Pictures of products are perhaps the most important part of a successful e-commerce site. They can also be the most frustrating and expensive part.

Clear pictures are essential, and will affect your sales. While much is made of fast loading web-pages, it is very important that the customer be able to see the product in the most complimentary way possible. Sometimes, a little larger and a little slower will make the customer more at ease and more likely to hit the buy button.

Images on the web are all compressed, and making them look good while loading fast is somewhat of an art form. There is no commercial software that will consistently do this for you automatically, as each picture is unique, and requires different manipulation to get the best results. A good web developer can do this in seconds with a high quality original. Pictures should never appear fuzzy and out-of-focus.

Professional photography is highly recommended. While anyone can point a digital camera, producing high quality photographs requires some expensive equipment and considerable skill to highlight the subject, reduce shadows, and provide a clear image. Some subjects, such as glass, will reflect the flash and produce a bright white blob in the middle of the picture. Food is also problematic, and is likely to look nasty. Professional food photographers use a number of tricks (wax for frosting, etc) to get the best results.

If you cannot afford a photographer for your application, try taking your pictures outdoors against a sheet backdrop.

When working with professional photographers, be aware that they automatically receive the copyright on any picture that they take. It is important that you negotiate the rights to the the final images before work begins. If you have hundreds or thousands of pictures to take, you might want to consider hiring an inside photographer. If you retain the reproduction rights, the pictures become a company asset.

This brings up an important point about manufacturer's web sites. Don't assume that just because you're selling a manufacturer's products, that you have the right to copy images from they're web site. The copyrights may belong to the photographer, and you could be liable for copyright infringement. Photographs may have invisible identification watermarks embedded in them that can be found by searching the web. Always get permission from the manufacturer in advance.

For best results, ask that your photographs be delivered as uncompressed JPG or TIFF images on CD. Compression removes detail, and complicates the process of creating the highest quality web images. Scanning should be used as a last resort, particularly for shiny or glossy originals. The scanning process will introduce noise into the picture.