A good problem.. featured image! ideas for article pictures

How do you guys created your featured images for review pages,

what software do you use?

do you use Pictures or Typography?

what do you think works best?

 

I have never used a software. I take it from Flickr and I think they work best for me!

 

As I work in the adult affiliate business, I am always creating content with graphics. I recently started using Collageit 3 to create the main post image, and usually create a simple text overlay on one of the images used in the collage to create a teaser image (for themes with a preview/featured image). I am of the opinion that if you're using images to link out, it would be better to have one link from a collage than eight links from individual images. This might not apply to many here, but it's an important part of my daily routine.

Obviously it's vital in my line of work to use media in posts, but I believe it really is important no matter the subject. The most important things - in my opinion - are relevance of the images used, the quality, and the position of them alongside the text content. Far too many people neglect the formatting of their content and don't make the best use of media. Design is fundamental, there are proven benefits to creating "pleasing" content that the Human visitor can feel comfortable with.

One of the most basic elements is text alignment. Justified text is far more appealing to the eye than the jagged edge of the left-align style. That gives a good indication of the subtleties of formatting.

 

I have never used featured images to all my posts. I write technical articles sometimes, and often find something in Wikimedia creative commons library which can be free to use with attribution.

Larger sites use paid services like shutterstock or others for royalty free images. Or create their own.

 

What kind of technical articles can you write?

I have also found this http://www.sxc.hu/ - Its a royalty free picture website

I also find shutterstock way to expensive especially when its £2 per photo, if your writing 12+ Articles a week It can get tricky,

Would you suggest i take up some Photoshop skills?

 

Photoshop can come very handy when you learn it, and as Conran mentioned above, he uses Collageit 3, which can speed up creation of an image.

I only know a bit of basics of Photoshop. Dad bought a book in the year 2000 about learning Photoshop 5.5. A lot has changed in photoshop since then. You can find photoshop tutorials to do almost anything you want on youtube. So, thats a good thing...

 

I've used Photoshop, Gimp and Collageit 3 for the creation of collages, and although the first two are obviously more comprehensive in their tools, Collageit 3 is the best for this purpose, in my opinion.

Photoshop is expensive, and unless you're a designer I think the cost is prohibitive. I wouldn't spend that kind of money on software that I was using for only one thing on a daily basis, not when there are alternatives which cost far less. Gimp is free, and for years it was a great solution offering almost every feature of Photoshop for nothing, but recently it's become very buggy, crashes, freezes, performs odd acts randomly... I gave up on it after spending an hour creating something and then losing it completely when it decided to freeze.

Collageit 3 cost me about $20 I think, and it's been easy, straightforward and perfect for what I need daily.

 

Where can i get Collageit 3? i hope its available through the windows app store, i think im the only person on this forum with a windows machine

 

I hope the following titles might come handy

Life Beyond Age Barriers/Frontiers
Ways to stay Youthful
Overcoming Barriers of Age
A Guide to Look Younger
Fighting the Aging phenomenon
How to remain Resilient to Aging
Conquer the Old Age

 

I use a mixture of things. It all depends on what your topic is. There are a few great programs you can try:

Photo Editing Apps: Oh my gosh, there are so many! I recently stumbled on this list and it has a ton of different apps that make it really easy to create eye catching images. http://www.creativebloq.com/design-tools/best-photo-apps-513764

Sumo Paint or Gimp: They are both free and very similar to Photoshop. Gimp is more robust than Sumo Paint. I used these when I first got started blogging, but I’ve since invested in Adobe Creative Cloud because it gives me so much more control.

Stock Photos: I use BigStockPhotos.com. It’s $60 per month, but I can download up to 5 images per day and that’s the best value I found.

One last resource to check: Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons for royalty free images.