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April 12, 2010

Website Design – importance of photography

The photography on websites really decides website’s quality. Especially important for ecommerce websites.

Here are my top tips for quality website images.

1. Buy a good camera, a mobile phone will not do! Professional photographers can spend thousands on their cameras, but you can get a decent midrange camera for around Rs.5000.

2. Read the manual. Spend some time reading the manual and checking forums etc for top tips on getting shots.

3. Practice. A professional might be able to get the perfect shot in moments, but for us amatuers quantity is the key! Take lots of shots and experiment.

4. Consistency is super important for product shots. Have a look at any successful ecommerce website and you will spot that all the products are shot in a similar way, same background and same angle. Try to ensure that your images also find their own style.

5. Once you have your images you will need to do some editing. Delete all the rubbish images. Keep the good shots and organise them into product categories (for easy location later). You will always want to keep the original image on file, but the version for the website will usually need to be cropped and resized.

6. Always be consistent with image sizes. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a website selling products and using different sized images on each page – or worse still – different sizes on the same page.

If your website images are still poor after investing your own time and money – consider hiring a professional once your budget allows. Good images really can make great difference.