While reading my numerous RSS feeds this morning I came across an interesting article by Rob Haggart at A Photo Editor about Alan Taylor and The Big-Picture blog he created for the Boston Globe’s website Boston.com and it got me thinking about the typical size of photographs that are published on people’s photoblogs.
Why don’t we publish images with larger dimensions? Very few photoblogs that I have come across publish images with the largest dimension being larger than 700px, the images on Big Picture have a dimension of 990px!
Based on what I see on this blog, and my own photoblog, the argument that people just don’t have big screens just doesn’t cut it anymore. Only 2% of visitors to this blog have a screen resolution of 800×600, the majority of visitors are either at 1024×768 or higher!
The thing that impressed me the most about The Big Picture was just how truly engulfing images of that size are. Why not try publishing larger images on your blog and see what the reaction is, I would bet that your readers are going to enjoy it. Let us all know if you find the amount of time that your visitors are spending on your site goes up after publishing larger images.
One final note, if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know how big of a fan I am of Seth Godin, and in particular his book, “Purple Cow”. Converting your blog to show larger images may be a Purple Cow, but I doubt it will last for very long, so keep thinking of ways to make your photoblog stand out.
NOTE: The world’s most travelled book is still relaxing down-under with Brendan O’Shea waiting for it’s next journey to begin so if you want to read Seth’s Purple Cow contact me with your mailing address.
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5 responses so far ↓
Hmmm … wouldn’t photographers run the risk or increasing the chance of their images being stolen and used with out their permission.
Are there any advantages of having the images be larger on photoblogs?
Scott
@Scott: I think that the size of your images doesn’t make a difference on whether or not your images are used without your permission. If someone is simply looking for images for their website then even smaller images will suffice. As soon as you publish your image online its up for grabs.
I think that the advantage of having larger images is that they tend to engage the viewer more and maybe (haven’t tested this) increase the amount of time people spend looking at your images…
Any thoughts?
Hi Brett: Agreed … once they are posted online they are ripe for websites–a risk I’m willing to take. I guess I was thinking that big money books, magazines or advertising agencies wouldn’t be able to successfully use lower res, smaller images. Good point about larger images possibly increasing the amount of viewing time. I wonder if flash enabled photoblogs are better for this. I’ve seen a few of these and generally have been annoyed at the flash, but maybe they have a good idea after all.
Just looked at the Big Picture site (shame on me for not looking at it first) … it has an interesting feel to it — almost overwhelming. Maybe if the images were smaller with the option to look at the bigger image (kind of like Flickr) it might be better? Still wondering if encapsulating the photo inside a flash wrapper if it could help prevent theft? Nah, someone would figure out a way around it … they always do, right?
@Scott: Flash is an option to help protect your images, but I really think that if someone wants an image you post badly enough they are going to get it. The other thing that scares me about Flash is the SEO implications…you need to make sure that you are ranking.