Negative scanned for delivery to NFL Films

[Dan Herrmann]

NFL Films series "A Football Life" will air a story about the Immaculate Recptions game.
My father shot photos for the Steelers every home and away game.
I scanned every photo he made that day and sent it sanned at 6000 DPI and TIF.

What would be the best delivery in the future as I own hundreds of games and thousands of photos of the Steelers run through the 70's. My Dad took alot of candid shots and i know of 11 they are using in the DOC.

Thet pay nice per photos too and my Dad can use it in his upper 80's.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I would think that a high-quality JPEG with a minimum resolution of 1920x1080 would be adequate. (For instance, with a square photo, go for 1920x1920 or better.)

On the other hand, if there is an important detail in a particular photo, like a newspaper headline or an engraving on a trophy, having a version with the highest possible resolution could be helpful. Higher resolutions also allow Ken Burns' style panning and scanning, so higher resolutions (say 3840x2160 or better) would allow for creative use.

JPEG only has 8-bits per channel, but if the photo is well exposed and processed, 8-bits is probably adequate. NFL Films would typically go for a more documentary style than a Hollywood grading style, so 8-bits is probably adequate. For deeper color, you could deliver JPEG 2000 formatted images, which are smaller than TIFFs and can provide 16-bit color channels (if your software supports it). If the images are black and white, 8-bits (well-dithered) is almost certainly adequate.

One approach would be to provide 1920x1080 JPEGs by default and to offer higher res TIFFs or JPEG 2000 files for specific images on request - possibly at additional cost.