...tells a story or may help to, so photographs and illustrations play a vital part in the creation of most layouts, and the choice of an appropriate style is obviously vital. You can contact photographers and artists through specialist agents, by consulting one of the many books of published work or through your own network of contacts.

Illustrations are usually specially commissioned, but you can purchase existing photographs or illustrations from stock shot libraries, either purchasing the rights to use the image for a specific purpose or buying the image outright, known as royalty free.

For web use there many sites offering totally free images of varying quality, they will invariably be 72dpi images that may look fine on screen but will not be able to be used for print work as this will require 300dpi plus for good quality reproduction.

Photo opportunity

A successful layout makes use of both text and images. A picture can be worth a thousand words, but it can also be an irritating irrelevance! It is usually best to commission to a rough layout, otherwise you may find yourself with unwanted pictures or unfilled holes. A layout gives the photographer an opportunity to compose the picture to fit a given shape.

Cropping (masking-off parts of a picture) can sometimes improve a photograph, even though it is not what the photographer intended, but cropping it simply to make it fit will invariably result in the photographic quality being compromised. As an alternative to the squared-up picture, you may be able to treat some photographs as cut-outs, when the background is removed. A statue or a shot of packaging would work in this way, for example, but do not cut out an image if it is at all soft (out of focus). Beware, too, of hair, mohair sweaters and the like or any naturally diffuse edge unless you have access to retouching skills.

Nearly all photographs are shot in colour. Cheaper technology allows them to be printed in colour too. Paradoxically colour can sometimes be intrusive: e.g. a candid reportage image of a terrified bystander, spoiled by the distraction of red curtains in an adjacent window.

The choice

Illustration is more effective at conveying complex ideas, while a photograph is normally more literal. The photograph, however, usually carries more direct emotional content, and some of the most powerful pictures ever published have been of people and landscapes, the human face being the most potent image of all.

An illustration can be more manageable and more easily integrated into a complex layout or odd shape. The choice ultimately depends on which is more likely to satisfy the demands of the brief and the budget.