Cropped thumbs versus Resized thumbs?
 

Which do you prefer for promo galleries and members area picture galleries? cropped thumbs all one size or resized smaller thumbs of the whole image?

It depends what looks better. It depends on what the photo looks like. Whether the full image shows off what they want to see more than a small portion would

Sometimes cropping can make a photo look better, sometimes it can't

If its a lousy gallery, you might have better luck cropping out her boobs, etc

Also depends if its automatic cropping or by hand. Depends how your crop settings are.

I manually go through the process where I can crop all of my tgp thumbs I upload and I only end up cropping about 25 percent because I feel the full sized would be more clickable.

However, on the other hand. Once content becomes saturated thumbs that are handcropped will continue to do better because they think they haven't seen it (for tgps that depend on prod, this helps even more). So handcropped might be better if you dont plan on ever changing and will be seen by the masses (promo). In the members area, handcropped might also be better because they have to click to see the full sized which takes them longer, which makes them interact a little more and actually see the full sized instead of skimming through the set quickly and clicking the few thumbs that look good. (which would in turn, make them feel like theyve seen the set in a couple minutes)

Another reason handcropping would be a positive in the members area is that the set will look alot more unique upon first glance

it's not a silly question - you do it one way or the other - cropping the original photo is where you make your 'artistic' decision. tgp's and members area galleries work off templates, some CMS's do the thumb cropping automagically - u are either going to crop to one size or just reduce the size of the full sized pics.

some surfers don't like cropped thumbs which only show a portion, sometimes a very small portion, of the full sized image. they want to see a thumbnail representation of the full sized image.

cropped thumbs all the same size give a nicer organized look to a gallery design, boring though.

I edited out that comment before you responded. hah

I thought it was silly at first because if you have 10 pics that are cropped, 10 pics that are not, some will appear more clickable, some will not. Theres not going to be one way thats better than the other unless you handcropped them (and chose which ones to) IMO

**Another reason handcropping would be a positive in the members area is that the set will look alot more unique upon first glance since most pictures that appear next to each other will be very similar (similar distance and pose) and your set will look very boring. Yes they will eventually see the full sized images in the slideslow, however they are not next to each other for comparison**

Too late to edit the original post

Most people dont use tools that use automatic cropping, however if you do and it doesn't take you much longer, i guess i would suggest it. However again, theres other things to factor in that you can't really do without seeing which looks better.

If your model has great assets, cropping thumbs like SpunkyCash does would be more ideal.

If you have awesome full images with beautiful locations like art sites do, sometimes its better to show a smaller version of the full image.

Without knowing anything and just answering your generic question, i vote cropped if you have good crop settings

Resized. Cropped piss me off.

I think Spunkys cropped thumbs are better than the alternative because of the type of content he has, the way he shoots it, and considering its tease. If shes not going to be naked in the picture, you might as well have a closeup of her pushing her boobs together or up her skirt

http://galleries.haileyshideaway.com...ccbill=XXXXXXX

http://galleries.haileyshideaway.com...ccbill=XXXXXXX

I think I just resized for ease, but cropping frequently looks better.

Now compare those to

http://www.natashabelle.com/promo/ph...elle.com/tour/


Mine are resized.

I do it because i feel my content is of high quality and them seeing resized versions will sell it better than cropping parts of it.

So i think in some cases its looks better and others, not as good.

Then there is other factors to consider like I mentioned in another post.

What you should do, is make a promo gallery cropped and then another that is resized and show us both samples.

The overall design/layout of the gallery is what matters. A gallery should be designed to sell the product, not to conform to the rules of a 1999 TGP, imho.

When I had my amateur galleries I tried resizing them and they looked terrible so i just cropped them in the end

Youre partially wrong, the majority of solo affiliates (and some other niches) left standing are ones from the past who still have 1999 websites. The 1999 websites are the websites that contain the 1999 customers who still buy.

Mutt's top affiliates are definitely oldschool affiliates.