Photo Sizes

[David H]

Hi there, I am currently in the early stages of helping my mum start up a website and I have been told that I should keep all photographs of products the same size. Is this the best way to go? For example, if I were to upload two photos of different products onto the site, one being a dimension of 111 x 208 and the other 220 x 115, would that be ok or should all my photos stick to a certain size?

Thanks,
David H

[leehack]

Stick to the same size for a professional look and aim for approx 300 x 300 nowadays, particularly if using SPP setup. 200 wide images are pretty old hat and not big enough.

[TraceyHand]

at the very least, stick to a consistent width.
I'd go for 300-350 unless it's on a 'listings' page with multiple products linking through to a more detailed page (in which case you can get away with smaller images there and use larger on the 'main' page)

[David H]

Thanks for your replies, your help is much appreciated!

[jont]

Maintaining the same size also allows for additional manipulation using PHP or Javascript to maintain a balanced layout when generating additional thumbnails etc.

[carbontwelve]

Hi there, I am currently in the early stages of helping my mum start up a website and I have been told that I should keep all photographs of products the same size. Is this the best way to go? For example, if I were to upload two photos of different products onto the site, one being a dimension of 111 x 208 and the other 220 x 115, would that be ok or should all my photos stick to a certain size?

Thanks,
David H

Hey, I come from a graphic design and programming background and yes I agree you should keep all your images to a standard size. However be mindful that your customers have various different screen sizes and ratios. I keep all my thumbnails to 100x100 although that is because they fit into my designs better, depending on your design layout your product images can be any size that fits.

The size of your thumnails should also be dependent on the kind of products your selling. If your selling craft goods or paintings where the customer needs to be able to see the craftsmanship and detail as part of the purchasing decision then a big main product image is a must however if your products are well known such as cameras then you can get away with a smaller product image because the customer already knows what they want and therefore only need the product image to confirm that their choice is the one that they came to buy in the first place, you can tell the difference between a nikon and a canon camera with a 100x100 image.

I would certainly recomend you have a 100x100 thumbnail (or other such squared image ratio 300x300 can work I suppose) for the browsing pages however for the product purchase page a larger image is a must. Just see how websites such as ebuyer.com and dabs.com do it.