Re: [OT] Miniatures Pictures (for manufacturers etc)

Allan Goodall wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:41:12 -0400, "Tomb" <tomb@dreammechanics.com>
wrote:
> 
> >So ideally, it'd be nice to see both. And in this day of digital
cameras
> >and relatively cheap storage space, is this really a huge lot to ask?
> ><answer: maybe....>
> 
> The problem with painted minis is geting someone to paint them. The
problem
> with putting two sets of pictures up may _not_ be one of storage. Most
ISPs
> charge a fair amount of money for the amount of stuff downloaded off a
web
> site. If you're running a small business off the free web space you
get from
> an ISP, putting lots of pictures up can still be prohibitively
expensive. You
> can pay between $35 and $150+ a month to a provider that allows large
> downloads. Since minis are, still, mostly a cottage industry, this
could be an
> expense small suppliers just don't want to pay.

FWIW, our site costs c.£50 (~$75) per year for 30Mb of space. I don't
think we have a bandwidth limitation. For this we have to put up with
some (very small) banners which can go anywhere on the page (I always
put them at the bottom).

One mistake many sites make is in not compressing their image files -
JPEGs can be cut down to 10-20% of their original size without much loss
in visible quality. This cuts down on both bandwidth and webspace
requirements.

> I suspect the main reason is just the amount of time it takes to
photograph
> the pics and put them on the web site. I still can't understand why
more mini
> companies don't put up a web site with pictures of all their figures.

Assembling, painting and photographing an entire range is a *heck of a
lot of work*. This has to be the major bottleneck in getting pictures
on-line. We pride ourselves in having (almost) every model illustrated
on the site in some form or other (even if in some cases it's just a
crude scan of the original master) - but our product list is very small
compared to mainstream manufacturers (around 250 models). I have a
long-term plan of rephotographing everything with consistent
backgrounds, decent lighting, regular sized pics, painted / unpainted
versions, unassembled versions of multipart kits, etc, etc .... but
probably not in the near future.

Tony
[Brigade]
-----------------------------
Tony Francis
Senior Software Engineer