Photography & Video Archives

Behold the Animated GIF

June 4, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

Since its birth in 1987, Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, has proved to be one of the most durable image standards. GIFs are supported by nearly every modern web browser and almost every email client in the world. That’s a big deal. GIFs provide a way of embedding animated content ...

Photography & Video

5 Simple Ways to Make Great Product Videos

May 1, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

In "Learning from Infomercials for Product Demonstration," my article last month, I discussed the importance of product demonstration and video in selling online. This month, I’ll explain how to make product videos that get results. Given the rise in well-produced online video, it can ...

Photography & Video

12 How-to and DIY Video Sites

April 16, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Adding videos to your website can be a terrific way to inform consumers on your product expertise, add value to their shopping experience, and set your site apart from your competitors. A video can be produced with little or no expense. And there are plenty of how-to videos available on...

Photography & Video

Learning from Infomercials for Product Demonstration

March 29, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

Perhaps the easiest advertisers to brush off are the ones behind television infomercials — those talking-head, late-night sales pitches complete with low-budget graphics and mind-numbing sound effects, enticing us to buy a $29.99 kitchen gadget we don’t need at 2 a.m. What could they k...

Photography & Video

How to Take Gorgeous Product Photos

January 28, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

Editor's Note: We welcome Jason Lawrence as our newest contributor. He is a computer scientist, researcher, educator, and entrepreneur, having co-founded Arqspin, a mobile phone-based platform for creating 360 spins. He is also an associate professor in the Computer Science Department a...

Photography & Video

10 Compelling Product Video Examples

January 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Product videos may attract additional shoppers, encourage sharing, and increase sales for online retailers. So it is little wonder that so many leading retailers are using product videos now. Relying on data aggregated from several sources, SundaySky, a video-platform provider, reporte...

Photography & Video

3 Video Trends to Watch in 2013

December 10, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers will be using video in 2013 to increase sales, find new potential customers, and build brand relationships if key streaming-video trends continue. Internet video consumption edged out television watching in 2012 for some groups, according to Nielsen's Global Survey of ...

Photography & Video

17 Websites with Video Backgrounds

November 5, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Video is an excellent tool to present a product or a brand, as well as engage an audience with a rich visual experience. And when a website uses video in its background, the effect can be stunning. Here is a list of websites that utilize background videos. There are clothing sites, bev...

Photography & Video

Google’s New WebP Image Format Could Improve Load Times

September 5, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Web graphics, particularly photos, are beginning to evolve. But more change is needed as the requirements for both speed and beautiful design intensify. A new, royalty-free format hopes to provide ...

Photography & Video

Using Video to Convert Shoppers; 8 Pointers

July 22, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton

Video is an effective way to attract more customers and close sales. Big business relies on video to further establish their brand of products. Small business ecommerce sites can benefit from the practice, provided streaming visuals are implemented properly. Zappos uses video to enhanc...

Photography & Video

4 Ways Video Can Drive Traffic and Conversions

June 13, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Video is one of the fastest-growing content types on the Internet. More than 172 million individual Americans watched an average of 14.9 hours of web video in April, the most ...

Photography & Video

The PEC Review: Aviary’s Embeddable HTML5 Photo Editor

December 13, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Online merchants should never forget that their core business is selling products. But it can be an effective marketing tactic to offer other services to potential customers. Examples of offering more than just products abound. They include things like the how-to articles, blogs, enter...

Photography & Video

The PEC Review: Wondershare Video Converter

November 1, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Video is one of the most potent ways to market and sell products online. In fact, some merchants have reported increases in conversions rates of 20 percent or more when they ...

Photography & Video

The PEC Review: Canon Vixia HF R10 Camcorder for Product Videos, More

October 4, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product videos, how-to demonstration, and entertainment marketing are just three examples of how ecommerce marketers are using the Internet's broadcasting power to engage customers. Examples of each sort of video are abundant. Magellan's Travel Supplies and Swimwear Boutique use profes...

Photography & Video

Full 360-Degree Product Image Rotation in JavaScript

August 21, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product imagery and video are extremely important aspects of on-site merchandising that can have a significant impact on an online retailer’s success. And, to a great degree, web developers have a ...

Photography & Video

Do Product Videos Help with Search Engine Optimization?

June 29, 2010 • Bill Hartzer

Having videos of your products will help your ecommerce sales. Visitors to your site will watch the videos, and it will presumably help their buying decisions. But what about the search engines? How will posting a product video on your website help with search engine optimization? One...

Photography & Video

The PEC Review: Animoto for Quick, Basic Product Videos

June 18, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product videos give shoppers a better idea of what they're buying, slash return rates, and boost conversions. So it is little wonder that many online retailers are adding videos to their product detail pages. But not all product videos are created equally and, frankly, not every produc...

Photography & Video

The PEC Review: TinEye Reverse Image Search Locates Competitors, Protects Copyright

April 12, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product photography is an essential part of ecommerce merchandising. Customers like to see what they're buying, after all. Many manufacturers and distributors supply stock product imagery for merchants to use, and other retailers will invest in professional and unique product photograp...

Photography & Video

Putting Video On Your Ecommerce Site, A Webinar Preview

February 18, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product-oriented videos help shoppers understand what they are buying, reduce shopping cart abandonment, and boost conversion rates by as much as 30 percent. Perhaps because of these reasons, ecommerce video is increasingly popular. Forrester Research, for example, estimated that 65 pe...

Photography & Video

The PeC Review: Shotfarm Streamlines Use of Manufacturers’ Photography

February 8, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Compelling product photography is a must for online merchants. Without a good visual representation of the products a store is selling, customers probably won't buy. Generally speaking, online stores have two basic ways to get product images: (1) take the photos, or (2) use the stock i...

Photography & Video

The Shopping Experience: Envato’s FlashDen Has Broad Selection of Flash Files for Developers

May 22, 2009 • Armando Roggio

FlashDen.net sells Adobe Flash-based plugins, content sliders, animations, preloaders, and menus that web developers can integrate into their designs saving a lot of time. While the site had a great selection of downloadable products, easy navigation, a strong community, and great aes...

Photography & Video

Web Design Tips: Use this PNG Fix for Attractive Images in Older Browsers

May 20, 2009 • Armando Roggio

For most website designs, the portable network graphic, or PNG, is simply the best available image format. But older, noncompliant versions of the Internet Explorer browser (IE) poorly managed this extensible file format's powerful transparency capabilities, making it hard to design for...

Photography & Video

The PeC Review: Zoomify Adds Product Image Details

February 24, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Zoomify is a simple to use and easy to implement tool that adds an effective zoom-and-pan feature to product images, allowing customers to see high-resolution details, potentially boosting conversion rates for online merchants. Online shopkeepers have stiff competition from tradition...

Photography & Video

The PeC Review: The Nikon D60 Camera is a Good Value

February 11, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The Nikon D60 is a full-feature DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera that will capture great product pictures for any ecommerce site. The D60 has a very good graphical user interface that makes this precision optical instrument easy to understand and use. For example, when you a...

Photography & Video

Ecommerce Know-How: Three Tips for Good Product Photographs

February 5, 2009 • Armando Roggio

In a brick-and-mortar store, customers can pick up a product, feel its texture, and sense its weight. These sensory inputs have an effect on a shopper's buying decisions. For online stores, achieving the same level of emotional buying excitement can be hard. One solution is to offer goo...

Photography & Video

The PeC Review: Canon’s Rebel XSi DSLR for Taking Product Images

February 2, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Canon's Rebel XSi is a 12.2 megapixel DSLR camera that is both inexpensive and powerful. It features relatively large pixels, a very functional auto focus, and several excellent presets that together make it a very good choice for capturing do-it-yourself product photos. There is no ...

Photography & Video

Video Boosts Sales for Online Retailers

October 1, 2008 • Armando Roggio

At brick-and-mortar retailers, shoppers can stroll the isles, handle items, speak to clerks, and receive well placed merchandising messages. It’s not that easy for ecommerce merchants. They must find new and inventive ways to engage and convert customers; using well written and persuasi...