You want to capture as much of the image as possible in the dots or "pixels" - points of color - that make up the digital picture. The more pixels you have, the more detail is included in the photo. The file size gives you an indication of how many pixels there are. For typical use in the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, a color photograph should be at least 1.5 megabytes, and a black-and-white image at least 750 kilobytes. You can scan the photo at whatever resolution (often 300-400 dots per inch, or dpi) that will give you that file size.
Files in the TIFF format are preferred. JPEG files can be used, but they must not be condensed more than an "8".
You can compress large files as a .zip file to send them without losing quality.
Some scanners offer a choice between "optical" and "enhanced" scanning. Use the optical resolution number. A scanner using "enhanced" resolution is actually making up information to fill in parts of the image it can't record, resulting in a low quality scan.
A few readers have asked about digital cameras. In general, these cameras do not yet capture images with file sizes large enough or at the quality of the permanent archive. So the Militant is recommending to correspondents to use conventional cameras until that quality becomes available.
Always remember to send the negatives (or prints if necessary) to the Militant for the long-term archive. The e- mail photos are not sufficient. If you want them back, just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope along with the negatives; they will not be saved if you don't request them.
Send captions for every photo. Captions should contain as much detail as possible. The bare essentials of captioning include: date and location of the photo, photographer credit, and names of individuals in the image when possible. Keep in mind the caption is the only way to identify the photo once it is archived!
-M.A.