Optimize Your Photos for the Web

February 28, 2008 | By Doug In Digital Cameras |

It doesn’t matter if your emailing photos of your grandson or putting images of your latest product on your online store. Too many people don’t consider optimizing their photos for the web. We’ve all been on too many web pages where it seemed that the photos would never load, and sometimes they didn’t. So here are some steps to make sure that your photos show up on your site.

1. Always have a back up original format copy of your image. Never alter the original. Believe me you will regret it.

2. Crop to size. Make sure that you crop out any extra information that isn’t needed. Remember the larger the photo the longer it takes to load or send.

3. Resize to reduce pixels. There should be an option to resize according to pixels. You’re going to want the largest size to be no more than 250 pixels or you can reduce the dpi to no more than 96.

4.Reduce the color palette. Many images have millions of colors so the first thing that you need to do is reduce the colors to 256. You will lose some depth with this.

5. Save the file in a standard format. JPEG is the most common for photos and you can compress the image with a JPEG for further reduction in file size. It’s not unusual to see GIF or PNG as well.

Remember that with a 56k connection a 150k file will take 20 seconds to load. If you’re creating a web page every photo that you add will add to the time it takes to download all of the images. If you keep the images small in size the smaller resolution will not be as obvious.

About The Author

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

Bratz Movie Making Set
Become a movie-maker with your very own Bratz Starz Movie Making Studio! Pose your Bratz Movie Stars (the most poseable Bratz ever!) and snap a picture with the real digital camera. Re-pose your Bratz and take more pictures, then use the movie function to turn your series of photos into a movie you can watch on your TV! You can also connect to your computer to print out photos for all your fans! Bratz Starz Movie Making Studio Features: - Age 6 - 9 years - Print photos from your computer

Sony DCR-HC47 Handycam Mini Dv Camcorder With 2.7” LCD Screen
Compact and easy to use, the DCR-HC47 camcorder will record all of your most special occasions to miniDV format! With its 2.7? LCD touch screen and easy to use functions, you can control every shot and enlarge images by up to 25x without losing in quality. It’s also fitted with an image stabiliser and a NightShot mode, ensuring your videos come out perfect in all circumstances, and has FireWire and USB ports so you can create video montages and send them to your friends over the Internet. Supplied with its very own remote control and docking station, the DCR-HC47 also has a host of scene modes and special effects for home videos that are sure to impress!
Used Price: ?199.99
Customer Review: Great Little Handycam
I love this camera. Bought as a replacement for my JVC which died suddenly I went for the HC47 on the basis of various reviews I’ve read. It’s easy to operate, a good selection of features and if you buy the infoLithium battery you have up to five hours recording time available. The only let-down is filming in low light conditions, but I was aware of this when I purchased it and that’s the only reason I have given it 4/5. I haven’t tried to use the i.LINK, i download the movies via a USB cable and edit the films using Sony Vegas Movie Studio which is a dream to work with. The only problem I have is that I can’t put it down, it’s just so much fun to use!
Customer Review: lovely camera but cant download films!!!!!
I bought this camera in May and again in August!!!! Why, because cant get the darn thing to download via IIlink to computer. Amazon first class service, refunded no probs, but I really want this camera, or one that does work. We tried it on our computer, my brothers 3 computers and none of them could find the camera on the Ilink. Reported it to Sony who advised us to download updates for software, which we had already done about 5 times all to no avail. So back it goes again. Fortunately my brother has made our films (daughters wedding!!) into DVD’s for us through his canon. What shall we do, do we persevere and try again or just try a different camera. Also have bought loads of tapes and 2 extra betteries for this model. Anyone else had this problem or know a solution?? Or recommend a different make and model . P.S. Have now bought another one from local Sony centre (different batch obviously) and it is fine. Lovely camera, cant do better for price and Amazon provides a top class service.

Tamron to offer 18-200, 17-50 and 70-300 in Nikon mount
PMA 2008: Tamron has three lenses in the pipeline suitable for Nikon camera bodies lacking in-body focus motors - namely the D40, D40x and D60. The 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 and 17-50 f/2.8 are for crop sensors only but the 70-300 f/4-5.6 will cover 24×36mm sensors. Click through for specs and compatibility information.