Lesson 7, Chapter 5

We have now reached the final chapter in The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, which discusses the use of imagery in web sites.  I think the issue of what kinds of images I would want to use on my site drove my decision on what to do my site on more than any other factor.  I had considered, for example, doing a site on my husband’s old army unit.  But then I considered how much trouble it would be to find unit-specific images, how much I did not want to use stock images of just any unit, and how much I did not necessarily want to drive to NC just to take my own photos.  My decision to do a site on my family’s bakery was largely influenced by the fact that there are a wealth of photos in my family that I would be able to use that depict the bakery at all stages of its existence, as well as a lot of the things we’ve made, wedding cakes we’ve done, etc.  I liked that this chapter discussed topics such as copyright, which I’ve given a lot of thought to, but also discussed a lot of style issues, such as photo orientation, cropping, etc.  It reminded me of my days on the high school yearbook staff (where I was co-editor in chief my senior year incidentally).  Also, I learned in this chapter that I had the acronym “PNG” incorrect.  I thought it stood for “permanent network graphic” when it actually stands for “portable network graphic.”  This chapter also talked pretty extensively about the effects that are possible with Adobe Photoshop.  I have to say that even with my limited technical/artistic knowledge, I still think Photoshop is about the coolest thing ever.