Some Web Design companies use images for everything. While it may look good, it will definitely slow down the speed of the page loading. Page loading speed in the sum of the HTML file plus the size of all of the embedded files. Images constitute more than 50% of the download time. Using fewer images will speed download time and just may keep a visitor from bailing through impatience.

Photo quality is determined by the clarity, color purity and detail of a photo. Use a graphic editor to remove noise and other unwanted features. Most editors allow you to correct red-eye and sharpen edges to improve clarity.

Professional editors like Fireworks or Photoshop will let you change the background, adjust the color levels and do almost anything else you want to do to the photo.

You can also use a thumbnail on the webpage that links to a larger and higher resolution version of the image so that people who want to can view it.

The following suggestions will allow you to optimize your photos for fast download times without sacrificing picture quality: Change the resolution of all images to 72dpi, Convert graphic text into stylized text, Crop the images to the actual size needed, Minimize color depth when it’s not necessary for quality, Specify the actual width and height of all images and Use thumbnails where appropriate.

Graphics should enhance the content of a web page except in that rare occurrence where the images are the content. In either case, you need to optimize photos and other graphic files to allow for the fastest downloading time possible for the web page otherwise you risk losing the visitor forever.