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The ipernity Homepage - Part 2
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ipernity homepage with #1431 The first article about the ipernity homepage told about its history and defined its purpose. The homepage shall present ipernity attractively and motivate visitors from the web to take a closer look at us. It is a promotional vehicle. It must be so inviting that visitors are eager to click on the »Explore« button.

According to the majority wish of the members, the pictures shown on the homepage should be taken by our own club members. This makes our homepage authentic and reflects the photographic potential of our club.

This second article is now about which kind of pictures are suitable. To begin with, this is not another manual for good photography. The fewest of us still need that. Each of us has long since found her or his photographic style. And we are able to find the support we need on the web (or here in the association).

What is not available anywhere on the web, however, is information about what requirements the pictures have to meet specifically for our website. That is what this article is about.


1. Picture format

In the layout of our homepage there is space for one picture in landscape format 16:9. This is the common format of HD televisions. It allows a balanced homepage design for the wide displays of desktops and smartphones as well as for the 4:3 formats of old computer screens and modern tablets. It is the optimal image format for our purpose:


Pictures in 4:3 or 3:2 format are unfortunately just as unusable as square pictures or portrait pictures. The reason is obvious:

Luckily, however, a good 16:9 crop can often be made from the common 3:2 photo format:

This makes many of your archive images usable.

Edit November 5, 2023: Some modern AI-based image processing software now allows missing parts of an image to be generated artificially. The results are very realistic. Pictures can easily be brought to the required format in this way. Further instructions can be found here: More flexibility With The Format.


2. Picture size

In order for our images to look brilliant on modern high-resolution screens, the number of pixels must be as large as possible. On the other hand, the image files must not be too large. This would lead to long loading times with slow internet connections. As a compromise, a size of 1220 x 686 pixels was set:


The smaller format is the one finally used by the ipernity software and transmitted to the users. However, it is requested to submit the larger HDTV format (1920 x 1080) so that an precise adjustment of the image can be performed in the template during final editing by the administrators


3. Layout composition

The ipernity logo is positioned at the top left of the image area in the homepage layout. Your photo must not have any disturbing image content or structures in this area so that the logo is easy to read. The following example shows two good photos. Unfortunately, only the one on the left is usable. In the picture on the right, the readability of the logo is impaired too much:


The illustration on the left also shows very well where the main motif of the picture should be: on the bottom right in the golden section. This is because the arrangement of logo and main motif along the primary diagonal of the image corresponds best to our visual habits.


A photo does not always fit this requirement as perfectly as in the example shown. But there are many excellent photos from the community that meet these requirements very well. Here are some examples:



The collection of all 250 currently available homepage images can be found in the group Ipernity Homepage - Approved Pictures.


4. Picture quality

As the homepage is the flagship of our association, it goes without saying that only technically perfect pictures should be shown. Typical image defects include tilting buildings (except for deliberate design exceptions), crooked horizons or sensor spots. These do not make for a good appearance and must be avoided:

(Click on the illustrations for enlarged view.)

Also colour banding (in monochrome image areas, sky), jpg artifacts due to excessive compression, or shadow areas that have run over (blacking, except with low key) make images unusable for presentation purposes:

(Click on the illustrations for an enlarged view.)

The same applies to frames or signatures. They disturb the homepage layout.


5. Uniqueness

Very few of the pictures we come across every day in social media, on the street or on television create a lasting impression on us. This is normal because our brain would otherwise be overwhelmed by the flood of perceptions. It filters out of the permanent stream of impressions only those that seem important to it at the moment.

This is why simple visuals and many frequently photographed standard motifs are unsuitable for advertising purposes. Our brain no longer reacts to them. Such motifs are 'worn out'.

On the other hand, surprising motifs or perspectives, as well as pictures that stand out because of their colours or contrasts, attract attention. Here are some examples from our club members:




6. Picture expression

Pictures that tell a story are also highly suitable. They easily manage to catch our attention:


Usually they are extraordinary scenes from everyday human life. But other pictures can also be suitable:



7. Emotionality

Advertising photos have to 'drive into' the viewer immediately. This distinguishes them from artistic photos, whose place is more in illustrated books or in exhibitions, where visitors consciously take time to study them.

The frog picture shown above is a good example of this. Such a scene is surreal. You unconsciously look a few fractions of a second longer. And that is precisely the point. In advertising, there is no time available. Eye-catchers have to catch our attention in a fraction of a second. This is only possible on a subconscious level because our cognitive perception works much too slowly. It succeeds in three ways.

Firstly, by triggering primal needs at the instinctual level: food, protection, preservation of the species ('sex sells'). Secondly, by triggering our early childhood core predispositions: belonging ('I want to be included') and autonomy ('I am special'). And thirdly, by using emotionality - both positive (joy, contentment, happiness, warmth) and negative (fear, disgust, sadness, loneliness).

However, the use of negative emotionality is a delicate matter. Advertising that plays with it can also backfire. Or it is meant to discourage, like the pictures of smokers' lungs and rotten teeth on cigarette packets. But we neither want to agitate nor discourage, we want to invite. Therefore, we are well advised to limit ourselves to triggering positive emotions. Here are some examples from our photographers:




8. Summary

Pictures for our homepage must meet the following technical requirements:
● Picture ratio 16:9 Landscape.
● Picture size 1220 x 686 pixels (better 1920 x 1080 to allow final adjustments).
● Main motif bottom righthand corner (in golden section).
● Calm background under the logo.
● Harmonious balance between logo and image motif.

In terms of content, they should serve the following three aspects:
● The motif is unique.
● The picture tells a story.
● The picture evokes a positive emotion.

Of course, photos cannot be strong in all three aspects. Nor do they have to be. It is enough if they are strong in one aspect and at least good in the other two.

June 29, 2022
Bernhard Westrup (Bergfex)


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Fancy participating in a new experience?


For the first time, there is the opportunity to preview and score the homepage pictures for the upcoming season. This link will take you there:

Homepage Pictures Autumn 2022 - Your Rating

Alternatively, you can scan this QR code with your smartphone:


The link is valid until July 15, 2022, after which we will together look at which images you think are best suited for the autumn homepage.

Regardless of this, you can of course submit further image suggestions at any time. Please post them in the following group: Ipernity Homepage - Picture Proposals.


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Note: Sometimes a picture can also be mirrored horizontally. And so the initially unusable image from section 3 (above) becomes a good front-page picture after all. It may be a sunset, which actually belongs to the 'worn out' motifs, but it tells a story and has a very good depth of field effect:

However, I would like to leave such post-processings to the photographers themselves. Because they are really time-consuming.


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Legal framework: The use of public images of ipernity members for the ipernity homepage is legitimised by the Terms of Use:

ToU 5.9 'By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Website, you grant ipernity a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content through the Website, including through RSS or any other Content feeds offered by the Website.'

ToU 5.10 'In addition, by submitting, posting or presenting Content intended to be available for the public, you grant ipernity a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce, edit, distribute and publish such Content for the purpose of presenting and promoting the Association.'


Furthermore, the ima has covered the prospected activities through the group rules of the group Ipernity Homepage - Picture Proposals, which is the group, where the pictures for the homepage are to be submitted: 'By placing an image in this group, consent is given for post-processing and publication on the ipernity homepage. Furthermore, consent is also given that copies of the homepage showing the provided image may be used for advertising ipernity.'

The ima team notifies each photographer of the result after editing and asks for his or her consent. Objections will of course be respected.

Concerning the rating tool used: The operator Poll Unit does not receive any rights to the images. After the evaluation has been completed, the images will be deleted from the tool.


14 comments

Jaap van 't Veen said:

Interessant artikel.
20 months ago ( translate )

* ઇઉ * said:

Thank you for this polished article, which impressively illustrates what makes a good image for our homepage.

I can warmly recommend participating in the rating of the Homepage pictures Autumn 2022 with the help of a rating tool. It's fun, and the tool is really easy to use.
Treat yourself to this pleasure and have fun! :)
20 months ago

Guydel said:

Merci pour cet article complet et instructif sur cette page d'accueil si importante ! Beaucoup d'images proposées dans le groupe ne correspondent pas aux critères et il n'est pourtant pas si difficile de corriger les imperfections de nos images ... ça ferait gagner du temps à Bergfex !
Pour les votes d'évaluation, il vaut mieux agrandir les photos (en cliquant dessus) car on voit mieux les détails ... sur le coucher de soleil (N°22) par exemple, le personnage qui est très petit peut passer inaperçu alors que sa présence est importante pour "raconter une histoire".
Merci à toi Bernhard pour le travail effectué ! Amitiés !
20 months ago ( translate )

Bergfex replied to Guydel:

Liebe Guydel, es stimmt: Die "Figur" ist das Salz in der Suppe. Ansonsten wäre das Bild nur ein weiteres millionstes Sonnenuntergangsbild.
Bei Sonnenuntergängen ist nämlich das generelle Problem: Sie gehören zu den am meisten fotografierten Urlaubsmotiven. Man hat sich daran satt gesehen.
Wer sie fotografiert, war dabei und hat eine emotionale Erinnerung daran. Fremde haben dies nicht. Deshalb bedarf es solcher Kunstgriffe wie in diesem Foto, um aus einem Standardmotiv etwas Besonderes zu machen.
20 months ago ( translate )

David G Johnson replied to Guydel:

Noted......... // Dj.
20 months ago ( translate )

David G Johnson replied to :

Noted.......// Dj.
20 months ago ( translate )

David Slater (Spodde… said:

A very informative and comprehensive article. Many thanks.
20 months ago

Jean-luc Drouin said:

ok !
20 months ago ( translate )

Tanja - Loughcrew said:

Danke! Klasse Erläuterung…wirklich gut und ausführlich erklärt!
20 months ago ( translate )

William Sutherland said:

Awesome continuation of this article!
20 months ago

Fred Fouarge said:

Belangrijk artikel---prima !
20 months ago ( translate )

xenophora said:

Will any drawings, paintings, or collages be eligible for display? Or only photographs?
19 months ago ( translate )

Team replied to xenophora:

You are also welcome to suggest drawings, paintings, or collages.

There have even been some already:
ipernity homepage with #1313
And currently we have a nice composing in the collection:
ipernity homepage with #1480

However, it is important that the required image coposition is given:
Picture composition for the homepage
19 months ago

Bergfex said:

Siehe zu diesem Thema auch meinen Artikel:

What is a-good photo?

▶️ What is a good photo?
16 months ago ( translate )