OK most of us photographers have at one time or another shot and uploaded a really nice vertical image (taller than it is wide) that we thought should be popular only to see it fall flat and get deleted instead of making it into the permanent galleries. The reason this happens is of course that Caedes is dedicated to desktop wallpaper, and horizontal images just make better wallpaper than vertical ones. Vertical pohotos stuck on a background leave empty space on each side of the image, while horizontal ones use the entire screen.
Many of us just stop posting them, because they start out life with such a handicap. Well I've come to believe that although this is true, there are some things you can do to make them work.
1) Use frames. An attractive frame can make a good photo great, and it can reformat the vertical image to fill a horizontal space. See Nathan Smith's work for good examples of this (nmsmith).
2) Use vivid colors or sharp contrasts in your image. This hint applies to all images, not just vertical ones, but the vertical ones need all the help they can get, and they need people to be drawn to them somehow. Bright colors do this well. You want people as they flip though the New Images to see your image. Orange, bright yellow, red - all the colors women wear to stand out in a crowd help your image stand out on the New Images page. If you must do black and white be aware of these two points.
- people don't like black and white destop wallpaper in general.
- Black and white gets lost in a sea of color.
To address this you can either post color or use high-contrast black and white images with few compositional elements and strong shapes.
My experiments here on caedes.net have drawn me to these conclusions. Does anybody have any other ideas?
Many of us just stop posting them, because they start out life with such a handicap. Well I've come to believe that although this is true, there are some things you can do to make them work.
1) Use frames. An attractive frame can make a good photo great, and it can reformat the vertical image to fill a horizontal space. See Nathan Smith's work for good examples of this (nmsmith).
2) Use vivid colors or sharp contrasts in your image. This hint applies to all images, not just vertical ones, but the vertical ones need all the help they can get, and they need people to be drawn to them somehow. Bright colors do this well. You want people as they flip though the New Images to see your image. Orange, bright yellow, red - all the colors women wear to stand out in a crowd help your image stand out on the New Images page. If you must do black and white be aware of these two points.
- people don't like black and white destop wallpaper in general.
- Black and white gets lost in a sea of color.
To address this you can either post color or use high-contrast black and white images with few compositional elements and strong shapes.
My experiments here on caedes.net have drawn me to these conclusions. Does anybody have any other ideas?