The AP in Ohio

The Ohio AP has photographers in three bureaus that handle photo coverage, editing and transmission. Photo editor Kii Sato in Columbus oversees the Ohio photo report. The other staff photographers in Ohio are Al Behrman in Cincinnati and Mark Duncan and Tony Dejak in Cleveland.

The AP also relies on stringers and members to make its photo report strong. On this page you'll find information that will be useful if you want to contribute photos to the AP.

AP Caption Standards

Captions should be two concise sentences, while including the relevant information. Try to anticipate what information a newspaper editor or reader will need. Full NAA/IPTC headers must be filled out for each photo. Be sure to include the time element (day and date) in the body of the caption. The file name of all photos should be the transref.jpg (for example NYC101.jpg). When you are ready to transmit a photo, call the assigning bureau for a filing point (either NYC or SPC); a trans. ref. number and photo slug. If nobody can be reached at the assigning bureau, call the SPC or NYC directly. Note: All member and freelance photos (with rare exceptions) are filed to State Photo Center.

This is an example of a standard AP caption:

State fire marshals investigate the scene of an early morning fire that killed a mother and her three daughters in Niles, Ohio on Thursday, July 20, 2006. The victims were found in the same second-floor room of the home, where the only smoke detector lacked a battery, authorities said. (AP Photo/Mark A. Stahl)

NAA/IPTC HEADER FIELDS (ALL CAPS)

Byline: The byline field lists the name of the person who made the photo. Enter photographer's full name.
Byline Title: The byline title field lists the title of the person who made the photo. Enter STF for AP staff photographer, STR for freelancer, MBR for member photographer.
Caption: The caption field is the text that accompanies the photo that contains the who, what, when, where and why information (example above).
Caption Writer: The caption writer field lists the initials of the person who wrote the caption.
Category:

The category fields are:
A   News or features,
F   Financial
I   International
S   Sports

Creation DateTime: The CREATE DATE/TIME field is the date the photo was originally made. For FILE photos, use the date the photo was originally made, if known.
City: The city field lists where the photo was originally made.
Country: The country field lists the three letter country code where the photo was originally made.
Credit: The credit field is the name of the service transmitting the photo. Always enter AP.
Headline: The headline field lists names of people in the photo or other searchable names. Use both first and last names in normal upper and lower case. Separate multiple names by a comma. Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Laura Bush
Instructions: The instructions field lists any special notations that apply uniquely to a photo such as JUNE 23, 2000 FILE PHOTO, STAND ALONE PHOTO (photo with no story), etc.
Object Name: The object name field lists the story slug associated with the photo. For photos without a story, make up a logical slug to aid in a search and note it as a "STAND ALONE" in the instructions field of the NAA/IPTC header. NOTE: Do not use any punctuation in an Object Name. This causes a problem with the AP's archive servers.
Source: The source field lists whom is the original provider of a photo, such as AP, an AP member (MEDINA GAZETTE), pool photo provider (POOL) or handout provider (KENT STATE UNIVERSITY). For a photo created by a freelancer enter AP.
State: The state field lists the state where the photo was originally made. Use U.S. postal code abbreviation. (OH, NY, FL…)

Supplemental Categories

The supplemental category field codes are:
FEA Feature pictures of a non news nature
OBIT Obituary
FILE File photo
SPCL Special

NEWS EVENTS

CVN National political conventions
ELN National election campaigns
XGR State Legislatures

SPORTS

BBA Professional baseball (American League)
BBN Professional baseball (National League)
BBO Professional baseball (minor league or inter-league)
BBH High School Baseball
BBC College baseball
BKN NBA basketball
BKL WNBA basketball
BKC Men's college basketball
BKW Women's college basketball
BKO Other basketball including semi pro
BKH High School basketball
BOX Boxing
CAR Racing (car, speedboat or motorcycle)
FBN NFL Football
FBC College football
FBO Other football
FBH High School football
GLF Golf
GYM Gymnastics
HKN NHL hockey
HKC College hockey
HKO Other hockey minor league
OLY Olympics
RAC Racing (animals)
RUN Track and Field
SKI Skiing
SOC Soccer
TEN Tennis

Trans Reference

The transmit reference field lists a call letter/number combination associated with a photo. It includes an originating point's call letters and a picture number from that point's sequence of offerings for a given day. Member newspapers should use their Selector ID Code (SID Code) as their transmitter reference.

For example the first photo of any day from the Warren Tribune Chronicle would be OHWAR101, followed by OHWAR102, etc. for succeeding transmissions that day.

Freelancers should use OH plus their two-letter initials for the Trans. Ref. For example, Jason Miller would use OHJM101, 102, etc. Staff use the same system if they are not transmitting from a permanent location such as a bureau or dedicated stadium work area.

Urgency: The "urgency" field is not used by the AP at this time.

AP Photo Transmission Guidelines

Photo Size/File Size Standards

Images should be scanned/acquired at 200 dpi, RGB color
The longest dimension should not be less than 10 inches (2000 pixels)

Extreme crops should be re-sized in Photoshop UP to this standard.

Images should be compressed in JPEG format, at a quality of aprox. 8, baseline standard, to achieve a file that averages about 1MB compressed

Transmitting Photos

Top level national photos should be transmitted to New York desk. State and regional photos should be transmitted to the State Photo Center (SPC) in Washington D.C. Reception is via FTP transfer at both locations. Photos of the President and Top 25 College football and basketball ALWAYS are sent to NY.

Photo should be transmitted first and followed up by calling a photo editor to make sure the photos came in properly. NY: (212) 621-1900; State Photos: (888) 273-6867

For transmissions using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) you must have a login and password issued by the State Photo Center. Currently most freelancers and members can ONLY send news, feature and sports photos for the AP via FTP to the State Photo Center. For specials use the generic login (username: spcl, password: spcl). To send FTP using Netscape or an FTP client (ie. WS_FTP95 for Windows, Fetch or for MacIntosh), first connect to the internet through your provider or company network.

If you are using a web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) enter the following URL: ftp://username:password@165.1.59.7, inserting the appropriate username and password.

You may then drag image files to be transmitted to the browser window or folder in the window. For transmissions to the AP Specials Desk in NYC, the username: spcl and password: spcl should be used with the above IP address. (i.e. ftp://spcl:spcl@165.1.59.7)

Those using a stand-alone FTP client (like WS_FTP95 for Windows or Fetch for MacIntosh) must set up a session for the AP's FTP upload site. Refer to the client's documentation. NOTE: When using Fetch on a Macintosh to send the images, be certain to choose "Raw Data" and not "Macbinary." Sending the files Macbinary encoded causes them to become corrupted.

Ohio Photos