And here’s when the big challenge arrives. You decided to use photos, and you know why and for what purpose but… which pictures to use? Where to get them? And, mostly: how to make them look good? Let’s face it, we usually don’t get from our clients the best looking photos nor we can always pay for a professional photographer to take them. Or maybe we have pretty cool photos but when inserting them inside our design or content, they don’t look as we expect them to.

In all of these cases we can take advantage of a few tools that will make our images much nicer and useful for our design. I like to call these: tips to make your photos work for you.

Along these tips we’ll work with Photoshop and we’ll use this image as a starter:

ALSO READ: How to Add Transparent Background to Images Online

Images are very important when building a professional website. 

1. Film Look / Crushed Black

The “Film look” is a very trendy effect right now, I’m sure you’re seeing it everywhere. Actually, it’s achieved by turning down the dynamic range of the photo, so it looks like older pictures. We’ll adjust the Curves to get that look. Here’s how:

Now our photo looks like this:

2. When using text on top of an image

Also very common these days is the use of text, a big and shiny white text, on top of an image background or a slider. But the problem many of you face is that the text becomes not legible at all. Don’t worry; is really easy to solve it. We just need to make our picture darker. For that we’ll create a new layer with a black background and place it on top of the image. Then we’ll reduce its opacity to something like 50%, maybe less, depending on your specific photo. Here’s how it’s done:

Now we get a nice picture that doesn’t compete at all with our text.

Another tip: you can make this trick with any other color you want and get something really cool.

3. Black & White

An older but still solid tip is to turn your pictures to gray scale. It’ll make a bad photo look much better. Just remember for what use do you need that picture, because using a black and white image may not be appropriate for every purpose. Follow these steps:

Now our picture looks like this:

4. PSD Actions

Finally, remember (or discover, if you’re not familiar with) there are many cool PSD actions made by great designers and photographers that can level up our photos in just seconds. I really love this set of actions called “Instant Hipster”, that comes with 19 retro effects. Try them out:

The post How to Make Images Look Professional for Websites appeared first on Image Planet.

Compress and Resize Images:

Large image files can significantly impact your website’s loading speed. By compressing and resizing images appropriately, you can reduce their file size without compromising quality. There are several tools available online, such as TinyPNG, JPEG Optimizer, or Squoosh, that can help you compress images without sacrificing visual appeal. Aim for a balance between image quality and file size to ensure faster loading times.

Use the Right Image Format:

ALSO READ: Etsy Product Image Size Guide to Increase Sales

Choosing the correct image format is essential for optimization. Different image formats serve different purposes. For photographs or images with complex color gradients, JPEG is generally the preferred format. For images with sharp lines and transparency, such as logos or icons, consider using PNG or SVG formats. By using the appropriate format, you can ensure optimal image quality while minimizing file size.

Lazy Loading:

Implementing lazy loading on your website can significantly enhance its loading speed. Lazy loading is a technique where images are loaded only when they appear in the user’s viewport, rather than loading all images at once. This technique reduces the initial load time and improves the overall performance of your website. There are many plugins and libraries available for various content management systems and frameworks that simplify the implementation of lazy loading.

Use Responsive Images:

With the increasing use of mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your images adapt to different screen sizes. Responsive images automatically adjust their size and resolution based on the user’s device, providing an optimal viewing experience. HTML’s `srcset` and `sizes` attributes allow you to specify different image sources for different devices, ensuring that users receive appropriately sized images for their screen resolution.

Leverage Browser Caching:

Enabling browser caching for your website’s images can significantly improve loading times for returning visitors. By setting an appropriate expiration time in the response headers of your images, you instruct the browser to cache the image locally. Subsequent visits to your website will then load the images from the cache, reducing the need to download them again. This technique helps enhance user experience and reduces the load on your server.

Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs):

Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs, distribute your website’s content across multiple servers worldwide. When it comes to images, CDNs can deliver them from the server that is closest to the user’s location, reducing latency and improving loading times. By leveraging CDNs, you can ensure faster and more reliable image delivery, resulting in improved Core Web Vitals scores.

In Short, Optimizing your website’s images is crucial for achieving better Core Web Vitals scores, enhancing user experience, and improving search engine rankings. By following the techniques discussed in this blog post, such as compressing and resizing images, choosing the right format, implementing lazy loading, using responsive images, leveraging browser caching, and utilizing CDNs, you can significantly enhance your website’s performance. Remember, a fast-loading website with optimized images not only pleases users but also helps your business thrive in the competitive online landscape.

The post How to Optimize Images for Core Web Vitals appeared first on Image Planet.