Preparing Images

If you have pictures that you have taken yourself, you may have to do some work on them before using them on your website. Use one of the free software packages available to improve your image such as IrfanView or Picasa.
Crop, Enhance and Resize your image so that you get the best quality in the smallest size. We recommend saving as a jpeg as we find this format is best used for detailed and colourful images.

Faster Images – reduce the file size

Your aim is to reduce the size of the image without sacrificing the quality.
If a page doesn't load in 8 seconds, usually the visitor closes the window and tries a different website. Often a slow loading page has lots of large images. Try a JPEG reduction software such as JPEG Wizard to reduce the size of your image without reducing the quality.

Purchase Images

If you feel you haven’t got the tools or skills to create your own images, there are many websites that sell good quality images at a very reasonable price – some as little as $1 per image. Think of the time you would save! If you do purchase images, make sure you read the fine print before doing so. There are some vendors that will only allow you to use their images for uncommercial websites.

Relevance to your Website

It’s probably not of much use to have a photo of a Santa on your website if you are selling ladies makeup! Make sure the images make sense rather than just look good. It is also important to make sure the image is not confusing or cryptic – visitors to your website do not have time to work out the message a cryptic image is trying to convey.

Be Politically Correct

Beware of being sexist or racist when choosing images. Think of your target market, their age and cultural background and select images to suit. Some visitors could get the impression of an unprofessional business if all images are of pretty young ladies.

Beware of moving Images

Yes moving images really catch the eye – but make sure that they are not slowing your website down too much and that they are worth it.

Copyright 

Don't be tempted to copy images from other websites and put them on yours. It’s easier than you think to get caught!