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ArticleBot · Apr 19, 2004, 02:17

This is a dedicated thread for discussing the SitePoint article 'Sell More With Great Product Shots'

AlexW · Apr 19, 2004, 02:17

Nice little article.

Mainly common sense but common sense isn't as common as you'd think looking around the web.

prairieweb · Apr 19, 2004, 11:08

Good info

Apr 19, 2004, 14:08

Good, if a bit basic.

megamanXplosion · Apr 19, 2004, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexW

Nice little article.

Mainly common sense but common sense isn't as common as you'd think looking around the web.

My thoughts exactly.

hurtdidit · Apr 19, 2004, 17:10

Good article on a topic that affects us all. Great job, Heather, I look forward to reading more from you!

PromoteOrDie · Apr 19, 2004, 17:53

Amazing article with some great tips. It would be good if various tools could be suggested to perform these tasks rather then just Photoshop though.

Si · Apr 20, 2004, 02:29

I think compression is a key issue with photo quality. Often have I seen a really nice website with good information but the imagery is overly optimized and makes the site look amateur. A few more seconds on a download could make the difference between pro and amateur!

mixDev · Apr 20, 2004, 07:12

Good. a must read for everyone working on online product stores. Online selling is sensitive in every aspect. So lets beat the other guy.

thanks Heather

HeatherID · Apr 20, 2004, 09:55

Thanks for all the great feedback! It really serves as great motivation for a first-time author.

And by all means, keep the feedback coming!
-Heather

Pace · Apr 21, 2004, 04:11

Yeah I like the article, like it has been mentioned this may be basic information but still should be applied, so for those already not in the know this one is most definately for you...

Apr 24, 2004, 02:36

a vary good reckoner for all the IT sales. If you are honest with your product you are right why cant we make it more closer to eyes.

Apr 26, 2004, 06:47

Great point. I'm a photographer, and web designer, and use photo's on everything. Just to augment Heather's article slightly, I always start with a very high res image ( I shoot with a canon 1d, and an assortment of canon lenses), do all my editing/cropping on the high res image, then the last thing I do, is reduce the file size suitable for the web.

Greg Mann
gregmann@sportslense.com

domino1 · Apr 26, 2004, 07:52

All to often retail websites are strung together without sufficient attention to quality of product images. Most of my web design time is spent editing images to give my sites an edge over the competition. However, there are a couple of downsides to this. 1) My competitors steal my images. (I have considered water-marking them but if the water-mark is placed such that it can't easily be removed then it will probably detract from the overall quality of the image.) 2) People may browse my site and look at all the images of a particular product and then go and buy it cheaper elsewhere. The hope of course, is that customers relate the quality of presentation of the products on the website to the quality of service that they will receive should they choose to make a purchase.

Heather: Do you have any insight into customer loyalty with online stores? We get lots of great feedback from our customers about our website but when it comes down to it, if they can get it cheaper elsewhere, it appears they will.

(Nicely written article by the way.)

HeatherID · Apr 26, 2004, 11:13

Wow, I really can't believe all the positive feedback that's coming in! Thanks guys!

Greg -- Thanks for adding to my point. Starting with high-res images definitely makes things easier down the line when it comes to web graphics.

Domino -- Sadly enough, it seems like most people use the web as an easier method of shopping around, and they go with the lower prices. Many of the things you can do to increase customer loyalty revolve not around your product photos, but around your customer service, even though the look and presentation of your wares does make quite a difference. Perhaps you could offer an incentive (i.e. free shipping, free gift with purchase, free giftwrapping). It's hard for me to say, since I'm not sure what kind of products you're selling, and who your competition is. Feel free to PM me and I'll see what else I can think up.

Hierophant · Apr 26, 2004, 11:55

I thought the article was good as well. However, I second the sentiment that alternatives to Photoshop should be presented as well. I personally use Photoshop Elements as the full version of the product is cost prohibitive. Not being a graphic artist, it would be wonderful if someone could show business owners a way to use less expensive software to get good results instead of relying on $1000 dollar packages.

mattyj · Apr 26, 2004, 21:08

a bit of sharpening (Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop) goes down a treat on an image. It brings out the detail in the product, is nearly always required on any raw image, and is especially necessary after resizing the image down from a larger size/resolution. Don't go overboard with it though.

May 7, 2004, 20:54

It is a shame that there was no information about how to create a drop shadow. Everything else was explained well.

Aug 5, 2004, 10:29

Anonymous. To make a drop shadow in photoshop, select the layer you want the effect to be applied on, go to layer -> layer style -> drop shadow.
Have a great time!

EichTechServ · Aug 5, 2004, 20:20

I too feel that photos can save a poor website as they are 90% of what a customer looks for when reviewing a website. Although this info is basic maybe it is nice to remind us not to slack off behind the camera.

Aug 8, 2005, 20:29

Excellent article.

Oct 31, 2006, 07:39

Interesting article. I recently discovered a useful tool called <snip> that is a real time-saver for creating product shots of boxes or books/magazines where drop shadows, rotation, depth and reflections are required. This cuts out a lot of lengthy resizing and skewed transformations in Photoshop. However, the real work is still done in a great starting image.

birnam · Nov 3, 2006, 13:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Si

I think compression is a key issue with photo quality. Often have I seen a really nice website with good information but the imagery is overly optimized and makes the site look amateur. A few more seconds on a download could make the difference between pro and amateur!

A similar problem I've seen is when a high res photo is resized in a wysiwyg editor by changing the height/width img attributes. Since browsers do a poor job of resizing the image, it looks terrible. This is pretty common when you have a non-designer maintaining a website through a wysiwyg administration panel, but it can happen to big sites too! I was pretty appalled when Apple released their new Nano ipod and all of the photos of the Nano online were resized by HTML!

(In fact, it STILL IS -- http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/gallery/ )

Heather: great article. It's one of those common-sense-but-not-common-enough topics. And it goes for wherever photography is used in a website. I hate it when my clients can only provide photos they took themselves in bad lighting with some five-year-old 2 megapixel P.O.S. digital camera. There's nothing you can do to design around bad photography, and I'm never able to use those projects in my portfolio. I'm keeping this article bookmarked to send my clients in the future!

Dec 1, 2006, 15:03

Thats good stuff Heather. The only thing I think your missing though is sharpening. I discovered this just this year and it makes it a huge difference with optimized images.

Corrie Haffly wrote an article on it for this site here: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/sharpening-photoshop-cs2. She goes into a longer, more precise way to sharpen, but for most the unsharp mask filter applied a couple of times with average settings does just fine.

candidindia · Dec 2, 2006, 05:02

Nice article on a attractive topic that affects us all. Great job, Really looking forward to reading some more and nice content from you!

Apr 19, 2004, 02:17	#1
ArticleBot SitePoint Articles Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 0	Discussion thread for Sell More With Great Product Shots This is a dedicated thread for discussing the SitePoint article 'Sell More With Great Product Shots'

Apr 26, 2004, 07:52	#14
domino1 SitePoint Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: West Sussex, UK Posts: 9	All to often retail websites are strung together without sufficient attention to quality of product images. Most of my web design time is spent editing images to give my sites an edge over the competition. However, there are a couple of downsides to this. 1) My competitors steal my images. (I have considered water-marking them but if the water-mark is placed such that it can't easily be removed then it will probably detract from the overall quality of the image.) 2) People may browse my site and look at all the images of a particular product and then go and buy it cheaper elsewhere. The hope of course, is that customers relate the quality of presentation of the products on the website to the quality of service that they will receive should they choose to make a purchase. Heather: Do you have any insight into customer loyalty with online stores? We get lots of great feedback from our customers about our website but when it comes down to it, if they can get it cheaper elsewhere, it appears they will. (Nicely written article by the way.) Last edited by domino1; Apr 26, 2004 at 09:55.

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Apr 19, 2004, 02:17	#2
AlexW Team SitePoint Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Melbourne Posts: 1,004	Nice little article. Mainly common sense but common sense isn't as common as you'd think looking around the web.

Apr 19, 2004, 11:08	#3
prairieweb SitePoint Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Kansas Posts: 301	Good info

Apr 19, 2004, 14:08	#4
Anonymous SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Good, if a bit basic.

Apr 19, 2004, 17:10	#6
hurtdidit Chronic Insomniac Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: North Dakota Posts: 655	Good article on a topic that affects us all. Great job, Heather, I look forward to reading more from you!

Apr 19, 2004, 17:53	#7
PromoteOrDie SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: London, England Posts: 44	Amazing article with some great tips. It would be good if various tools could be suggested to perform these tasks rather then just Photoshop though.

Apr 20, 2004, 02:29	#8
Si Also available in Large Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Walsall, UK Posts: 1,971	I think compression is a key issue with photo quality. Often have I seen a really nice website with good information but the imagery is overly optimized and makes the site look amateur. A few more seconds on a download could make the difference between pro and amateur!

Apr 20, 2004, 07:12	#9
mixDev SitePoint Zealot Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: B'lore Posts: 131	Good. a must read for everyone working on online product stores. Online selling is sensitive in every aspect. So lets beat the other guy. thanks Heather

Apr 20, 2004, 09:55	#10
HeatherID SitePoint Zealot Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Maine, USA Posts: 146	Thanks for all the great feedback! It really serves as great motivation for a first-time author. And by all means, keep the feedback coming! -Heather

Apr 21, 2004, 04:11	#11
Pace SitePoint Addict Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Manchester - UK Posts: 296	Yeah I like the article, like it has been mentioned this may be basic information but still should be applied, so for those already not in the know this one is most definately for you...

Apr 24, 2004, 02:36	#12
Anonymous SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	a vary good reckoner for all the IT sales. If you are honest with your product you are right why cant we make it more closer to eyes.

Apr 26, 2004, 06:47	#13
Anonymous SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Great point. I'm a photographer, and web designer, and use photo's on everything. Just to augment Heather's article slightly, I always start with a very high res image ( I shoot with a canon 1d, and an assortment of canon lenses), do all my editing/cropping on the high res image, then the last thing I do, is reduce the file size suitable for the web. Greg Mann gregmann@sportslense.com

Apr 26, 2004, 11:13	#15
HeatherID SitePoint Zealot Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Maine, USA Posts: 146	Wow, I really can't believe all the positive feedback that's coming in! Thanks guys! Greg -- Thanks for adding to my point. Starting with high-res images definitely makes things easier down the line when it comes to web graphics. Domino -- Sadly enough, it seems like most people use the web as an easier method of shopping around, and they go with the lower prices. Many of the things you can do to increase customer loyalty revolve not around your product photos, but around your customer service, even though the look and presentation of your wares does make quite a difference. Perhaps you could offer an incentive (i.e. free shipping, free gift with purchase, free giftwrapping). It's hard for me to say, since I'm not sure what kind of products you're selling, and who your competition is. Feel free to PM me and I'll see what else I can think up.

Apr 26, 2004, 11:55	#16
Hierophant Your Lord and Master, Foamy Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: Lancaster, Ca. USA Posts: 12,732	I thought the article was good as well. However, I second the sentiment that alternatives to Photoshop should be presented as well. I personally use Photoshop Elements as the full version of the product is cost prohibitive. Not being a graphic artist, it would be wonderful if someone could show business owners a way to use less expensive software to get good results instead of relying on $1000 dollar packages.

Apr 26, 2004, 21:08	#17
mattyj SitePoint Zealot Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Western Australia Posts: 172	a bit of sharpening (Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop) goes down a treat on an image. It brings out the detail in the product, is nearly always required on any raw image, and is especially necessary after resizing the image down from a larger size/resolution. Don't go overboard with it though.

May 7, 2004, 20:54	#18
Anonymous SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	It is a shame that there was no information about how to create a drop shadow. Everything else was explained well.

Aug 5, 2004, 10:29	#19
Shadabad SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Anonymous. To make a drop shadow in photoshop, select the layer you want the effect to be applied on, go to layer -> layer style -> drop shadow. Have a great time!

Aug 5, 2004, 20:20	#20
EichTechServ SitePoint Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Rock Falls Posts: 19	I too feel that photos can save a poor website as they are 90% of what a customer looks for when reviewing a website. Although this info is basic maybe it is nice to remind us not to slack off behind the camera.

Aug 8, 2005, 20:29	#21
Paul SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Excellent article.

Oct 31, 2006, 07:39	#22
denitu SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Interesting article. I recently discovered a useful tool called <snip> that is a real time-saver for creating product shots of boxes or books/magazines where drop shadows, rotation, depth and reflections are required. This cuts out a lot of lengthy resizing and skewed transformations in Photoshop. However, the real work is still done in a great starting image.

Dec 1, 2006, 15:03	#24
joe SitePoint Community Guest Posts: n/a	Thats good stuff Heather. The only thing I think your missing though is sharpening. I discovered this just this year and it makes it a huge difference with optimized images. Corrie Haffly wrote an article on it for this site here: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/sharpening-photoshop-cs2. She goes into a longer, more precise way to sharpen, but for most the unsharp mask filter applied a couple of times with average settings does just fine.

Dec 2, 2006, 05:02	#25
candidindia SitePoint Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 72	Nice article on a attractive topic that affects us all. Great job, Really looking forward to reading some more and nice content from you!