. So I'm kinda SOL.
Just wondering if this is unique to here, or if it's pretty standard practice. I know some of the designs I see in here seem to involve some photoshop work, so I was wondering what the rules at your shops are.

Anyway, thanks.

 

[Chi City 81]

I've worked at places where photogs guarded photos with their lives, and at places where photogs didn't give a **** as long as you asked them first. Sounds like you're pretty much ****ed.

 

[amraeder]

Oh, yeah. Sounds like I'm falling into the ****ed category. The phtogs thing was that if I were allowed to do it, their jobs would go by the wayside and it'd just be computer wizes who filled their spots. Seemed like a pretty lame argument to be, but what do I know? So I figured I'd see how other shops did it.
I appreciate the feed back.

 

[Tom Petty]

tell the photogs to eat ****.

company owns their photos just as it owns writers' stories.

check with the photogs first ... shiiiiiit.

 

[brian griffin]

Anyone ever notice that newspapers are the only publications that still fall under the "you can't touch photos" rules?

You telling me that a photographer at ESPN magazine, SI, SportingNews, or any other magazine would have the balls to tell an art director at their magazine they can't crop, cutout, put type on, or do any other photoshop trick to their photo? Last time I checked, most photags at magazines have their photos messed with all the time.

 

[VJ]

Bingo. If you don't really know what you're doing I would obviously lean on the side of caution, but for a photog to tell you that you need permission to do a cutout or anything in Photoshop is absurd. Do copy editors need permission from the writers to make an edit to their story?

 

[Songbird]

This might sound crass, but I do with photos whatever the hell I deem fit for the story or package, etc. If the integrity of a photo demands it be left alone, then I'll leave it alone. If you go to the page I uploaded today, I ran text over a dark (left side) portion of the Gwen Stefani story; the headline for "big" also bled into the photo; in my mind, it worked. I'm the Quarkmaster here, and that's the bottom line. But, if a photog asks (they rarely do here) to run a photo clean of copy I will abide by his request.

 

[amraeder]

It just seems like I'll have to get used to not having any fun here. It really hurt my package too, because I didn't have any photos that really worked. It was really disappointing, but what can ya do. Oh well...

 

[Tom Petty]

after my initial response, here's another thought that worked its way into my head: why don't you ask your direct boss why the rule is in place? i'm guessing he probably can't be trusted with photos and that maybe the rule is in place for a reason.

 

[Write-brained]

The plan was just to go to old photos, get some cut outs of players from the two teams from the area going to states, throw them on a dramatic background, maybe add some text, bada-bing, bada-boom.

What does that mean? Are they like standing in front of the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, what?

 

[Tom Petty]

The plan was just to go to old photos, get some cut outs of players from the two teams from the area going to states, throw them on a dramatic background, maybe add some text, bada-bing, bada-boom.

What does that mean? Are they like standing in front of the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, what?

whitlock.

 

[SportsDesigner]

That's not an unusual rule.

Most newsrooms act that way because too many people (possibly you) dive into a photoshop centerpiece and think they're Warhol all of a sudden. Honestly, even experienced designers need time to make a nice illustration.

Your best bet is to plan ahead and practice these ideas, showing them to your bosses before the fact. And if you are messing with a staff photog's work, you need permission. Not necessarily from him/her, but at least from an editor.

 

[amraeder]

The plan was just to go to old photos, get some cut outs of players from the two teams from the area going to states, throw them on a dramatic background, maybe add some text, bada-bing, bada-boom.

What does that mean? Are they like standing in front of the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, what?

I really don't know because I didn't have a chance to get too far into it, but nothing like that. Cutouts against a dark background for simple contrast, something like that. It got nixed right from the get-go, so I didn't get a chance to flush out the vauge imagine in my head.


BTW, thank you all for your comments.

 

[amraeder]

after my initial response, here's another thought that worked its way into my head: why don't you ask your direct boss why the rule is in place? i'm guessing he probably can't be trusted with photos and that maybe the rule is in place for a reason.

Probably a good idea to ask when he comes back to work tomorrow. But I don't think the rule would be because of him, just because he's not computer literate and I don't think he'd even bother trying to make something fancy in photoshop.