You can download and print the Photo Guidelines Acrobat file by clicking here.

Your Photo

Important Notice: Most of this page is directed to those who have a good working knowledge of Photoshop, or a similar program, and scanning terminology. The specifications for the electronic image must be followed or we will not be able to use it. If you don't think you're up to submitting an electronic version you can click here to skip to the 'Mail In' instructions.

If you have a digital photo only, and you are not sure if it meets or can meet the digital requirements presented here, send it to us anyway.  We can use specialized software to enhance the image so it can be used.

The two above photos are good tribute examples. Photo selection and cropping is vitally important to the production of a nice tribute. If you have experience using Photoshop or another photo program like Corel’s Photo Paint please follow these guidelines. We will round the corners of the photo, so you don’t have to concern yourself with that procedure.

Chances are quite good that your photo will not be the correct size. You’ll be cropping the photo to a specific area. When you make a tribute of this nature you want to feature the individual(s) most prominently. Each of the above photos features the person(s) very well. The photo on the right was cropped from a small area of a large photo. Good contrast is also very important.

Important: Face size is a concern. We want people to easily recognize the tribute's subject(s). If you have a photo that has two or more people represented be sure to crop it so their faces show up well. The tribute photo area is 2.75" high x 2.5" wide, so use your best judgment. The individual(s) should be easily recognizable.

Your scan or digital photo needs to be 1200 dpi. Convert color photos to 8 bit grayscale. Crop your area to 2.75” (3300 pixels) high x 2.5” (3000 pixels) wide. It’s best to scan a film photo to the desired optical resolution. Do not take a low resolution digital photo or cropped area and resample it up to 1200 dpi. If you send a low resolution image, we can resample it using special software. Any photo is better than no photo. The image may not be optimal, but it should OK. Save the photo as a .jpg.

Note about saving as .jpg: Use no more than 10% compression if possible. The resulting 1200 dpi .jpg should be less than 1 MB. Check its size after saving. If it's over the 1MB limit increase your compression a little.

Digital Photo Resizing

Note: We use 300 dpi as an example only in the following explanation.

This example looks at the resample information of a digital photo I took at the preserve. It’s a good size photo dimensionally, but it’s only 72 dpi. I wanted a 2.5” high photo @ 300 dpi of Tigra’s head for use on a sample plaque.

I can resample the photo down to 24% and end up with a 300 dpi image, which I could use for a tribute plaque.

If I wanted to feature Tigra’s head on a tribute, and I cropped that 4.8” x 3.2” 300 dpi resample to the selected area, I would end up with a good head shot, but the photo is only 1” high @ 300 dpi. I want a 2 ½”high photo for my plaque.

If I reset the height to 2 ½” the best I can end up with is a 125 dpi photo. The sampling bytes of the New Image size must remain the same or lower than the Original Image size or pixelation will occur. So this image would not be suitable for the tribute.

If I crop my original 4.8” x 3.2” 300 dpi resample to the actual 2.5” height I want for the tribute I end up with the 300 dpi photo I need, but now the head is so small it might not reproduce well in an etching.

That’s the problem with digital photos for this application. Unless you have a camera that can produce very high resolution images, or you get a close up of the precise area you need for a successful downward resample, you may not end up with the optimal resolution.

But if that’s all you have, then we can work with it. I have actually reproduced some nice samples using low resolution images. I prefer to start with a true 1200 dpi optical resolution scan from a good photograph, but that's not always possible.

Sending Film Photo

If you have only film photos and do not have graphic experience or the equipment necessary to produce a good electronic image follow these guidelines.

Select the photo you feel will be the best for the tribute. It will probably need to be cropped to a specific area. We will do that. Optionally, if you would like a specific area of your photograph used, first make a photocopy of your photograph. On that photocopy draw an outline around the area you want us to use on the tribute plaque. We will use that as our guide when scanning and cropping the image. Your photo will not be harmed. It will be returned to you if requested. In addition, please fill out this Photo Declaration Form. Mail the signed form, photo, and photocopy, if that option is used, to the address at the bottom of this page. Please include the warrior's full name so we can match it with your tribute information. The tribute information must be submitted electronically using the Tribute Submission Form. The link to that form is on the Tribute Application Form.

You will need a username and password to access the Tribute Submission Form. If you do not have these already please click here.

Mailing your photo:

Mail us your film photo, photocopy, and Photo Declaration Form to the address below.

Freedom Memorials, Inc.
5225 Banks Haven Ct.
Raleigh, NC 27603-8957

If you know someone who has good experience with a photo program you might ask them to prepare and upload your digital image.

Uploading you photo via the Internet:

Go to the Tribute Application Form and click the Tribute Submission Form link. You will need a Username and Password which you can apply for using the form on that page. The photo should be uploaded at the same time the tribute information is submitted. The photo must be a .jpg image. Name the photo ‘warriors last name_warriors first name’.jpg. If you're submitting a photo after you submitted your tribute using the Tribute Submission Form, please use this Photo Upload Form. Most of the fields are set to required on the the Tribute Submission Form. The information would be redundant, so we provided the Photo Upload Form as a second option.