photos for our website

[jon]

What is the best way to go about this.We arein 33 near St Emillion.

Is it best to buy a digitial camera and take our own photos[there are going to be shots of  food, garden[in bloom] interior of property and poss pictures of local attractions.Or do we find a good local photographer?

[raindog]

Buy a camera jon. The quality of these little digital cameras is amazing. You'll soon get used to using it and from getting the best out of certain lighting conditions. You'll be taking photos like a proffessional after next to no time.

I bought a Sony Cybershot S80 with a Karl Zeiss lens. I paid about 300 euros for it including some extras and never regretted a single penny (sorry centime). Small, easy to use and great results every time.

[IMG]http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q223/sheeponabike/POMEGRANATESsmall.jpg[/IMG]

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

Quite honestly, for Web use almost any modern digtal camera will give you the technical quality you need.  What it can't give you is skill in composition, lighting and design. If you're already an experienced amateur photographer then switching to digital is easy. All your existing knowledge of taking pictures can be applied in the same way as a film camera.

I spent half my life as a professional photographer (I'm cured now) and so I'm probably a bit over-sensitive to picture faults. However, so often I see pictures in sales material, including Web sites, that make me cringe. I'm not talking about exposure and focus problems, just failure to put the camera in the right place and to get the lighting right.

By all means get a digital camera; my present one is a Canon that cost about €200. Don't be impressed by lots of megapixels, you don't need them for the Web. Spend a few more on a tripod. Don't use flash unless you really have to.

Take lots of pictures for your Web site and pick the ones that really show what you want to say. Look at them critically and ask if each one really sells whatever it shows. Should the camera have been a bit higher, further back, whatever?

Once you've done all this in the context of your Web site go off and look at a few sites for similar places. How does yours stack up? If you can honestly say that it's as good as the best of the competition then you've done it, otherwise go & get a professional and use your pictures to help brief him/her.

Finally, don't forget that images need resizing for Web use. The minimum resolution on my camera produces big files that will take a long time to load on a dial-up connection.

Have fun. If I can help then email me. I often fail to see PMs.

[jon]

thanks boys ...we will buy a camera this weekend.Thanks for the pennies and the pommegranites

[raindog]

[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"]

Finally, don't forget that images need resizing for Web use. The minimum resolution on my camera produces big files that will take a long time to load on a dial-up connection.

[/quote]

Yes jon, if you're building your own web site I assume you're pretty handy with a computer, but you'll need something like Photoshop for improving contrast, cropping and resizing etc....good luck.

[jon]

No we arenot building our own website...we are not yet handy with the computor...however we will need these wonderfuly descrptive photos to give to the web creator...who will be based soemwhere in the region.

[trizzy]

Hello Jon

I have sent you a pm.

Post edited by the moderators.

Please do not advertise or post your personal details, products or services on the message boards. Any advertising without permission will be removed.