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Random Thoughts
Use of Photography in Web Design
Posted on August 16, 2007 by C Johnson
Art, Design
Tutorialblog has been posting tutorials on subjects from Photoshop to web design since 2005. Yesterday, it ran an interesting post about the use of photography in web design, making this thought-provoking observation:
“Photography can make or break a website. Got a great site with lame pictures, then you’ve got a lame website.”
But as anyone even remotely acquainted with web design recognizes, the reverse can be equally as true: got a website with great photography but lame site design, then you’ve a got a lame website. Elements like tone, placement and a heavy dose of AJAX help aid the overall effectiveness of photography in a site design.
Granted, stellar professional images are (obviously) attention arresting. But it’s important to remember the unsung heroes like CSS and Ruby on Rails (web dev’s latest bellwether open source app) and the dynamic effect they have upon otherwise static images—not to mention the fact that they make those sharp, professional shots manageable for web browsers and BlackBerry’s alike.
Topping Tutorialblog’s list of sites that ‘get it right’ are Incase for its crisp, close-up product detail, Brook Pifer for its audacious large scale gallery and Nike because, well, it’s Nike.
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One Response to “Use of Photography in Web Design”
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I totally agree. But I think that a majority of web designers tend to overlook photography and the importance of their content rather than focusing merely on image optimization. It’s an issue that a lot of designers face. Although these days, I’ve noticed designers have become more multi-disciplinary. Overall, I think it’s a positive shift for the design field.