NOTE: This section does not apply to the majority of our writers. You may familiarize yourself with it, but that is not necessary. It is posted here for reference and for the Photo Team.
Photos are part of the storytelling. For slideshows, they can actually be more important than the written text. Good photos will show exactly what you’re talking about, so if it’s a piece on Julia Roberts movies, make sure you are grabbing movie images with her in the still.
Photos must be landscape-oriented. The “featured photo” must be 16:9 (aka 1200 x 675).
ALL images should have the following in the Caption section: “Image Credit: _________.”
The period is extremely important – that is how MSN defines each slide. Without the period, our formatting is all off and may be rejected.
Also — please, please, please change the title of the image if it is generic or a jumble of random characters, and give at least a brief description of what is in the image in the Description box so we may search and reuse images later.
1. Press Materials
How these are delivered and captioned vary widely amongst the various sources. The Entertainment Press Logins sheet has a list of the sites we have media access to and the appropriate logins. If you do not have a link to this document, you can request Jake, Meg, Paul or another editor check for images. You will not be given access to the sheet, so please don't ask. It contains proprietary information.
Follow whatever guidelines are set out by the media outlet for attribution and credit.
2. Wikimedia Photos
You may have to click on the copyright notice to see if we can use it. If it doesn’t say Public Domain, you’ll want to see this copyright information. We must attribute the image to the photographer and note Wikimedia Commons as well.
3. Images on IMDb
The same is true for images on IMDb, for example. If there is no copyright noting a particular photographer on a movie still or a promotional image, we are safe using it as long as the studio is noted. Please also note, that it is the STUDIO, not the distributor, not the production company. The studio owns the rights, so they are the ones that must be noted.
DO NOT under any circumstances, use an image that is owned or licensed through GETTY IMAGES.
Here's an example we can use:
Here’s an example of copyright info for an image we would NOT be able to use:
4. YouTube and Social Media
Screengrabs from videos and social media posts are acceptable when originally posted by companies or celebrities/notable persons (connected to the story). Images posted by other users to a company’s social account are not OK to use.
Special note: We must link to or embed any YouTube video we take a screengrab of.