ones cost less and require less postage, but are more easily broken in
handling.

Third: Objects in the photograph should be clear and well defined; this
requires a sharp negative. For newspaper illustrations it is desirable
to have prints with a stronger contrast between the dark and the light
parts of the picture than is necessary for the finer half-tones and
rotogravures used in magazines.

Fourth: Photographs must have life and action. Pictures of inanimate
objects in which neither persons nor animals appear, seem "dead" and
unattractive to the average reader. It is necessary, therefore, to have
at least one person in every photograph. Informal, unconventional
pictures in which the subjects seem to have been "caught" unawares, are
far better than those that appear to have been posed. Good snap-shots of
persons in characteristic surroundings are always preferable to cabinet
photographs. "Action pictures" are what all editors and all readers
want.

Fifth: Pictures must "tell the story"; that is, they should illustrate
the phase of the subject that they are designed to make clear. Unless a
photograph has illustrative value it fails to accomplish the purpose for
which it is intended.

CAPTIONS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS. On the back of a photograph intended for
reproduction the author should write or type a brief explanation of what
it represents. If he is skillful in phrasing this explanation, or
"caption," as it is called, the editor will probably use all or part of
it just as it stands. If his caption is unsatisfactory, the editor will
have to write one based on the writer's explanation. A clever caption