Choosing Quality Pictures

The right image capture attention, inform, and even persuade your audience. The wrong image, however, can confuse, annoy, and even repel your audience.

Since the selection of images can be so crucial, here are the guidelines that will help you learn to evaluate and select just the right images for your theme.

Guideline #1. Does it convey the right feeling?

Whether intentional or not, images communicate mood to your audience. Colour, background, facial expression, and other less obvious features combine to evoke feelings in a way that may not be obvious at first. You may, without realizing it, be conveying an incorrect sense of the theme. That's why it's important to look at image details critically, getting others' opinion on how they are affected by them.

• Example: Which one depicts a professional businesswoman?

Reason:

• While this photo is otherwise quite good, the woman's hair is just a tad bedraggled, giving me the sense that she's had a hectic day. She looks friendly, but I get a sense she might be overworked, unorganized, or simply doesn't pay attention to details.

• This woman looks smartly professional and well-groomed, but the background doesn't seem to fit - it looks like a classroom, not a business setting. Also, I don't like that I can't see the woman's hands -- what is she hiding? So from this image I get a sense of discomfort and lack of professionalism, even though she herself looks quite businesslike.

• This woman looks well-groomed, professional, friendly, and the background is appropriate enough. She looks so confident with her profession.

Guideline #2. Does it add information?

• Your web images should be the same way. They should pull their own weight on your web site, not just sit there and look pretty. When you're selecting, ask yourself: will this image merely decorate the page, or will it contribute information?

Example:Which of these two images provide the most information?

• The arrow image is mere decoration. It conveys a sense of growth, which supports the headline, but nothing else. In fact, it could even be misleading -- the big bright arrow makes it look like a LOT of growth is going on.

• The second image, in contrast, shows changes to the economy over the past year or so in a mini graph. Even without further detail, you can get a sense for the relative amount of the recent economic growth. You learn something from this image, even with only a glance.

Guideline #3. Cropping?• Nearly all media photos will need some cropping, either by the

photographer, the picture editor, the art director or the graphic artist.• Avoid large expanses of empty space, such as skies, pavement, clouds,

ceilings, floors, unless clearly enhances photo.• Crop to emphasize a strong center of interest. Published photos lose some

quality, so need to be simple and direct.• Crop fairly tightly around people, but not so tightly it removes necessary

context.• Avoid cropping in between a joint, such as lower leg, middle of finger. Looks

awkward.• Leave a little space above head, so subject doesn't appear to be drawn to

the edge of the photo.• Crop so that subjects are moving or looking toward accompanying text, and

not out of the page.