Painting the Web

Chapter 3. Photographs: From Camera to Web Page

A few years back I was reading one photographer's discussion of his workflow using Photoshop, when he mentioned something about a default setting being "good enough" for the Web. Of course there was a time when print was synonymous with photography, but we can't assume that, today, the ultimate end for a photograph is on paper, with the Web being nothing more than a way to promote our paper-based end product. Nowadays, the Web has become the place for our photos, and realizing this changes the whole idea of default settings in tools as being "good enough" for the Web.

Digital photography and digital cameras have been around for years. In my opinion, it was the convergence of three components—affordable consumer digital cameras, personal computers, and a growing access and familiarity with the Web, as well as an increasing number of broadband users—that led to the explosion of digital photography and the huge number of photos and photo-specific sites we see today.

Before all of these components came together, most photography was film, printed out on paper, with copies made and sent to just a few close friends and family. Now the use of film is rapidly decreasing, and most photos are taken with a digital camera, uploaded into a computer, and either sent through email or posted online. The target audience has also changed: where before we published photos for close friends and family, now we're publishing photos literally to the world…and ...