Using Photos

Pages are  more attractive when photos are used to break up the text or to illustrate products, procedures, or to introduce the owner. -- Workshop materials presented by merrygocats

Photographs can make your page

Photos are a fantastic way to break up the text on a page and draw in readers. Most people love to look at pictures, and many are naturally drawn to photos of people; however, caution should be used if deciding to place photos of yourself or your children on your ME page.


Many eBayers include photos of favorite activities, collectibles, or items for sale. If you sell items you create (crafts, artwork, etc.) photographs of your workshop or studio, with your work in progress, are not only entertaining but can improve your sales.

To use a photo on your ME page, it will need to be online where others can see it. That is, other viewers cannot see photos that you have stored on your computer. eBay has recently started hosting (via their eBay Picture Services) up to two free images for your About Me page.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200511301654132.html

Or you might prefer to find another service to host your photos online. Frequently your own internet service provider (ISP) offers free web space along with your subscription. Alternatively, you can use eBay Picture Manager hosting service or an image host to store your online photos.

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=shipscript#hosts

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/picture-manager-subscription.html

Photo Editing

After selecting the photos you would like to use, and before uploading them to your online host, be sure they are appropriately resized and compressed for your page so that dialup users won’t be burdened with slow downloads. Also, before resizing and compressing your photos, careful cropping can remove "dead space" around your subject. There may be extra background in your picture that really does nothing to enhance the picture, and can even be distracting. Cropping can focus attention on the main subject of your picture. This does not mean you should crop the Eiffel Tower out of a picture of your family in Paris! Please use discretion and think about the purpose of the picture you want to use.




Please keep in mind that a large percentage of your viewing audience is using a slower dialup connection. Therefore, limiting the size and number of pictures on your page is a good idea. Generally, you may want one to five photos for your page. Only in special instances would you want to use more than that, and in those cases, even more care should be taken to make sure they are as small and lightweight as possible.

The photo editing steps:

1. First, crop your photo to remove the unwanted background. This gives the appearance of having zoomed in on your image, as shown above.
2. Adjust the brightness and colors if necessary.
3. Resize/resample the image so that its dimensions will fit your page. An image should be no wider than 760 pixels to avoid scrolling the page, and if you have decorative page borders, it should be even smaller. If you are going to wrap text around the image, it should be no wider than about 450 pixels, and if two-across are used, then they should each be no more than 350 wide if they are identical sizes.
4. And the last step is to compress the image so that the file size will be as small as possible, typically between 20K and 70K bytes.

This help page delves more deeply into the basics of preparing your images for your ME page, so be sure to bookmark it.

http://www.isdntek.com/demo/merrypicprep.htm

Photo Arranging

A pleasing arrangement of your photographs can make the difference between a ho-hum page and one that viewers want to visit again and again. In addition to the tips in this workshop, you might want to pay close attention to the way pictures are displayed on your favorite website, or in a popular magazine, for some good ideas on photo arrangement. Scattering pictures around your page with blocks of text between is much more attractive than stringing a bunch of uniformly sized pictures vertically down the center.


Below are two examples of pictures used effectively with narrative text. The first shows small pictures scattered somewhat randomly with text wrapping around them. The second example shows narrow pictures down the left side. Notice that there is empty space around the pictures, giving a professional look and making the text easier to read. Also, even though no background patterns, colors, or borders are used, the simple use of pictures and text can produce a very attractive page.




And here are two examples of pages with less emphasis on text and more focus on pictures and background effects. The first one uses a click-to-enlarge gallery of the eBayer's doll collection. The second shows one way a large (and carefully compressed) logo/picture can be used by a seller to set the mood for the types of products they offer.

 

Here is another example of an About Me page being used to promote a seller's product. This arrangement would work well for an artis or craftsman who would like to display examples of their work.

Conclusion

Including photographs on your About Me page adds pizzaz, draws the eye, and can be great fun for both you and your viewers!

  
Workshop tutorial and images prepared by merrygocats

The Design Basics Workshop Series

Summary  - The 10 Design Basics for a Better ME page
Design Basics 1  - Getting the most from Color
Design Basics 2  - Using Fonts
Design Basics 3  - Effective use of White space
Design Basics 4  - Using Photos
Design Basics 5  - Backgrounds and Borders
Design Basics 6  - Multimedia
Design Basics 7  - Top 10 Common Mistakes

 

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