People and animals are a popular photo subject on Web pages. And if you have photos of people or animals you should make sure of the following:

Make sure the eyes are visible ― Eyes are what people look at when they look at photographs. So, a photo where the eyes are hard to see or in shadow is going to be less effective than one with clear visible eyes.

Zoom in on faces ― Just like with the eyes, faces are more interesting than the entire body in most cases.

Get in tight on the subject ― Especially with animals, you want to get as much of the subject in your frame as possible.

If you're photographing products for your Web site, you want to make sure that they stand out as well.

Zoom in on the product ― If you can't zoom in, then crop the photo down to just the product you're highlighting.

Light your product well ― People won't want to buy it if they can't see it.

Provide multiple angles ― If you can, take photos of the product from multiple sides. This gives your customers more information.

So you've zoomed in on the face of your dog or taken a full-body shot of your son playing in the sand, but what's in the background? If the background has too much clutter or noise, the photo will be hard to look at. If you can't get a good background from where you're standing - move or have your subjects move.

Always photograph products on a white background. This makes the product stand out, and makes shadows more effective. If you want to use a colored background, make sure that it's a solid color. When you can't get a solid color background on your product image, use photo editing software to blur the background slightly! This will make your product stand out more even with a less than ideal background.

Often what makes a professional photograph stand out from a novice's is the lighting. Be aware of where the sun is if you're shooting outdoors. You don't want to take photos with your subjects directly facing the sun. Yes, they'll be well lit, but they'll almost certainly be squinting and that doesn't look good either. Diffused light is the best for most animal and people shots, because the subjects aren't called out in harsh relief and shadows are muted.

Fill flashes are a really useful tool. With a fill flash, you can photograph subjects with the light source behind them and their faces won't be in shadow. And on days when the sunlight is filtered by clouds, a fill flash can highlight things that the more muted sunlight would miss.

Product shots should have good strong lighting. If you want the effect of shadows in your image, using a strong light source on your subject will help develop them. It is always possible to add them in later with Photoshop, but that can look unnatural unless you're very careful. Besides, the less post-processing that you have to do the better - if only because it's less work.

Photos of people with recognizable faces should always have a model release. Editorial use of a person's photo is usually okay, but getting a model release protects you from legal liabilities.

In most countries it is okay to take photos of architecture without permission if you are on publicly accessible land when you take the shot. But be sure you know your rights and the rights of the building owners before you publish the photograph.