Opportunities for Volunteer Photographers at NGU

We're always looking for fresh new images for our publications and advertisements. 

Once in a while, the Office of Admissions will sponsor a contest for which there will be prizes. But most of the time, we hope that volunteering your talents as a service to the university will be worthwhile motivation! 

"What's in it for ME?"

It may be volunteer work, but that's not to say there's no compensation. Consider the amount of exposure your work could receive: 

NGU.edu receives over two million visits per year. We need photography throughout the site. The image at the top of the page, for example: every page on the site has a header, and each of those can be unique. 

Our Facebook pages have over 5,000 combined "likes" and are read throughout the day by our friends and the media. 

Speaking of the media - the Office of Public Relations also generates hundreds of press releases throughout the year, and it's always better to include a related image. We submit content to a long list of local, state and regional news outlets. 

NGU's semi-annual magazine has over 20,000 recipients. 

NGU's twice-monthly e-Newsletter has over 3,000 recipients.

Aside from these sources, NGU also needs photography for advertisements, videos featuring stills of campus life, and our "Viewbook" - produced every other year - that is presented to parents and students all around the southeast. 

As you can see, there's quite a lot of free exposure to be had! If you're an aspiring professional photographer, this is often better than advertisement. And, if your interest in photography is more of a hobby - it's quite a thrill to see your work in print!

What We Can Use

We need photography year-round, for online and print use. If you follow the guidelines below, you stand a good chance of having your work put to good use promoting NGU!

The Basics

Under no circumstances should you submit images published elsewhere which may be under the copyright of a third party. Likewise, any other copyrighted material may not be submitted. You must own the primary copyright to all material you submit, at least by common law (which means, you just went out and took the photo), and be willing to transfer that copyright to North Greenville University.

Unless the photograph has significant historical value to the University, in particular the Hester Memorial Library Archives, or the Office of Alumni Affairs, we do not accept prints. 

We will accept scans, but we prefer to receive recently-captured digital-origin images. 

We require images produced with at least an 8 megapixel sensor for web-oriented images, and at least 10mp for print-oriented images. We PREFER 12-18 megapixel sensors minimum for all.

Web-oriented images must be presented at 72ppi with a maximum of 120ppi. Print-oriented images must be submitted at 300ppi or greater. 

We prefer that you avoid heavily editing the images. Basic color correction is acceptable. Sizing and rotating to meet certain format criteria is acceptable. But, we can't use any heavily-processed images, anything with artistic effects, sepia or "antique" tones, other arbitrary colorization processes, "chops," collages or distortions. 

We can't accept any images with existing typography. If you have ideas for captions or slogans to go along with your submissions, please include those separately from the images you submit. (We can't promise to use your slogan or caption, whether or not we use your image.) 

We do not accept images featuring the logos of competing institutions. Be mindful, when taking student life shots, to plan for this. We understand the nature of big in-state rivalries, regional family teams and so forth, but when promoting a school, it's kind of a good idea to avoid using another school's identity in the process. By all means, encourage all your friends to never wear anything but Crusader apparel, and all your shots will be good to go!

Anything that would be prohibited according to the Enlightener is not a good subject for a photograph with your name attached to it, much less your face and those of your friends. We'll assume you're bright enough to realize this. But, if you make a mistake and submit a photograph that could be considered "evidence," it will be regarded as a confession.

We do not accept images that do not pertain directly to North Greenville University, its people, and its culture. A flower is beautiful. But, if it isn't obviously on the NGU campus, we can't use it. 

We love happy, smiling faces. Images that depict NGU students engaged in NGU activities in NGU places will be given high priority - especially those which feature faces looking at the lens, which appear genuine and "real" and which likewise relate to one of our main categories (see below). 

Categorical Images

Submit imagery related to one of these five categories: 

• Student Life
• Athletics
• Academics
• Fine Arts
• Missions
  

Content-Specific Images

Submit imagery related to the section of the website upon which you intend it to appear. For example: If you are interested in contributing headers for the College of Education, you'd create images based upon the college, its majors, its people and so forth. 

Match your imagery to its intended context, and make sure it's "obviously NGU-related" as much as possible (scenes from campus locations, NGU people, so forth).

General Images

These are all-purpose images, and should be submitted high-res, unedited. You could produce stock photos of thematic objects, such as athletic gear in still-life, or landscapes or architecture photos. 

These images would be used in production in a variety of media. 

If you wish, you MAY pre-format your images for web use if you want your content to be primarily used online. Just follow the basic standards listed for web-oriented images. 

Media Applications

NGU.edu

There are three types of images you may produce for use on NGU.edu. 

• Main Page "Slider" Rotation Banners - 853x315px, 72ppi, jpeg, categorical
• Internal Headers - 747x225px, 72ppi, jpeg, content-specific
• In-Line / Content Images - 72ppi minimum, jpeg, general

Facebook

There are three types of images you may produce for use on Facebook. 

• Cover Photo - 720x265px, 72ppi, jpeg, categorical or general
• Profile Photo - 300x300px, 72ppi, jpeg, general
• In-Line / Album Photos - 6:4, 72ppi, jpeg, categorical or general
  

The NGU Insider

There are two types of images you may produce for use in the Insider. 

• Article Wide - 250x350px, 72ppi, jpeg, content-specific*
• Article Thumb - 120x120, 72ppi, jpeg, content-specific*
  

The North Greenville University Magazine

Photography may be submitted for use in the Magazine, but in general, this is by assignment. If you're interested in photojournalism, request a shot list from the magazine editor.

Production cycles are August-September and February-March during each academic year. Content deadlines have typically passed by the middle of August/February. But, you can still check in to see if there are any photos yet to be taken. 

If you would prefer to submit general imagery for the magazine, you may do so at any time. Keep in mind that each semester's magazine typically covers events from the previous six months. It is useful to stagger your submissions for the highest potential for publication.

These should be high-resolution, print-oriented images, presented unedited. 

Office of Public Relations Press Releases & Media Kits

The same guidelines apply to press-focused imagery as apply to the NGU Magazine. These are assigned photographs. If you would like to be on the roster of active photographers, send an introductory message to the Director for Public Relations. 

These are time-critical assignments, and you will need to have the flexibility to cover unpredictable events in order to assist the university in this capacity. 

We also prefer print media students for this task if at all possible. 

Office of Admissions

Your greatest potential for creative expression, aside from Facebook images, will be in assisting the Office of Admissions in keeping its supply of photography current up to the minute. 

Your images will typically revolve around the categories listed above, but you may also get requests to cover more artsy or non-traditional images. The Viewbook is one of the most visually creative publications the university produces.

You will prepare images for use in print, which means 300ppi minimum. Most of these images will end up in print ads, the Viewbook, posters, flyers, postcards and in videos. 

Some may end up online, or in the Magazine, but in general, they will be used to promote the university to future students and their families. 

For current needs, contact the Office of Admissions. 

General NGU Advertising

Even the greatest images have short lives in advertising. NGU is always in need of fresh new images showing current students, new facilities, seasonal changes on the campus, and on and on. 

An image that gets picked up for a campaign can really only be used for about six months - even less time if it's a broad campaign. It reaches saturation and begins to lose its ability to catch people's eye. 

So, we have to replace them with fresh images. This is a 24/7/311-day a year task.  (If you're doing the math - that's a year minus Sundays, Christmas, and Good Friday.)

We always need new pictures. And, we don't like to rely upon stock photography services like many universities. We prefer to use our own places, and our own people, so that folks can see the real NGU when they check out our publications. 

So - you can ALWAYS help us out by submitting images for use in ads. 

These would be high-resolution print-oriented ads, 300ppi minimum. 

 

Legal Stuff

There are a couple of minor legal matters we must declare, so that no misunderstandings arise: 

• North Greenville University (also, "The University," and "NGU") makes no guarantees in the above statements. Submission of images to the university is not cause to expect to see them used, and the university does no harm in subjectively considering images by quality and usefulness, and rejecting or postponing the use of submitted materials as it sees fit. 
• By submitting images to North Greenville University, the contributor (also, "You," and "Contributors") agree to cede primary copyright of these images to NGU. 
• NGU may utilize any images submitted in any context or medium, even if it does not match the original intent or desire of the contributor. Submitted images may be altered, or used only in part, as needs arise. 
• NGU agrees to provide photography credits to all contributors whose work it uses, provided that the medium allows such credits to be bestowed. Certain exceptions may apply. There are some publications that do not publish photo credits even when supplied with them. There are other media, such as advertisements and videos, which do not lend themselves to printed credits. NGU is not responsible for the errors of third-party publishers.
• Any and all contributors of images that are published by NGU will be listed in a credits sheet on NGU.edu for as long as their images are in use.
• This is a good-faith, friendly arrangement between volunteers. NGU will place no obligation upon any contributor to provide further content. Likewise, NGU shall not be obligated to any contributor in any capacity not described in this writing.