We have a few clients who try to save money by taking their own images for their Web site. “I have a digital camera,” they say. “I’ll go out and get a few shots.”

The artists at IMA have been known to work Photoshop magic on many of these photos -– lightening, brightening, cropping. But in many cases you can’t -– if you’ll pardon the expression –- make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

This is a particular issue when the images are used on the home page, particularly when they are the focal part of the design. A wonderful, dramatic, imaginative image can make a Web site design absolutely sing. A unfocused, poorly composed, grainy one can sink it.

This is not to say that our clients can’t produce excellent photos. Many of them have. After all, a good eye for photography is not the sole province of photographers and artists. But let’s face it, there’s something to be said for training and something more to be said for properly utilized lighting. One of the reasons we at IMA gravitate toward professional photography -- including stock photography -- is that quality images make your entire web site look professional.

One more thing while we’re on the subject of digital photography. We can’t count the times a client has asked us to take a photo from their Web site and send them a copy to be used in a print brochure. Unless we anticipated your wish and ordered a high resolution image for you –- and we’ve learned to ask if you think you’ll want that sometime in the future -– you won’t be able to use the 72 DPI (dots per inch) image we’ve put on your site for anything but online applications. A high resolution image (300 DPI at least) is definitely more expensive to purchase, but it makes economical sense to order the higher resolution image, which can be saved down for Web use, than to have to pay a second expense later on.