I tweet this every so often, and it's really targeted at theatre PR reps, but it's an ongoing issue: please organize and label press photos properly. If you do it once, outlets all over won't each have to do it themselves.
During the pandemic, many theatres are creating work online or on film, and so they're sharing screen captures. But that's no excuse for a photo identified, and I kid you not, as "129FD7C2-F84D-4E38-80FE-0D3190E999CE."
If you are allowing people to download a complete folder, it should have the name of the show and the producing organization – not simply "stills," "PR photos," or "service." That requires immediate renaming.
Each photo should carry the name of the show, the producing company, actor IDs, and photographer credit at the very least, in the event an image gets removed from a folder. A document with separate captions adds complications.
Requiring media to download photos individually is time consuming. Please offer the option of downloading a complete folder, and Dropbox remains, IMHO, the easiest way of doing this.
While online usage now dominates, requiring relatively low-res images, be sure to include a high resolution option, because print outlets remain and need high res for printing.
That said: I am a writer who is frequently asked to provide art for articles I write, often after a show has closed, making photos difficult to secure. If you provide photos to press, make sure I'm on your press list, because you never know when I can showcase your theatre's work
If other press folks have pet peeves, or PR reps have found useful solutions, by all means share them by responding here. Thanks!
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