It’s very easy to underestimate imaging on your website and yet (apart from having a really slow site) it’s typically the main thing that will entice someone to stay or have them on their way ! With regard to photography, dont be tempted to just use a few old photos you have lying around. If you want to impress you have to do one of :

• Hire a professional photographer ( for a reasonable period of time) AND take the time to prepare the subject matter. EG ….
  • If it’s the front of your building, make sure it’s clean and there isn’t something in the picture that shouldn’t be there
  • If it’s your product, make sure it’s displayed in the best possible context.
  • You may need other things into consideration like take time of the day or the weather
• Go to a stock photography site and get quality stock images which say what you want them to say ( Tip – Stock photography ranges all the way from free to extremely expensive so shop around )
• Take the photos yourself. It may be that you know how to do this, but dont just grab a camera and take a few shots. Here’s a checklist.
  • Good camera
  • Any other necessary equipment ( you may need a tripod and/or flash
  • Give yourself lots of time ( 10 minutes and 2 hours is sometimes all that separates amateurs from pros )
  • Look carefully at the subject and make sure everything is right
  • If you have impatient people working with you then be prepared have to make them wait. ( Nicely of course !)
  • Get the timing right – dont take sun holiday photos in the rain or nighlife photos in the morning etc.
  • Take lots of photos, typically ten or twenty times what you need – get all the angles etc.
  • Study the photos afterward to pick the right one(s)
  • If you know a bit of photoshop you can play with the contrast/brightness or airbrush something out

When you have your photos and are happy with them, dont just upload them to the site. They may need cropping and even if they dont you are better off preparing them for the web before you upload them. Some digital cameras make huge filesizes and even if they are in the right format ( Which is usually JPEG by the way ) then they would take up too much space so open them in Photoshop or GIMP and reduce them down to a reasonable size for your site. This is measured in pixels and as an example a small photo would be aprox 100px accross with a large full screen shot being maybe 1000px accross.

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