What size images would you recommend
 

Sorry if this threads been done many times b4 but we are in the middle of a redesign and need some feedback please.

But what size images would you guys recommend for a pay site members area?

If we stick around the 650px (longside) that's great on the 800 res monitors but crap on LCD screens at a high res, then if we go 800px (longside) it scrolls on the low res monitors, better on 1024 monitors (the most popular) but still tiny on the 1280+ LCD's...

I know we can't please everyone all the time, but looking for some opinions here please. :o)

HB, in my opinion, inside a membership area the images should be of the best quality possible. IE comes default with the auto resize thing turned on, so if the image is larger than the screen it adapts DOWN to fit.

High quality images and videos are a major selling point. Being able to say every image is 1000px+ image is a nice extra sales point, and bandwidth shouldn't be much of an issue.

Bigger is better when people are paying to see them.

Alex

Thanks for the input Alex,

Only problem is our pix are opening in a window with slide show etc.. which means IE wont resize image... (or my ie doesn't anyway)

Looking forward to seeing what other peoples thoughts are on this....

I guess its do members want to see detail and slide the image if necessary or sit back and ogle(one hand mouse operation) at the whole image.

:o) HB

I would say the bigger the better.

On our paysite they can choose the size of images they want to see, with the slide show or normal.

600 long side is bottom of the barrel. 2000x1333 would be above average, but a few sites offer even bigger pics. Blowing up pics just to make them look bigger is a no-no though. Clarity over high-res.

Your slideshow script/html should be flexible. You can offer medium rez pics for slideshows and high rez for download but I think if you code the page to adjust to the photo width you'd have no problems.

I prefer ZIP downloads. That way I can use a photo browsing proggie to view the photos offline. That means full screen viewing, no waiting for individual big pics to download.

The bigger the better I would have to agree. We offer different sizes to our members and it seems the members prefer the larger size.

You may want multiple sizes. We're at the point where 1024 on the long size is not enough for some surfers.

Thanks all, bigger is better hey... What happened to its not how big your image is, but how you use your image... :o)

Also what about image KB?

Should we be keeping to around 100k?
Anything over 800px @ 72dpi trying to keep it below 100k, is when the image starts to loose its clarity/quality?

What is accaptable KB size for members areas these days?

Cheers, HB

File size in member areas isn't that critical. Good quality is more important. I don't think 250K to 300K for images 1024 or larger is unreasonable. Offering a lower resolution for dialup users is also an option.

I think you can have them too big also. What if the pics were 6000 pixels on the long side? That would be a lot of scrolling. The models eyeball could fill up the whole screen for example.

The auto resizing in IE is BS IMO. It re-sizes until it fits the screen, so landscape layout pics look OK, but portrait layouts look too small for me. (reason why i have it disabled)

If you are not going to offer multiple sizes then I would suggest not going over 1280 or maybe 1500 on the longest side at most.

Cheers,
BV

I would recommend you should have a closer look into your stats and see which screen resolution your members have. I guess this would give you an idea which will be the largest resolution you need to have

What he said... I for one cannot sell memberships to sites having small pics.