WordPress and Graphics

Are you ready to add images to your WordPress blog? This tutorial can help you with your decisions on how to use images in your blog before you begin to upload images. Linda talks about placement, colour and resources on finding images for your blog.

What Will You Do Above the Fold?

If you get the 'above the fold' concept for blogs, then you may realize that this concept has as much to do with mastheads as it does blog entries. Look around at your favourite blogs to learn more about what you see above the fold on those sites. I'm talking blogs, now – sites that change a lot, thanks to new blog entries.

The nurse site, most of all, depends upon a graphic to pull readers into the page with a static image that serves as the masthead. The 1000 Things blog counts on its masthead image as well as the image in the right column to pull readers in and to make an impression. Beyond this, the other sites depend upon the news in their blog entries to determine the images...and those images, hopefully, have something to do with their current writings.

Taking these examples, perhaps you can learn more about what you want to do with your masthead and your layout. Do you want repetitive images, or an image that absorbs the under page? Do you want to move images along like the cars on a passing train, or do you want to keep images at a minimum?

The answers to those questions depend upon your personal preferences. At the same time, you might think about your readers...what do you think will appeal to them?

Whatever it is, make sure those images are clean, crisp and clear. Here's another example:

Frog Bottom Farm, located in Virginia, echoes the front page of their Web site in their blog...in other words, the blog looks the same as the homepage on the static site. The green block to the right makes their announcement stand out, and the image shows what's happening in their world at the moment. A record-breaking snowstorm has halted CSA (community-supported-agriculture) shipments this week. But, that doesn't stop this farm family from getting out in the snow.

Now, this site comes almost full-circle to the first part of this story, where a Web site is appealing to families. Only, most of these families are not farmers (Frog Bottom does the farming), and patriotism or politics have nothing to do with what Frog Bottom does....so you won't see flags. But, if you go to this site and scroll down the page, you'll see luscious images of greens, vegetables and family – this is a family-owned operation and they do a bang-up job with their farming. ADDITIONALLY, they take great photographs.

The nice thing about the use of personal photographs in blog such as this is that those images bring the business down to earth. Personal photographs in this blog tell readers something about the people who run the farm, about what they do, and how they do it. In other words, the images in this blog make this business more transparent.

What makes the Frog Bottom images stand out is the amount of "white space" in the blog...that lack of other images, design elements and other visuals that may detract from the photographs only help to emphasize those photographs more. I know the owners of this farm, and I know that neither one of them has a graphic background...they just know how to live simply, and their Web site and blog reflects their lifestyle.

Do you have a blog that needs some personalization? Are you good with a digital camera? Even if you take some lousy shots, if you have Photoshop or some other graphic program, you can crop a photo, lighten it up and take out red-eye before you use the shot. Take some pride in your images, and it will show in your blog.