Tips From Your Web Developer: Delivering Quality Website Graphics

A Picture is Worth a Million Pixels.

This is the second installment of my Tips From Your Web Developer series. You may have read my previous blog, Supply Proper Website Content. This time, we’re on the topic of quality website graphics. Believe it or not, words by themselves are not terribly attractive. If you want to attract visitors to your site, you want it to be fancy, but not over the top. Don’t worry, that’s why you hired me. However, there’s one thing I can’t do for you, and that’s adding pictures that I do not possess to your site. So here are a few tips when it comes to supplying me with pictures:

1. Have an idea of what you want.

One of the biggest trip-ups when it comes to designing websites is when a client wants a bunch of pictures all over their website but can’t decide what pictures they want or where they want them. Usually we only have about five to start with, and it cripples our perception when the site barely looks half-complete without the rest. When we discuss the content of your site, keep in mind what kind of visuals you want the visitors to see that they can associate with the textual content of the page.

Perhaps you want an image of your facility; maybe you want your entire staff on the site. Do you want to have individual pictures of your upper-level staff? Maybe some of the products you use. These are the questions you want to ask yourself when considering your new site. Chances are, you’re coming to us for a new website because your old one is outdated. Consider eliminating the old images from your design. It’s always nice to start a new design process with an upgrade to better pictures.

2. Make ‘em big.

First, let’s make an analogy. Take a wallet-size photograph and stick it into an 8x10 frame. There’s way too much empty space, and it’s visually displeasing to the eye. The best way to fix that is to make the picture fit the viewing space, right? I wouldn’t suggest that you try to stretch the corners to fit the frame; your picture will end up in four pieces. That is roughly what I deal with when I am sent an image with a max size of 600x400px (2 in x 1.33 in). I can’t stretch these 4 inches of picture into 12 inches of window. It just doesn’t work.

That’s one reason I encourage new images when you upgrade your website. Computer screens are massive now, especially with the ability to use 60” HDTVs as monitors. Cameras have gotten better; even phones are taking better pictures than the best cameras in the early years of digital photography. Send me the largest pictures you’ve got and I can size them as is fitting for your new site's needs. It’s always easier to shrink a large photo than to stretch a small one.

Further, sometimes, I have to crop images to make them work with the visual goal of the site, so the larger the picture, the less of a detrimental effect the cropping will have on it.

3. Make sure they’re high-quality.

So this may sound like an extension to my second point, and for the most part, it is. It’s important to have high-quality pictures that aren’t grainy or out of focus. So yes, it usually depends on the camera, but we can’t do anything with a massive picture if it has motion blur from an unstable cameraman.

I would even recommend hiring a professional photographer depending on your needs. We can do so much with good pictures that it really is worth the additional cost. Plus, a professional photographer can find the right angles and lighting for certain pictures to truly capture the essence of your subject.

There you have it - three suggestions that will really help to beef up the visual quality of your website. There are many other effects you can apply to an image to help it achieve its purpose on your site - we can crop, touch up, blur, or tweak an image with a number of effects, so let us know if you have something in mind that you can’t accomplish with a camera. Just remember that we’re really good at making you look good, but we're not magicians.