James Kings
Roger Thompson
Lisa Jensen
Barb Wood
James Kings |
Roger Thompson |
Lisa Jensen |
Barb Wood |
| Crimson Star is a computer consultant and photographer who lives in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Phone: (403) 852-4111, Fax: (403) 852-4350, E-mail: cstar@incentre.net, Web: www.crimsonstar.com |
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Are congratulations in order? Did you follow my advice in last month's column, and set up a test web site on your own computer? If you did, then you also discovered that it was only a little more difficult than using your word processor to write a letter to your least favorite relative! So far, your site contains simple text pages. You may have experimented with different font sizes or colored backgrounds, but we both know that you really want to show off your photos. You've already learned how to display them, so why did I ask you to wait? You have some beautiful photographic images. Naturally, you would like to display some of these on your web site, in order to attract photobuyers. Let's pretend that you also have the means to digitize your images at various resolutions, sizes and color depths. Are you ready to go? Not yet. Most of us would agree that a good picture is worth a thousand words, but is a good picture worth a thousand seconds? I recently visited a photographer's Web site that promised excellent graphics. As I entered the "Gallery," the Web page started to appear on my screen. After waiting 1000 seconds (16.7 minutes), only one-third of the Web page was visible. What I could see looked great, but I had better things to do, so I left. A photobuyer may need to visit hundreds of web sites a day. How long do you think he/she will wait to see your images? You will need to sacrifice some of the quality attributes of your images so viewers can access them quickly. This means you may have to reduce them in size. I can't tell you what to do, it is your choice. As you visit more and more Web sites, you will find good examples to follow. Unlike in real life, in CyberSpace good examples are easy to follow. It is time to discuss a technical issue that you need to understand, as a photographer setting up a Web site. When you connect to a Web site on the Internet, you are actually connecting to a "Web server" (a computer that contains Web pages). Your Web program ("browser") asks the Web server to send it the Web page that you want to see. The Web server downloads that particular Web page, and any related images, onto your own computer's hard drive. If you are using Netscape's Navigator, for example, then these files are probably saved in the C:\NETSCAPE\CACHE subdirectory on your hard drive. Once the files have been downloaded, the Web browser can display them for you. The good news is that you can view the actual HTML source (programming) code and see how the designer got that particular page to work. In Netscape's Navigator, for example, you select View, Document Source. This is an excellent way to learn how to use new HTML tags. We all do it. What about the bad news? Images, as well as these HTML files, are downloaded onto your computer. Many Web sites encourage you to save and use their graphics, royalty free. Others request that you acknowledge their ownership of an image when you use it. Most of us place a copyright notice on each page and hope for the best. As a working photographer, you would not steal someone's copyrighted images. Alas, we photographers are in the minority. You realize by now that every person who visits your Web site will be able to copy your text and your images. Period. There is nothing you can do about it. There are thousands of Web sites using stolen images at this very moment, in spite of copyright protection laws. To my knowledge only a few copyright disputes have gone to trial. The results don't matter anyway. Copyright law simply cannot be enforced on the Internet at this time. My advice is simple: don't put your best images online. Don't put super-high-quality images online. Place a copyright notice on each of your Web pages and/or images. Kiss each image goodbye! |