Online Business Junction » Photo Tools

iStockphoto

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:18:51 +0000

I’m not sure how many of you need or use stock photography in your online business, but if you’re interested in a great resource, I often use iStockphoto. Photos are always a great way to enhance your business (or personal) blog or website and can be used in so many ways. So if you’re looking for stock photography, be sure to check out iStockphoto. Just click on the image above to go to their website. Check out what they have to offer.

Online Image Converter

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:09:20 +0000

If your online business involves using a lot of photos, you might occasionally have the need to convert an image from one format to another. When I need to do this myself, I often use my Paint Shop Pro program. However, since I only have that on my laptop, and I work more on my desktop PC, I don’t always want to do the two-computer-tango just to convert an image. So I’ve found some online image converter resources that I have found to be handy, and equally as effective. So thought I’d share them with you, in case you might have similar conversion needs.

Go2Convert

CoolUtils Image Converter

Convert Hub

If you know of any other great converter resources, drop a comment and let me know.

Right-Click Much?

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:15:05 +0000

There are a lot of website owners who want to protect the images on their websites from would-be graphics thieves, and this is understandable. They have every right to protect their intellectual property. However, the mistake that is often made by website owners is the addition of a No-Right-Click Script, a bit of code added to their template, which prevents anyone from right-clicking to steal images. So why is the No-Right-Click Script a mistake?

It prevents people from right-clicking to open other parts of your website in a new tab or window.
It prevents people from right-clicking to open links to other websites that you have on your site.
It prevents people from right-clicking to bookmark your website.
It prevents people with web-based email accounts (like Hotmail and Yahoo, etc) from right-clicking to copy your email address in order to send you an email.
It doesn’t stop people who know they can view your site’s source code to get the URL of an image and steal it that way.
It doesn’t stop people who know they can do a Print Screen to copy the page the image is on; and then they can use any graphics program to crop the photo they want and save it.
If your script generates a message like, “Don’t Steal My Images,” you can offend your customers who were trying to do no such thing, and send them on their merry way…to someone else’s website.

If you really want to protect your images, there’s one easy solution: watermark them! You can do this yourself with a graphics program; there are even websites that allow you to do it online. Or you can pay someone to do it for you. Either way, that is the best way to protect your website’s images.

For further reading…

Watermarking Photos

Graphics Tools

A Graphics Program

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:08:55 +0000

Just wanted to let you know about another graphics editing tool you might be interested in, which I’ve added to our Graphics Tools page. It’s called Paint.net, and it’s a free downloadable program that is similar to Microsoft’s Paint program, which comes pre-installed on most Windows-based computers. But it has a lot more features than Paint does, and it’s a great alternative if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on an expensive graphics program. The website also features an online community, tutorials, etc, for those times when you might need some help with the program. Thanks to Arlene for sharing this with me!

Watermarking Photos

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:05:56 +0000

I have urged people many times to watermark their product photos for their websites. I know it needs to be done and it does help give you a measure of security against copyright infringement. But did I ever do it myself? Um, (embarrassed to admit) no. And so imagine my irritation when I was “window shopping” on Ebay last night, only to find 3 of my own product photos on someone’s listing! Consider me reformed!

I went on the hunt for a watermarking tool that would allow me to watermark multiple photos at one time. After all, watermarking every single product photo on a retail site is not exactly a quick process. So I was pleased to find a program that would allow me to do just that, and I want to share the link with you.

Visual Watermark

This program was very easy to use and allowed me to upload many photos at once. It’s even possible to save the watermark you create so that you just choose it and re-use it whenever you need to. It still took me about 4-5 hours to get the job done, but I’m sure that it would have been 4-5 days without this program. Now I have watermarked photos for all my website products, which obviously I should have done long ago. But at least now I’ve got a little bit of means to prevent this from happening in the future.

Learn from my mistake, everyone. Watermark your photos now!

Fun Picture Sites

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:53:00 +0000

I just came across a couple more sites that have some fun photo tools. One lets you add some “bling” and such to your pictures. The other lets you create slide shows and more. You might want to use these for business, or hey, just for fun!

Blingee

Smile Box

Enjoy!

Another Great Photo Tool

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Want to watermark your product photos so they are not as desirable to would-be photo thieves? I found this site that allows you to watermark your photos online. It is very easy to use: just upload your photo, choose your settings, and generate the image. You’ll see a Before and After photo, so just save your watermarked photo!

Visit Watermark Tool

Photo Editing is a Picnik!

admin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:27:00 +0000

I just came across a great photo editing site. I don’t know how I haven’t found it before, but I’m sure glad I did! For anyone who doesn’t want to invest in some expensive image editing software just for the occasional photo editing need, Picnik might just be for you. You can add all sorts of special effects, crop, resize, use tools that will create a watermark effect (great for protecting your product photos!) and more. They have a free version, which I tested and it’s great, and a Premium version ($24.95 per year). It’s worth checking into if you’re in the market for this type of tool.

Free Photo Software

admin — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:46:00 +0000

My mother recently came across a link to some free image editing and manipluation software called gimp. It is free to download and to use. For folks wanting to edit photos for their websites, who are also on a tight budget, this software may be worth a try. So thought I’d share the link with you here.

GIMP Image Software Site

Need Your Images Optimized?

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:11:00 +0000

I’ve just found some great new software for resizing and optimizing photos for your websites. It’s called EasyImage Batch. It is is free to try for 10 days, and about $20 if you decide to keep it after the trial period. I just downloaded it myself! Please check it out!!

EasyImage Batch