Products: From Paper to Pixels

“Propping” your photos, or offering them in a context along with flat shots, builds on this idea. Fahrland uses the example of Crate and Barrel, which offers users the chance to view its furniture either alone or in a room. Propping can be shown either through a thumbnail or a daughter window.

Optimizing photos—compressing their file sizes for online use—brings with it several challenges. According to Amy Africa, president of direct marketing consultancy Creative Results, there are only 216 safe colors to use on the Web—meaning that everyone sees these colors the same way, regardless of computer or screen type. She warns that many designers use colors not included in this palette. The result can be dark and sometimes unviewable product images when not viewed on a color-calibrated screen.