The most common way to hand photographs over for a site — one link to an archive that holds everything accumulated over several years: successful frames, duplicates, shots from a phone, photos from social networks. Sending them this way is quick, and it seems the developer will sort it out.
The developer will sort it out, but it will take time, and in the estimate that time will appear as a separate line. There is a simpler order: select what matters in advance, sort it into folders and label it. This takes a little of your time, and the design is agreed faster.
Who decides what in the work with photographs
Before talking about folders and formats, it is worth agreeing on the roles. The client knows better than anyone which objects, products, people and places need to be shown on the site and which of them matter more. The developer decides how to present them: where a close-up is needed, where a general view, how to crop a shot for a block and in what order to build the gallery.
So retouching, fitting the sizes and knowing which frame will suit which block are not required of you. What is needed is something else: to say what absolutely must be on the site, and to choose the shots that show it best. I take the processing, the cropping and the optimization on myself. For a corporate site on Tilda with a large number of sections, this often takes no less time than assembling the pages.
How to hand photos over through Google Drive
Google Drive is convenient because many people use it, and a folder can be opened by a link, without forwarding the files. Another cloud will do too; the order is the same.
Create one project folder and open access by link to the whole folder, not to separate files. That way the developer has one entry point, and you can add shots without sending new links. If you have added or replaced a photo in the middle of the work, a short message is enough: what changed and in which folder.
An archive can be handed over too, but a large archive first has to be downloaded and unpacked, and then sorted into sections anyway. If the photos are already in the cloud, it is more convenient to give a link to the folder than to pack them into one heavy file.
Messengers are a worse fit for handing over photos. When sent as an image they usually compress the shots, and finding the right frame in a long correspondence a month later is almost impossible. If there is no other way, send the photos as files, not as pictures.
What size and quality are needed
Hand over the originals in the resolution they were shot in. Reducing and compressing a photo for the site — a technical task for the developer; it is done at the end, for a specific block and screen. The reverse operation does not work: a large sharp cover cannot be made from a small compressed shot.
Screenshots, photos of a screen and pictures downloaded from social networks have usually already lost quality. If there are no other shots, they are worth handing over too, but with a note, so it is clear that this is a temporary option.
Heavy files — not a problem, if they are in the cloud. Hundreds of almost identical frames become the problem: they have to be looked through and compared before one is chosen.
How to name the files and sort them into folders
It is convenient to name the folders by the sections of the future site: “Home”, “About the company”, “Services”, and inside — by individual services or product categories. If the site will have galleries of objects, each object has its own folder.
The file name should suggest what is in the shot and where it is needed. “IMG_2045.jpg” says nothing, while “kitchen-white-general-view.jpg” is clear at once. For products, an article number in the name works best: then the photo matches itself to the card.
If the order of the shots matters, the simplest way to set it is a number at the start of the name: “01-facade.jpg”, “02-living-room.jpg”. That way the order is visible without explanations and is not lost when the files are downloaded.
What to do with duplicates and similar frames
From a series of almost identical shots it is worth keeping one or two of the best. If it is hard to choose, you can put two or three options in a separate subfolder “to choose” and say so. Then it is clear that the decision has not been made yet, and I will suggest which frame will suit the block better.
Separately, it is worth removing frames that are definitely not needed: blurred ones, ones with strangers, with an outdated sign or an interior that is no longer there. You know this at once, while the developer would have to ask about each one.
If there is no time to select and you hand over a large archive with the request “choose yourself”, that is possible too. Simply viewing and comparing many similar frames, picking options and agreeing them becomes a separate volume of work, and it is worth counting it in the estimate in advance. A repeat replacement of shots that were already approved also affects the timeline.
How to select photos for the cover, the galleries and the sliders
Most of the time during approval goes to the cover and the first screen. If you choose several candidates in advance, for example 5–10 photographs for the cover and the gallery, the design is agreed faster, and the time for selection and repeat processing goes down. The number here is a guide, not a rule: for a small landing page, fewer will do.
For the cover it is useful to mark one or two favorite frames, even if you are not sure they will fit technically. This hints at what you want to show first. If a frame does not fit by composition, I will explain why and suggest another from your selection.
In galleries and sliders it is enough to indicate which shots belong to which block and in what order to show them, if the order matters. If the order does not matter, write that: then I will arrange it myself to the composition of the page.
If the source files are scattered, without labels, and some of the photos came from posts on social networks, this can be solved too. When updating a site on Tilda I sort through such materials, match them with the products and the pages, and clarify with the client what I cannot determine myself.
What to write in the accompanying message
Even a well-sorted folder needs a couple of lines of explanation. Usually it is enough to answer a few questions: which sections are already collected and which are not yet; whether there are shots that must be on the site; whether there are frames that must not be used; who the author of the photographs is and whether they may be published.
The last question matters more than it seems. Shots taken by a photographer on commission, photos from the internet, frames with employees and clients — all of them have a different status. If recognizable people are in a photo, it is worth making sure in advance that they do not mind publication. Other people’s photographs from search or from competitors’ sites are better not placed on your own site even temporarily: what is temporary on sites has a way of staying for a long time.
If some shots were taken long ago and the object has changed since then, it is better to say that too. A visitor who came because of a photo on the site and saw something else trusts the company less.
If the photographs you need are not there yet
The absence of some shots does not get in the way of starting. The structure and the prototype can be agreed without photos, and for the layout neutral images can be used for a time, with a note that they will be replaced. It is important to agree when the real shots will appear, so that the replacement does not stretch over months.
Sometimes a frame is there but does not fit: dark, with extra objects, cropped awkwardly. Processing solves some of these problems: light correction, cropping, retouching. Sometimes an agreed neural-network reworking is needed, for example to extend the background under the text. I discuss such steps in advance, and an image changed by a neural network must not be presented as a documentarily accurate photograph of the object. If the shot shows a product or an interior that the buyer will see in person, it is more honest to reshoot than to draw the rest in.
The order for handing photographs over, in five steps
- Create one project folder in the cloud and subfolders by the sections of the site.
- Select the shots for each section, and remove duplicates and what is clearly unnecessary.
- Mark the candidates for the cover and, if it matters, the order of the shots in the galleries.
- Label the files so that the name makes clear what is in the photo.
- Open access by link to the whole folder and say if something changes.
Such an order does not require special knowledge and usually takes less time than it seems. If it is more convenient to hand some of the steps over to me, tell me about the project in the quiz on the site, and we will at once discuss what volume of work with photos will go into the estimate.