Photos for the programme: choosing, scanning and gentle fixes

Choosing the cover photo — the truest, not the newest

The best cover photo is the one that makes people say 'that's him.' It isn't always the most recent, and it doesn't have to be formal. Look for their real face — the smile people knew, the eyes, the way they held themselves — even if the photo is twenty years old. A grandmother at her happiest in her church clothes, or a father laughing at a braai, matters more than a stiff studio portrait. Choose the era that fits the person most people are coming to remember. If the family can't agree, put three photos on the table and ask which one sounds most like them.

Scanning a printed photo with your phone

Most treasured photos are old prints — behind glass in a frame, tucked into a Bible, or loose in an album. You don't need a scanner or a print shop to copy them; your phone will do a fine job if you get the light and the angle right. The enemies are glare and reflections, and both are easy to beat once you know how:

• Take the print out of the frame if you can safely — shooting through glass causes reflections.
• Work near a window in soft daylight, not direct sun. Even, indirect light is what you want.
• Turn the flash off — a phone flash bounces straight back off a glossy print as a white blur.
• Hold the phone flat and parallel to the photo, directly above it, so the picture isn't skewed.
• Use a free scanning app like Google PhotoScan, which removes glare by taking several shots and combining them.
• Fill the frame with the photo and keep steady — rest your elbows on a table if your hands shake.

Small fixes that help

A little gentle tidying helps a photo sit well on the printed page, and you can do all of it in the photo editor already built into your phone — there is no need for special software or a design programme. The goal is a clean, clear picture that still looks like the person, not a made-over one. These small adjustments are the ones genuinely worth making:

• Crop in to the person, especially for the cover, so their face fills the space.
• Straighten a crooked scan using the rotate or straighten tool.
• Lift the brightness a touch if the print was dark, and nudge the contrast so it doesn't look flat.
• Spot-remove a big scratch or stain if the editor allows, but don't chase every little mark.
• Save a copy rather than editing over the original — you may want the untouched version later.

What to avoid

The aim is to make the photo look like itself on a clean page, not to transform it into something new. It is easy, with today's phone apps, to overdo things and end up with a picture the family quietly dislikes without knowing why — the face has simply stopped being the face they knew. A few things reliably do more harm than good:

• Heavy beauty or 'smoothing' filters that erase lines and make skin look plastic — they take the person's character with them.
• Strong colour filters or vignettes that draw the eye to the effect instead of the face.
• Turning a colour photo black-and-white to look 'classic' — it usually just looks flat, and the real colours are lost.
• Blowing up a tiny, blurry photo too large; it will print as a smudge. Keep small photos small on the page.
• AI 'restore' or 'enhance' tools that invent detail and change the face — if it no longer looks exactly like them, don't use it.

How many photos a programme needs

A programme doesn't need many photos, and too many make the pages feel busy and cluttered — three or four well-chosen images are usually plenty. In our programme editor you can drop them into the layout and see how they sit on the page before you commit to printing. Let the strongest photo carry the cover and keep the rest quiet. A simple, dignified arrangement usually runs like this:

• One strong cover photo — their face, chosen with care.
• One or two inside — perhaps a younger portrait and a later one — near the life story or order of service.
• One quieter photo for the back: a garden, a church, a favourite scene, or a wider family moment.
• For a separate photo collage or a longer memorial, gather six to twelve; for the programme itself, keep it few.

Photo etiquette at the service

Photographs at the funeral itself call for gentler manners than a birthday or a wedding. People do want pictures — of the flowers, the family together, the day itself — and that is natural, but grief deserves a light touch and a little restraint. A few quiet reminders keep everyone comfortable and spare the family any hurt in the weeks afterwards:

• Ask the family before photographing the open casket; many would rather it wasn't done at all.
• Keep phones on silent, and don't hold one up during prayers or the eulogy.
• Ask before taking close pictures of mourners — grief isn't a photo opportunity.
• Don't post photos on Facebook or a WhatsApp status before the family has, and never before distant relatives have been told of the death.
• If there's an official photographer, let them work; the family can share those pictures afterwards.