1Eighty Design

We’re excited about the launch of the new Lausch Photography Website.  Lausch Photography is located in Lafayette, IN and specializes in wedding photography but works with a variety of clients to obtain the perfect images from any event.  Ed, the owner, was our first client over 10 years ago and we’ve been working with him ever since.  I’m sure at this point it would be embarrassing to put up that first design but since then we’ve gone through three other versions, each one offering something new and trying something different.

With this version he can post his most recent work on the home page with his past 5 shoots showing before they are automatically archived to another page. The site also includes a Content Management System (CMS) for updating the site. The CMS will even let him post his new works to his Facebook Page automatically.

Photo Store

The custom photo store allows Ed to add as many events/accounts as he wishes. He can then upload a zip file of all the images using the CMS to the account allowing users to view them.

Here are some of the features:

• Accounts can be password protected
• Users can add their favorite photos to a list to choose which ones they want to purchase
• When adding a photo to their cart, the user can choose from several different sizes
• Checkout is done right through the site
• All sales and totals are shown in the CMS with photo total output when you’re ready to print

If you are a photographer (or anyone else) who wants to sell online, contact 1Eighty Design. We would be happy to talk to you about your project and see how we can help.

Take a few minutes and answer these questions:

• Is your website stale?
• When was the last time you updated it?
• Does your site do anything for you?

So… is it? Was your last news update from 2009? Are all your services even listed? Does your website show employees who left 7 years ago? With more and more people turning to the Internet, now is the time to be proactive. Get your site updated and keep it updated!

Updating Your Site

Did you know that your search engine rankings can be affected by not regularly updating your content? Search engines take notice if your site hasn’t changed and will slow down the amount of times they index your pages and your ranking will drop. They love to see new content!

No matter the type of business, you can always find a reason to update your site. 1Eighty Design can work with you on ideas for updating your site as well as provide a Content Management System (CMS) for updating when you want and as often as you want.

Put Your Website to Work

Is there something you do every day that could be automated? Do you have a product that you could sell online to make you money even when your store is closed? We can work with you to make your life easier and increase your profits. Whether it’s creating a custom application to help with your business’s daily operations or an online store to sell your products online; we have the skills to make your website a success.

Here is what one of our customers recently said: “The only way I have kept my head above water this year has been your service application. It has been a life saver. I can’t thank you enough. The results will be unbelievable at the end of the year.”

1Eighty Design

We are a web design and development company located in Warsaw, IN. If you are in the area and would like to discuss your site contact us today! We can help you with anything from a basic website to e-commerce or even Facebook integration.

We’ve been working with Rain Makers (located in Warsaw, IN) on a new website that will streamline the way they perform service calls.  The owner of the company, Jamie Bowers, wanted to streamline the process of receiving service requests and assigning them to his employees. (more…)

Many of the our clients use a content management system (CMS) to update their sites. This allows them to change the content on their site whenever they want and as often as they want. When you are trying to improve your search engine rankings its important to update your content regularly.

Along with updating your content, you may also need to add images to your site. In some cases these images will have to be cropped/trimmed/scaled to an exact dimension, this tutorial will help you create the images using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Step 1. Select the “Rectangular Marquee Tool”

The Rectangular Marquee Tool will allow you to select part of the image to use on your website. In this example we are going to assume that the image must be 250 pixels wide and 125 pixels tall. When you are ready to create your image, simply replace 250 with the width required and 125 with the height you need.

Step 2. Change Tool Settings

Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool you can proportionally select part of the image based on the dimensions you need. To do this you must change the tool settings. First change the Style/Mode to “Fixed Ratio”.

Next you will need to enter the numbers you want to use for your final dimension.

Step 3. Make Your Selection

Now that the Marquee Tool is setup correctly you will need to make a selection. In the example below we wanted to capture the train while cropping out part of the sky. Start by dragging from the top left down to the bottom right. You’ll notice that the selection box keeps the same ratio that you specified in the tool settings. After making the selection you can click and drag the box around the image. If you are not satisfied with your selection you press Ctrl-d to deselect and try again.

Tip: When making your selection, make sure you select enough of the image so it is not scaled up in the next steps. So for this example we’d want to make sure that our selection box is at least 250 pixels wide.

Step 4. Crop Your Image

Now you need to crop your image to the selection box boundaries. This is done by selecting the “Crop” option as you can see below.

Step 5. Size Your Image

You must now size your image to the exact dimensions. Using the “Image Size” tool you can set your image to the size needed to upload into the CMS.

After selecting “Image Size…” a dialogue box will appear that allows you to enter the new dimensions. Make sure that the “Resolution” under “Document Size” is set to 72 pixels/inch. Under “Pixel Dimensions” enter your width and height. If everything has been done correctly the height will change to the correct value when you enter the width. Press “OK” to close the dialogue box. If the width or height is less than the width or height required for the CMS you may want to start over so you are not scaling the image up which will give you undesirable results.

Tip: If you are not able to edit the “Pixel Dimensions” make sure the “Resample Image” box is checked.

Step 6. Save Your File

Your image is now setup correctly for the CMS which means you must now save your image. Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have an option under the “File” menu to “Save for Web…”. Select that option to open up the dialogue box to save your image.

Once the dialogue box is open you may need to make some changes. First make sure that “JPEG” is selected, next you will need to change the quality. Generally somewhere between 70-90 is good but make sure you pay attention to the preview in the window to the left. If you think the image looks bad and is becoming pixelated you may want to raise the quality higher. Once you are satisfied with the image press “OK”.

You will now be asked to save your image. Make sure you save your image to a location you can remember, you will need to select the file to upload it to the CMS. Also, it doesn’t hurt to name your image using something descriptive. For the example it could be: “freight-train-alongside-road.jpg”, some SEO experts believe that keywords used in your image names can help your ranking.

Conclusion

When making the selection (step 3) try to select the part of the image that will be most intriguing or illustrate your product the best way. If you are not happy with your photo after the first time try again, just make sure you do not save over your original file!