Site graphics

[jxm28788]

ok, I want to start setting up a new actinic site soon but I want it to look more proefessional than my current site (which I botched together myself).

Does anyone know where I can get some of those slick graphics that many sites have (you know, like the photos of happy smiling employees), or generic graphics/photos of the types of product or service sold?

Also, how can I get some decent pictures of my products? My current site is a botched together mixture of different graphics from the different suppliers, so there is no consistency. I have a digital camera and the products - so any hints on how to get some decent shots? (ie. ones without the glare from the flash!)

Alternatively, can anyone recomend a site designer that would do all of this (please provide example sites and prices!)

Thanks

[pinbrook]

A good (and cheap) place for photos etc is http://www.istockphoto.com/

as for taking your own product shots, I would take them outdoors forget about flash. Use a tripod and a very clean background ie a piece of artists card, and shoot!

Take a dozen or so shots of one product noting the camera setting for each one , download them to your computer choose the best one. Use that setting to take the rest of the products.

[Jan]

Hemara Photo objects are good as well - very easy to use. You should be able to get a cd for under £50.

I bought one and have seen loads on them on the web.

I had similar ideas to you but still didn't manage to build a good looking website, I just haven't got the web design skills needed. I ended up getting a professional to redesign the site and to be honest it is a much better way of doing things and also not that expensive. The other benefit is that my new site (not live yet) seems to be much faster than my old one with regard to loading time etc.

Many thanks,

[garyhay]

Taking product shots should be done like this.

Large sheet of white paper against wall.

Shine 3 or 4 lights at the paper/wall.

Place products on white table about 4 or 5 feet in front on paper/wall.

Use full flash even indoors.

Example Here

[BPJSURF]

good photos

Good product photos are always tricky. well it does not have to be that way. If you go to ebay and search on "studio lights" you will find several vendors that sell studio light kits. Getting a solid background muslin (i prefer blue) and a top quality lighting set up only cost about 600.00 US which is like 2 pounds right now:-).

By using the solid background and good lighting you can eliminate shadows while taking the picture. Also the color muslin enables you to quickly remove the background color and replace it with "white" in photoshop when web optomizing your pictures.

We use Getty images for all our lifestyle images.

We have a prebuilt Actinic design for your product type, if you want to check out the design it is fully maitained by Actinic and has loads of bells and whistles.
http://retailer.buythisdesign.com/

good luck with your project.

Brian

[David N]

Originally posted by garyhay
Taking product shots should be done like this.

Large sheet of white paper against wall.

Shine 3 or 4 lights at the paper/wall.

Place products on white table about 4 or 5 feet in front on paper/wall.

Use full flash even indoors.

Example Here

If you use a white back ground you will have to use manual exposure. All that white will make your object really dark if you use Auto mode
I personally use a large piece of bright blue cotton sheet then cut it out in Photoshop. Adding some drop shadow is the key to making it look really good and helps make it stand off the page

[jxm28788]

I personally use a large piece of bright blue cotton sheet then cut it out in Photoshop.

When you say 'cut it out' do you mean manually, or is there a way of selecting the colour and somehow 'auto-cut' it? And how well does that work? The background colour will never come out as solid, but in shades, so does it handle that?

[David N]

Sorry, using the magic wand to select the bright blue area. Use the tolerance to suit, use the shift or alt key to add or subtract areas. When you have all the blue selected invert the selection. Cut the selection in the edit menu then fill, again from the edit menu. Use 'white' from the pull down list

From the edit menu 'paste' and touch up with the eraser. Add some drop shadow and there you go.


add your name or logo semi transparently over the image to stop other people stealing you work

One thing if you resize after this with out flattening layers then the drop shadow will stay the same and look odd.


Then you need to optimise for the web in terms of file size. I import in fireworks for this as it seems to have an incredible way of making the file size tiny with very little loss of quality

David