Pictures
The quality of your pictures matters a great deal, since it will be the main media that
potential customers will see and judge your item/product by. So, I can't emphasis
enough the importance of good pictures for your web site. It is well worth any time
you may put into taking pictures of your items/products or any investment (hiring
a professional photgrapher) you may make. Great pictures are worth a thousand words or more ....
Frame the shot ....
When taking pictures for your web site, make sure to frame out the shot. What is
meant by this is to make sure there is nothing else in the picture except the product
or item. A good way to achieve this is to use a back drop (a piece of fabric, blanket,
...). I find that a solid contrasting color works best. You can play around with
this and see what works best for your products.
Once you find something that works good, it is best to try and use it as much as
possible. This will create a good look for your web site as well as a consistent
look. The other advantage and most important advantage, is that it will help your
product stand out in the picture. People won't be distracted by other colors or
images in the picture. The main objective here is to place emphasis’s on your product/item.
Lighting and Glare ....
Lighting is very important. If you don't have a special light room setup for taking
pictures, then you'll have to work with natural light. The best natural light
is in the morning and then in the evening.
Sometimes you may be taking pictures of an item that gives off a glare. To
help prevent glare, pay attention to reflective light. If there is sometime in the
area where you are taking your pictures that is White, it will reflect a lot more
light than you realize. So move the item you are photographing so that it
isn't near something white, if you are getting to much glare.
Now, sometimes you can use the reflective lighting to bring in light when there
isn't enough light for the item you photographing.
Another problem can be that the item you are photographing may come out to bright.
Check to see if your flash is going off when taking your pictures. If the
lighting is good, you shouldn't need a flash for most things. Turning off
your flash will also help with glare.
Don't be afraid to play around and see what works best for the items you are photographing.
Remember to be consistent with your pictures (same back drop/background, good lighting,
don't have any other objects in the picture, except for the item of focus).
Picture Format ....
My preferred picture format is digital, in .JPG format at full resolution (the orginal picture
without any cropping, ....). I can work with other formats, such as:
.TIFF, .GIF, .PSD, .PNG, .PSP.
If you don't have a digital camera or you hired a professional photographer to take your photos,
you can still have these put into digital format ( - .JPG, .TIFF, .GIF,
.PSD, .PNG, etc....).
When having film developed or if a professional photgrapher takes pictures for you, almost always
both of these places today will offer you the option to have your photos put on a CD,
(digital format) for an additional small fee.
Now, if you find you only have photos on photo paper, you can take these to most
office supply stores, print shops or graphic shops and they can scan them into the
computuer and then place them on a CD for you to have in digital format.
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