In the Prepping Your Work series of blog posts, we’ll give you advice, tips and tricks to prepare your digital work for sale on CybaSumo and SumoStores.com.

If you can provide an attractive presentation for your store that includes enticing graphics and interesting descriptions, you’ll increase the chances that a shopper will turn into a buyer. Here’s how to optimizing your store for selling photography and digital art.

File Formats

CybaSumo supports JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, PSD, and TIF image formats when upload your photo. Any image editing program should be able to save your images into JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIF.

PSD is a Photoshop Document, and describes aspects of an image in Photoshop. A purchaser cannot view a PSD file in anything but Photoshop or another image editor like JASC’s Paint Shop Pro. You should only sell a PSD if you want to give purchasers access to Photoshop-specific features in your image such as layers, color spaces, alpha channels, and so on. Be sure to explain that the PSD image is for advanced users and that they must own a PSD-compatible image editor.

File Size and Dimensions

The resolution of your camera in megapixels will determine the dimensions of your shots in pixels.

For example, if your camera is rated at 4MP (4 million pixels), it can take pictures at about 2304 x 1728 pixels. Each picture will take up about 2.14MB of space.

File size (2.14MB) is different from dimensions (2304 x 1728 pixels). You may think that there’s a set relation between file size and dimensions, but there’s one added variable: image quality.

When you save your image in JPG format after editing it, for example, most photo editors will give you the option to specify the quality from 1 to 100. A JPG with a quality of 1 might only be a few K, whereas a JPG with a quality of 100 might be several MB.

How do you determine the best trade-off between file size, dimensions, and quality? Here are some rough guidelines:

• Consider what purchasers will use the image for. Will they be printing it out, using it as wallpaper on a 20”, 1650 x 1080 monitor, or using it as a backdrop on their cell phone? If you can, target your image to a specific use and make sure you describe its size and use in the CybaSumo product description.
• If your purchasers will be printing your images at 4 x 6 inches at a professional resolution of 300dpi, you’ll need to output your image to at least 2.16MP (1800 x 1200 pixels). If they will be printing the image to 8 x 10 inches at the same resolution, your image will have to be 2400 pixels by 1920 pixels – and you’ll need at least a 7.2 megapixel camera. For more discussion of this, see http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/image-quality.php.
• The bigger the file size in MB, the more reluctant prospective customers may be to download it. Some people are still using dialup, and for others, per-KB Internet costs are prohibitive. If an inexperienced user downloads a large image where they only need a smaller image, they may have problems resizing it.
• Generally speaking, your image should be just as large as it needs to be to provide a quality experience for your buyers – and no larger.

You’ll find a useful pixel/resolution calculator at http://auctionrepair.com/pixels.html. Screen resolution is typically 75DPI (dots per inch), while photo printers can print at 300dpi and up.