Every part of your website design matters. That includes the text, the fonts, the colors, the design, the whitespace, and the images you use.
If you are new to editing the imagery you use on your website, it is vital that you first learn the best practices. It is also crucial that you avoid the following common mistakes.
Using Wrong-sized Images
You need to carefully consider the sizes of the images you use on your website.
It is easy to make this mistake, but if you use the wrong-sized photographs and other images, it can affect the rest of your web page content and put off visitors.
Worse still, if you use an image that is too large, your web pages can take too long to load, which could also result in you losing visitors.
Basically, you need to avoid images that are too large or too small. Use images that are compact in size and have great quality, such as high resolution.
It can take time to get the right balance, but it will be time well worth spending.
Cropping Images Badly
To get the right-sized images, you will probably use the cropping feature of your photo editing software.
Cropping photos can also improve the aesthetic quality of a photograph. For instance, images that follow the golden ratio rule are more proportionally appealing and will engage visitors more than badly cropped images.
So, make sure you avoid cropping your website images in the wrong manner.
Take a look at some of the most popular websites worldwide to see how they get things like cropped images just right.
Overusing Airbrushing and Smoothing
While smoothing and airbrushing tools can be useful for fine touch-ups, do not make the mistake of overusing such features.
When you do, you can end up detracting from the core image you want visitors to be looking at.
Your website’s photographs should look real and natural. If you overuse smoothing and airbrushing tools, you run the risk of your imagery looking plastic and fake.
Not Removing Backgrounds
Suppose the background of an image interferes with the forefront image, which is the most important visual element. In that case, you can use a background removal tool to make people focus on the vital forefront image.
Many people overlook how off-putting the wrong backgrounds can be in images.
For instance, if you want your website visitors to look at the forefront image of a woman holding your product, you do not want them looking at the cute dog in the background that has nothing to do with your brand and the products or services you offer.
So, always remove backgrounds when it makes sense to do so.
Thankfully, it is simple to remove the backgrounds of images when you use a great tool like the BeFunky background remover.
Overusing or Underusing Saturation, Contrast, and Other Coloring and Lighting Tools
One error that is commonly made with website imagery is using photos that are too dark or too light.
Thankfully, you can utilize photo editing tools to adjust colors, lighting, hues, and saturation.
However, you do not want to make the mistake of overusing those tools. You should only use them to make your image look more vibrant and natural.
The saturation tool of photo editing software can be particularly useful, but if you overdo the saturation, you could end up with an image of poor quality.
The same applies to using the contrast tool. The contrast will make your images shiner and more apparent to the viewers when used correctly. But if you add too much contrast, your images will start to look unrealistic and can be off-putting to viewers.
By learning about things like curves and levels when editing your photos, you can get things like saturation and contrast just right.
