Ask Ann: Photo Mistakes, Preparations and Impact on your Website.
In the last two issues, we have discussed search engine strategies and preparation for your website and how to gain control over the SPAM so you can actually find and read the important email and just in time before the holiday overflow of SPAM starts. Now that people can find your website in the search engines and you are now able to find and read the “real email”, what else can you do to help make more sales before the holidays? Art Glass Product Photos!
Preparing your website and photos of your beautiful Art Glass Pieces for your website or online Photo Gallery is “The” most important marketing and selling tool on your website! Photos are also the most important issue is keeping the home page looking new. If you don’t display and/or regularly change the a photo of your finished artwork then regardless of how much people like your artwork, they have no reason to come back.
Photographs are compelling! For a Glass Artist website, photos can be used to establish credibility and to make your products and people real to your site visitors. Definitely include high-quality photos of any products you sell. Consider including photos of the artist, of the staff, and of the business storefront or offices to help make that personal connection and establish recognition.
Be careful with animation and multimedia. Animation is almost a no-no in business sites. Clever spinning buttons and animated characters look silly or unprofessional in most business sites. Multimedia can also bog down pages and create problems for users browsers and quickness of viewing your pages.
Yet motion can be fascinating and attractive. So use it correctly — consider creating a simple animated sequence of photos of the same piece of artwork that shows your product in use or at different rotated angles, or include a multimedia clip of the head of the company talking about what the company does. BUT, make these elements so they can be easily skipped or avoided by those who don't want to use them,
Finally, ask the tough questions of your friends and colleagues to determine if your site has a professional appearance. If they are reluctant ask specific questions like what their favorite small business site is and how yours compares to it or what few things would change about your site if they could. Don't get upset by the feedback and keep making changes until the feedback you get is positive.
I regularly prepare photos for peoples website and do a lot of photo corrections like these examples but you can avoid many of these issues by following these guidelines
How to Improve Your Basic Photography Skills
and Goof Proof your Pictures:
1. How do you avoid out of focus pictures?
Answer: Stay at least four feet away from your subject. On many cameras, anything nearer will be out of focus. You may also want to try a tripod to make the camera stationary. I also recommend if you are using a digital camera that you set it up to take the highest resolution possible. The more pixels, the better quality picture and better chances to make photo corrections with software.
2. What is a “busy” picture and what can you do to avoid one?
Answer: A background with lots going on can distract from your subject. Pick a simple background. Your artwork now stands out as the center of attention.
3. What should I do to make sure I don’t cut off part of my artwork or they are too small?
Answer: Get close enough to fill most of the frame with your subject – but not too close. Leave some space around your subject because edges are cut off when the film is printed.
4. Why are my pictures too dark only in certain places and how can I correct?
Answer: Multiple pieces of artwork placed at different distances from the camera get different amounts of light from the flash: One in the front could end up too light (overexposed) and one in the back could end up too dark (underexposed). Place your artwork at the same distance from the light source or flash and they’ll be the same brightness.
5. Why do I get shadows and how can I avoid this?
Answer: Try to take pictures with the light behind you, the photographer. When shooting into the sun, using a flash (even when outside) can lighten shadows.
6. My Art Glass has white spots showing from the reflections. How can I correct this?
Answer: A flash or spot lights can look can create the white spots. Turn on more lights to brighten the room evenly, try placing a dark cloth behind you so light doesn’t bounce back off other glass or mirrored surfaces. You can also try hanging a dark cloth along the sides of the artwork to keep out reflections. I personally have found taking pictures outside in the very early morning light often produces the best overall natural lighting without reflections and all you need is a simply solid colored cloth to keep the background simple so again your artwork the center of attention.
7. How can I prepare my photos for my website with the least amount of steps?
Answer: Keeping technology simply and productive can be challenging but try these steps:
A. Scan in at the highest resolution you can. (Also clean off any smudges and de-lint the glass surface of scanner)
Steps using photo software:
B. Rotate the picture until straight.
C. Crop the photo eliminating all background not required, you want the focus on your work not the background.
D. Auto adjust brightness and contrast to make sure photo is bright and colorful enough, minimal shadows.
E. Image size: First adjust the picture quality to 72 dpi. Second adjust the “width only” to 300 pixels AND make sure that the constraint box is checked to keep the image proportional. Make sure you do these steps in this order.
F. Sharpen the image
G. Save for the web in .jpg file format about 50% to 70% reduction in quality. You want the physical size of the file, kb (kilo bytes) size to be about 20 to 35kb in size for optimal appearance and quick loading, no more than 50kb and preferably closer to 20kb.
Ann
Sanborn provides glass artist websites, full hosting
services (sanbornwebdesigns.com)
and an international online directory dedicated to
promoting the Art Glass Community (glassart.biz).
She has over 18 years' experience in the technology
business and specializes in start-up Internet companies.
Ann is also an art glass professional as well with her
own design studio and creates custom commissioned
pieces. Along with her many corporate and individual
clients, she the Webmaster for the Art
Glass Association. A
Sanborn Corporation, " Merging the beauty of
Glass Art with Practical Internet Technologies"TM.
Phone
(727)-397-3073
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