Pinkbike Blog Photo Guidelines - June 2012

May 5, 2012 at 12:40
by Ian Hylands  
As the Pinkbike website progresses through different styles and layouts, the ways that we use photos and the types of photos that we use are changing. You may have noticed lately that most of the black borders around images have disappeared, and that we're using more white space. We've also almost entirely stopped using vertical images in articles on the home page. There are still a few, but for the most part they've been eliminated. If you want your blog posted on the home page following these guidelines for image formatting will make it easier to get your news on the home page.

Image Orientation

Please keep your images horizontal, vertical images don't look as good in a horizontal layout. If you have a great vertical image that you need to include in a story please combine it with another vertical or horizontal image to create an image that is horizontal overall. (see image formatting guidelines below)

Image Formatting and Collages
To create collages, use photos which are 1024 pixels wide and use a 14 pixel white space. This works for most possible combinations. (we still recommend that you upload your single images at 1600 pixels on the long side)

To put two images together into a 1024 pixel wide image with 14 pixels of white space is fairly simple. 1024-14 = 1010 and 1010/2 = 505 So if you add two 505 pixel images together with 14 pixels in the middle everything will be perfect.

photo
For three images we can do the same thing: 1024-(14x2) = 996 and 996/3 = 332

photo
To put vertical and horizontal images together can be a little more tricky as different cameras have slightly different image aspect ratios. As an example some camera's create images that are 1024x682 pixels, while others produce images that are 1024x683 or 1024x685. When you're putting a vertical and a horizontal together this can make a huge difference.

For camera's that produce images that are 1024 x 682 or 681 make the horizontal and vertical images 466 pixels high. This will create an image that is 466 x 1024 with 13 pixels of white space, and that's as close as we can get without cropping images. For images that are 1024 x 684 or 685 this will give us 15 pixels of white space, again fairly close.

photo
For camera's such as the Nikon D2h which produce images that are 1024 x 678, making the images 465 pixels high will give us exactly 14 pixels of white space.

We don't have time to go through and create a chart for every single camera out there, please use these numbers as starting points and adjust to get between 13 and 15 pixels of white space.

Please keep in mind that finished images need to be wider than they are tall.

Image Watermarks

While Pinkbike respects your right to put any size watermark you like on your images, there is a point at which it becomes too much for us to publish in a story. The photo should be about the image, and the first thing you see when you look at a photo shouldn't be the watermark. For PB exclusive posts we prefer to have no watermark at all and simply identify the photographer in the caption or post, however we understand that this may not sit well with some photographers. Please keep in mind that a visible watermark is not a replacement for copyright and contact info in your images metadata.

For images that you want to have published in a story on the home page we ask that if you put a watermark on the image it be kept to a maximum of 24 point type for a 1024 pixel image, or 36 point type for a 1600 pixel image. That's a type size of 8 if you're using the watermark feature when you export from Lightroom. If you use a graphical watermark or logo please keep it no bigger than Fraser's watermark in the image below. Please also keep your watermark in the lower left or right hand corner.

<Deleted photo>
Your watermark is simply an obvious photo credit, it's purpose is to make it easy to identify the photographer, not to make the image difficult to steal. If you want to ruin a great image by putting a watermark all over it we won't stop you, but we also won't use it in an article on the home page.

If you're shooting photos for Pinkbike such as event coverage please contact us for further specifics.

For more information please read this post on How to make your photos look amazing on Pinkbike



Author Info:
IanHylands avatar

Member since Jun 23, 2008
588 articles

17 Comments
  • 12 0
 Nice write up Ian. Thank you.
  • 7 1
 If the article features female riders, is it a requirement to include 20x more photos?
  • 6 1
 Thanks Ian, I was unaware of the 14 pixels of white space on collages. That's very helpful.
  • 1 0
 14 pixels for a 1024 wide image. You don't have to use that, but it's what we use on the home page so if you want your blog posted there it helps.
  • 1 0
 I know you don't work for PB anymore, but is it not aboot time there was an updated blog post for this???
  • 1 0
 How about this rule: "If you want articles to be posted on the home-page, don't embed circular hyperlinks in the text (a circular link being one that links to the page you're already on)."

All kidding aside, the link in the first paragraph just takes you back to this same page. Not sure if that was intentional, or if we're missing out!
  • 1 0
 no, I have no idea where that link came from, it wasn't in my original article...
  • 1 0
 Ian,

Is there a way to make the blogs as wide as the main-page posts (such as here). Everytime I am playing around with the blogging interface, the blog size maxes out at about 80% of what we have here.
  • 1 0
 No. The normal user blog interface is 800 pixels wide, it's only our widescreen format for select articles on the home page that goes all the way to 1024. But if you're hoping to get a photo based article on the home page you should keep the format in mind and make sure you images are big enough and fit the format above.
  • 4 0
 Deece
  • 1 0
 Nice Ian! This helps for sure. Now I need to go shoot some riding!
  • 1 0
 But, how put this collages into the blog post? i confused Frown
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