A Quick Note About Photos in Articles

A few people have been asking lately about how photos work on B/R, especially since we’ve added the option to upload your own photos to your articles.

Right now B/R licenses images from Icon Sports Media. Premium, professional quality photographs add a lot to a story, and we think it’s important for our writers to have access to a great library of images, without having to worry about copyright issues. While the B/R photo library is by no means exhaustive, we try our best to continually update it with great, relevant shots. If there is a photo we don’t have that you want to use, you can email photo guru Mike Eagan at photos@bleacherreport.com with your request and he’ll do his best to add it to the library.

Realizing that the photo library may not have exactly what you’re looking for, we also recently added the ability to upload your own photos to your articles, a feature that was in high demand from some of our best writers. This has led to a greater diversity of images on the site, and a more freedom for the writer when choosing how their work will be presented. However, there are a few things to consider before hitting the “Upload Photo” button.

The first consideration is copyright concerns. When uploading your own photos, you should either own the image or have permission from the copyright holder. If there is an image you’re dying to use that is copyrighted, you can usually find the contact info for the photographer or publication it was originally printed in and send a request for usage.

Or you can take your chances and post the photo if you feel that the image falls under the doctrine of “Fair use”. Fair use is an ambiguous concept, but generally if you’re writing about a subject and the photo you want to use adds to and/or is necessary for the commentary, then fair use generally applies.

The second aspect to consider when uploading your own photos is image quality. Bleacher Report writers take pride in the clean appearance of the network, and you should do your part to upload only photos that add, and don’t detract, from that quality. Uploaded photos must be at least 300px tall by 400px wide at 72dpi, and should not be blurry, low quality, or hard to identify.

Thirdly, photos should always be relevant to the article and tagged appropriately. Relevant photos add to the article text and, in some cases, amplify or augment the point you’re making in your article. Appropriate tags make the photos easily indexable in the library, and thus easier for other writers to find and use them when writing about similar subjects.

Finally, and this goes without saying, all uploaded photos should be appropriate for all audiences. Obscene or pornographic photos will be promptly removed and the members who upload them will have their accounts suspended.

Another request we get from time to time is for in-game photos, which we agree would be pretty freaking cool if added to the already powerful arsenal of the Bleacher Report writer. Rest assured, we’re currently working on a solution that will broadly expand our image library and include in-game photos in the offerings. Stay tuned for more news on that in the next couple months.

Any more questions on photos? Ask in the comments below.