It is vitally important when you are building a website that you get the choice of photographs correct. But, for something that sounds so straightforward, I am regularly surprised and how difficult the job is made to be by some people. Follow these easy tips to keep it easy!
There are plenty of problems and pitfalls that you might fall for when selecting the photographs for your site. Yet, there are just some things to think about, which numerous people only cannot see.
The first is the shape of the photograph. It sounds straightforward, but lots of people just do not get it. Look at the position available on the web site, or the space holder that is already there and this shows you what to look for.
If you are looking for a photograph to fill a banner at the top of the page, then the shape is going to be that of a letterbox, whereas if it is running down the side of the page, you need a postbox shape. Most photographs before they are cut are either wider than they are tall (landscape) or taller than they are wide (portrait).
Yet numerous times I have been given a portrait shape photograph and told that I should insert it into the top banner of the website! Yes, a landscape photograph might be suitable for being cropped to letterbox, but probably not a portrait shaped photograph.
And when I explain the problem the usual reply is along the lines that I am a web site designer, might’t I sort the picture - after all, I am a professional. Sadly, insults do not get the photos sorted.
The second problem is always the size of the photograph to be used. Just today I was passed a handful of photographs that were, on the screen, no over an inch across. Yet the space they were intended to fill was about three times the size of the photograph. Yes, I can expand them to this size and the usual insults are passed that I am professional and should be able to handle them, but if the basic quality is absent in the photograph then I cannot handle it.
Lastly is the actual quality of the composition of the photographs in question. Not a lot of customers can take high quality photographs, perfectly framed and with the lighting spot on. I do have a few customers who as a rule supply photographs of this quality, but plenty of cannot. It is a skill that takes years to learn and lots of expensive camera equipment to realize.
It is far better to go to a stock photograph website and look through their collections if you are just after generic photographs. The quality of the images available in the best collections is superb, yet the photographs each cost next to nothing. The small cost of buying a suitably sized and shaped image from a professional supplier is well worth it for the lift that it gives to the web site or individual webpage.
Watch the shape of your photographs, watch the size and be sure that the quality of the composition is nothing short of perfect and you are a step closer to a better web site!
Author Resource:
Written by Keith Lunt, who offers a web design Liverpool service. For more useful tips, call into the internet marketing blog .
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")