If you made a strange picture and you don’t know where to put it, go to the magazine! / Photo: Olga Yonsh / IMIRAGEmagazine – July 2021 – Issue 1029
[ad_1]
Publications in magazines, victories in competitions and participation in exhibitions are three pillars on which a photographer’s self-esteem stands. Globally, all this is our path to world fame, and here and now is the opportunity to inform clients and specialists from related shops (stylists, makeup artists, designers) that they are happy to work with you all over the world, which means they should catch their luck by the tail and Working with you. Here I will tell you what to do to get your photos printed in magazines.
Why does a photographer need to publish in a magazine
What you need to prepare a fashion shoot
How to shoot photos for a fashion magazine
How to get into Vogue — a weekly challenge from fashion magazines
Alternative way
How to choose a magazine for publishing photos
How magazines select photos for publication
exclusivity
Number and quality of photos
Diversity
How much does it cost to publish photos in a magazine
What should not be forgotten
Photographer’s copyright when published in a magazine
Why does a photographer need to publish in a magazine
First of all, you should understand that publishing in magazines is not about making money. But you don’t have to pay anyone if you don’t want to. By submitting your work to the magazine, you are participating in an equal exchange — you give the publication content, and it will give you a piece of world fame. Another thing is if you enter into a customer-executor relationship, but I will not consider this possibility in the article.
There are magazines in the world on any subject, and whatever you shoot about, these photos can be in print. Magazines are:
- world-class — Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Cosmopolitan — I have no experience of working with them yet;
- local ones are magazines of your city, on their websites you can find contacts and send an email with your portfolio and a short letter about yourself and your willingness to cooperate;
- online magazines — don’t worry, these are still printed publications, you just won’t find them in the kiosk at the station. It is the easiest way to get into them, there are many of them, of different scale and status. Some of them are suitable only to overcome their fears, publication in others can be a serious reason for pride.
What you need to prepare a fashion shoot
If the plot of your shooting is not too fashionable, but you want to appear in a magazine, look for thematic publications. Photo: Olga Yonsh / Face magazine: “THE ENTERTAINMÉNT ISSUE” – June, 2021
Further we will talk in detail about magazines from the fashion world. This is a huge field for the photographer’s self-expression, where you can show just a beautiful picture, or you can raise sensitive topics, entering into a dialogue with the viewer.
But one in this field is not a warrior. You’ll need a team—a model, a makeup artist, hair and clothing stylists—people who stand shoulder to shoulder with you and help tell the story.
To be beautiful in the frame, you need to be beautiful in reality. In order for the story to be taken into the magazine, you need to comply with modern trends in photography, clothing and makeup.
Think about composition and lighting, don’t dig into obscure concepts in preparation, and don’t be distracted by folds of clothing or a stray strand of hair in the process of shooting — let the professionals look after this with whom you will share the joy of publication.
How to assemble a team for a non-commercial project is a topic for a separate large article, but your very intention to collect a shoot for publication in a magazine can be the key to the hearts of specialists and the beginning of great co-creation.
How to shoot photos for a fashion magazine
So, at the start, you may have one of several options:
- one or more ready-made series of photographs for which you are looking for a suitable magazine;
- a set of strong single shots for which you are looking for a suitable magazine;
- the desire to shoot something new and send it to a magazine.
We will discuss these options in detail below.
Photo: Olga Yonsh / LE’COEUR Magazine: ISSUE NOVEMBER 2021 | PRINT
If you want to get into a particular magazine, look at as many of the articles published in it as you can and be inspired by them when creating your series. Often, magazines post a moodboard for the next issue in the public domain — this is a direct guide to what type of series they want to see in your applications.
A particular magazine probably has a website with contacts and mail on it. The ones with the words editorial or submission are suitable for you.
Write a letter in English or in the native language of the journal, if you are fluent in it. A short greeting, if known — with the name of the editor, a brief introduction of you as a photographer, the name of your series, the names and links to the instagram of team members (models, stylists, makeup artists). And a link to the cloud where you can watch your series and download it in one go. Most likely, you will write to a very busy person who will not download files one at a time or unpack a zip archive at random.
How to get into Vogue — a weekly challenge from fashion magazines
If you are mentally preparing for your first publication in a magazine, you should not expect that your masterpiece will immediately be accepted into Italian Vogue. Although, wait, it is in it that there is a chance to hit.
Every Monday from 8 am to 8 pm, you can upload two of your photos (single, non-series) to photovogue.vogue.com and get their assessment from real live Vogue employees. This does not mean that you will immediately be printed next to Steven Meisel, this is “just” an opportunity to show your photos to the moderators of the site of the world famous magazine. They answered your photos with “yes” or “no”, it’s very easy to understand: if “yes”, they remained on your portfolio page, “no”, they were deleted. There are stories when photographers who collected a portfolio on this site received job offers in foreign projects.
Photo: Olga Yosh, October 2021Similarly, ICONIC magazine allows submissions on Fridays from noon to 3am.
It is worth noting that these resources can either accept a random photo of a grandmother in the village or reject a studio fashion that you have been working on for three weeks. It is unlikely that a frankly weak work will be approved by the editor of a well-known publication, but a strong work can easily be rejected. The reason is simple — the picture does not fit the spirit of this particular magazine.
Alternative way
There are many excellent magazines in the world, which are much easier to get attention. They are found on the kavyar.com aggregator site, where any creative specialist can send their immortal masterpiece to a magazine looking for content. The site is in English, but to work with it you will need the ability to use a Google translator.
There are two possibilities here:
- use a free account and send up to ten applications per month;
- upgrade to a paid version, send an unlimited number of applications per month and see automatic sorting by rating (number of social media followers) of magazines.
As my practice shows, out of ten thoughtfully sent applications, it is quite realistic to get 5–6 approvals, and the number of subscribers of the publications of interest can be viewed manually. The free account is quite viable.
How to choose a magazine for publishing photos
This is my first shoot for a magazine, and the item “two weeks to be afraid” was included in the preparation for it. Photo: Olga Yonsh / SHUBA MAGAZINE #27 VOL. 6, 2019Attention, not all magazines are equally useful. There is no dispute about tastes, but everyone has them. Check out the magazine’s Instagram before submitting your work. Take a look at his covers. Are you sure you want your work to be among these pictures? If yes, be bold. If not, there is a chance that, having received the publication, you will bashfully hide it in the table.
While you are looking for a magazine, magazines are looking for content. Most of the magazines on the Caviara consist only of photographs, from front cover to back cover. Among the works sent by photographers, a couple of advertising publications were hidden — this is the income of the magazine. But no one will leaf through something consisting of one advertisement, which means that the magazine needs you as much as you need it. And not all of them are so popular to meticulously choose. On adjacent pages, there may be a fairy tale, portraits with rhinestones on the nails, and a psychological story with complex accent lighting. Are you sure you want to add your work to this mess?
Pros — any genre has a chance to be in print. Cons — let’s assume that magazines exist not only to satisfy the egos of authors. The audience is also looking at it. Let the lovers of every genre enjoy the genre. Yes, and yourself — find yourself among like-minded people.
Most magazines will reject you if you don’t fit the genre and subject matter. Sometimes the editors don’t just say no, they might write you a letter saying, dude, this is a super cool story, but it doesn’t fit our publication. But we have friends — another magazine, we sent them your work. Send them an application, and I’m sure you’ll be welcome there. It happened to me.
If you want to go to a specific journal, and could not find it on Cavyar, look for its website, on it — contacts, mail for receiving submissions (applications). Send a photo, series name, team credits (a list of team members), wardrobe credits (names of clothing details and brands that released them). Done, you are amazing!
How magazines select photos for publication
Let’s now look at what exactly magazine editors are looking for when choosing photos for the next issue.
exclusivity
It’s a fact that there has already been a series in the magazine at least once. Caviar takes care of this automatically and does not allow the same footage to be sent to another magazine that requires exclusivity. When you submit your photos to a magazine, choose the magazine thoughtfully. You can then send the same shots to another, but not any — as a rule, all the cool guys require exclusivity.
The name of this bow within the team is “no pants, but with a hat.” Photo: Olga Yonsh / Top Posters Magazine: FASHION / August Issue, 2021If a magazine claims publication exclusivity, it means that you and your team have promised not to post these photos anywhere before the agreed date (on the page with the application there will be a line exclusivity ends with the date).
Nowhere is absolutely nowhere. If this agreement is not respected, they threaten not to publish you, or even kick you out of the Cavyar platform. The likelihood that someone will go to watch your stories (especially before submitting a series to a magazine), or that a foreign magazine will check what you have on your VK wall, is minimal, but you make such a promise by submitting an application.
Outside of the Caviar platform, the terms and agreements on exclusivity will have to be checked and observed independently.
Experience shows that the pleasure of showing the world a published work with a magazine logo is worth the wait for the vouchers and the end of exclusivity. The wait can take from a couple of weeks to several months, warn the team.
Number and quality of photos
Magazines take a series of 4–8 frames on average. Sometimes it happens from 2 right up to 28. If the series is accepted, you need to understand that most likely not all frames will be published, but a selection of the best ones, according to the editor. Give him plenty to choose from, but send only the best.
Most magazines ask for JPG format, sRGB color profile, aspect ratio 8.5x11 for vertical frames (300 dpi, 3300px long side) and 17x11 (300 dpi, 5100px long side) for horizontal. The specific requirements of a given journal, if any, are always indicated in the call for work description.
To shoot in the swamp, the whole team must be ready to feed mosquitoes all day long.Photo: Olga Yonsh / ELEGANT Magazine: ELEGANT (October) 2021If your work is very cool, and you are a lazy person, photos will be accepted in any proportions, as long as the size is right. But then the layout designer will have to cut your masterpiece to the desired proportions at his discretion, and he should have time for this. Time, it would seem, is nonsense, but you have one series, and the layout designer has a full magazine. Respect the work of others and increase your chances of getting published by doing what you are asked to do.
Magazines love it when a series has both horizontal and vertical frames. When the framing in the series has both a large and medium, and a general plan, and details.
Diversity
Almost everyone demands that the models change makeup, bows (from look — look, this is what the model is wearing) and — this is important — that different brands appear in the description of clothes. If there is only one brand, it will be taken for an advertisement and rejected, if the bow is one in six frames — we are still talking about fashion here — some (but not all!) Magazines may reject your application for this reason.
And let the onion parts be from different brands. If you are working with a clothing designer, call an accessory designer as well, or add a couple of non-designer details. You can write something like “mommy’s chest, grandma’s closet, stylist property” in the description of clothing items if you do not know or for some reason do not want to mention the brand in the publication.
However, there may be exceptions to these rules. I had a series sent to me by Imirage Magazine about one model, in one look, with the same make-up and in 2:3 frame proportions, because I’m lazy. The application was accepted, and not just accepted, but given a cover! Do what makes your eyes burn, don’t get hung up on technical parameters, don’t complicate for the sake of complicating, and try, try new things!
The frame, which eventually became the cover, was suggested by the makeup artist, I did not want to shoot it in advance. Photo: Olga Yonsh / IMIRAGEmagazine – July 2021 – Issue 1029
How much does it cost to publish photos in a magazine
Publication in many publications, including very cool ones, is free. However, there are fully paid editions, guaranteed paid publications (with more photos per upload), pay for publication on the cover, speeding up the publication of your work in a magazine, and other options, in each particular publication.
And in some cases, you may be refused in these options (by returning the money), read carefully what you agree to. I have no experience in using paid services on Cavyar, so I can’t give specific advice.
What should not be forgotten
When filling out the application, you will enter data about the entire team under each frame. Here you need to be careful — do not forget anyone, do not seal anywhere. It is better to ask the team in advance how to write their names in Latin letters correctly and how they want to be signed in the publication. If you make a mistake and want to correct this information later, this is a paid service in all magazines.
They usually write Surname Name, a separate line — an account on Instagram. All the fields that need to be filled in on Caviara are signed, much is automated, it is difficult to make a mistake, but a mistake will cost money or an apology to the team member whose last name you have distorted.
Photographer’s copyright when published in a magazine
Models’ eyes are watching your copyrights. Photo: Olga Yonsh / Brilliant Magazine: JULY 2021It is important to clarify here that the author of the article is interested in copyright in a minimal amount. In order to send photographs to a magazine, receive loose-leaf sheets and rejoice in the recognition of your work by someone other than your mother, deep knowledge of this issue is not required. If you are afraid of pitfalls, discuss this issue with a specialist before submitting an application.
The author of the article is published in magazines, participates in exhibitions and exists on the Internet under a fictitious creative pseudonym, which is not legally fixed in any way and is not associated with a passport name. And it does not have any disadvantages for itself.
If you need publications for a unique talent visa or other activities that require a clear connection between you and your achievements, you may need to go the other way, and consulting with a copyright lawyer is definitely necessary here.
Since the creation of a photograph, the photographer is considered its author. The copyright holder too. In order to submit photographs to the magazine through Caviar, you will have to check the box in front of the phrase “I am the copyright holder of the works in this submission”. That is, a photographer can send photos to a magazine, but you don’t need to ask a make-up artist, retoucher or stylist about it, although they can also create a portfolio on this site and published publications will be displayed on their pages.
Do I need a model release in order to publish photographs of people in a magazine? Magazines and Caviar do not require it. Submitting photos to a magazine is for non-commercial use. Do you understand why you need it and love papers? Sign up.
By submitting photos to the magazine, you give the magazine the right to publish photos in its social networks, on the website and print in circulation. This does not affect your right to be an author in any way, it does not make the journal the exclusive copyright holder.
conclusions
Now, where we filmed it, there is a wardrobe for jackets. Photo: Olga Yonsh / AGAR ! MO Magazine: FEBRUARY 2021
Now you know much more about how to get into magazines than I did at the time of the first approved application. Go ahead. See what other teams are doing, get inspired, act bold! And remember, in extreme cases, strangers will tell you “No.” This is not a reason to stop doing what you are doing. One magazine will refuse, another will agree.
By the way, no one forbade sending your series to several magazines at the same time or sending what was filmed a year, two, three years ago, just remember about exclusivity.
And never give in to the lack of technical means, equipment, money, the best moment. This series accepted in the Spanish AGAR ! MO Magazine, filmed in the hallway of the makeup artist’s apartment with the light from a phone flashlight through a glass of water, a lava lamp and cling film.
[ad_2]