All photos on this site are Copyright © image-world and Chris Ross 2001/2009
and may not be reproduced without written permission
other than for your own personal enjoyment.

The original high-resolution images for printing are available for sale -
the prices depend on the use to be made and the type of contract
(licence for single or unlimited use, or outright purchase).
Please contact me for further information using the form ('Contact' link).

Most of the photographs were taken with a digital camera:

A few were digitised from 35 mm negatives or slides taken with a Minolta SRT303 SLR,
using a Nikon LS30 film scanner (maximum resolution 2700 dpi).

The originals are saved in TIFF or JPEG format (at the very highest quality) - according to the use which is likely to made of them, in the Adobe RGB colour space.

The images on the site have been reduced to 800 x 600 or 450 x 600 pixels for screen display at between 72 and 96 dpi.
They are stored in JPEG format with a high quality compression rate (8/12) - a compromise between quality of reproduction and file size (download time).
They are in the sRGB colour space - it may be necessary to adjust your monitor (not only brilliance and contrast, but also colour balance and gamma) to obtain the best results and the closest resemblance to the original subjects (see the "Test" category).


Software and configuration

N.B. - This site uses JavaScript abundantly: you will need to view it with Netscape Navigator© version 4.5 or Microsoft Internet Explorer© version 6; or above (or another browser with equivalent capabilities).
It has been extensively tested with Netscape Navigator (from 4.7 to 7), Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer 6
(We regret that we cannot support other browsers - see notes below.)
Please report any problems encountered.

There are a couple of bugs common to Netscape 7 and Mozilla (since they use the same Gecko engine)
- but you might not even notice them!

AOL users - if you experience problems, launch your browser directly without the AOL interface.
If your difficulties continue, configure a direct connection to Internet without going through the AOL proxy.

You will also need cookies enabled (although they will persist only for the length of your visit).

You may need to de-activate the function of any software which blocks cookies
(in no case can a cookie transmit a virus)
and also any program which prevents new windows from being opened ('pop-ups').

Maximum security level settings for your browser:

Netscape 4.5 - 4.78: Edit-Preferences-Advanced - "Accept only cookies which are returned to the originating server"

Netscape 7 -7.1, Mozilla 1.2 -1.5: Edit-Preferences-Privacy-Cookies - "Enable cookies for the originating website only"
         Edit-Preferences-Advanced-Scripts and Plugins-"Enable Javascript for Navigator" and "Allow scripts to perform all operations"
         You can equally permit cookies for the site: Tools-Cookie Manager - 'Unblock cookies from this site".

Internet Explorer 6: Tools-Internet Options-Privacy - set the level no higher than "Medium high" for the Internet Zone.
         If you still have problems (IE is unpredictable) lower it further, to "Low".
         Alternatively you can place 'image-world' in the Trusted Sites Zone.

Opera 6 - 7: File-Options-Privacy- 1. "Accept all cookies" and 2. "Only accept cookies from the server".
         Set File-Options-Windows to "Allow pop-up windows".

Note for 'MS Internet Explorer 5.5' users: (see remarks below concerning support for this browser) -
at the request of a few persistent visitors we have sought and found a workaround for its cookie management bug.

Why do we use cookies?

1. The whole of the main site is bilingual French-English.

When you click on one of the two links on the opening page, a cookie is set
which tells us in which language to display all the other pages that you visit.
This is also why you can only enter the site through the 'main entrance':
otherwise we wouldn't know which language you want to use.

(A few supplements - such as reports of purely local interest - are only in French or in English,
so they will not appear if you don't speak the relevant language.)

2. When you open the main (menu) page, some checks are done on your screen resolution
and your browser, so that we can warn you if these might cause any problems with displaying the site.
So that you are not bothered by these warnings again when you return to this page
cookies record the fact that the checks have already been done.

3. Another cookie is used for administrative purposes, so that when we check out the site ourselves
to make sure that it is all working correctly, our own visits do not increase the counter and distort the statistics!

All the cookies expire at the end of your session
and no personal information about you is collected or recorded
- neither on your own computer nor on our server.


Note that most manipulations of windows displaying full-sized images are forbidden:
you can scroll the contents but other operations will usually result in them closing automatically.

Bookmarks: Never create a bookmark other than for the main page - http://www.image-world.net
Only this URL is guaranteed to remain constant and the operation of the whole site depends on this starting point.
The internal organisation of the site and the programming of individual pages
may be modified without prior warning or subsequent notification -
and the entire site may also possibly be moved to another server.
Direct links to other pages will fail and you will be returned to the start page.


Our visitors' hardware and software progress.

Thanks to the analyses and statistics provided by Xiti (as well as our own counters)
we can follow the trends; as well as the subjects which interest you most.
This allows us to respond better to your expectations.

1. Typical screen resolution has evolved since last year.
1024x768 has definitvely overtaken 800x600, reaching 70%
(lower resolutions having practically disappeared altogether).

A very few 1280x1024 screens are starting to show up.

The site functions perfectly at higher resolutions:
however the size of the images will remain 800x600 because of the disk space required for the files
(currently around 150MB in all); but also to reduce the interest in pirating the photos for printing!

More than 50% of our users appear to be still content with their 65536 colours (16 bits).
This is totally inadequate to appreciate the quality of our photos
and we strongly reccommend them to switch to 16 million colours ('True colour' - 24 bits),
or even 32 bits.

Corresponding to the above two observations, the warning about resolution and colour depth
will from now on only appear if either is inferior to the requirements.

3. Browsers are relatively slowly updated
(for a very good reason: older ones are often faster than more recent versions!).

We will therefore continue to support Netscape (from 4.7 to 7.1), Mozilla (from 1.2 to 1.5), Opera (6 and 7),
and Internet Explorer 6 to which the majority of its enthusiasts have migrated -
difficult to do otherwise considering Microsoft's policy and its integration into Windows).

We no longer support MSIE 5 or 5.5 at all because of its numerous bugs (cookie management),
security loopholes and lack of conformity to standards
(it may well malfunction).
Microsoft has dropped it (no more tech support except for Windows ME):
so we will waste no further time on it either.

We have no intention of introducing any animations requiring plug-ins
(such as Flash...): the site will continue to be programmed in HTML and JavaScript only
(presently v. 4.01 Transitional and v. 1.3 respectively).

We are gradually working towards HTML 4.1 Strict compliance (then possibly XHTML)
as well as JavaScript 1.5 , a
t the same time maintaining backwards compatibility as much as possible.


This site was entirely designed and programmed by
Christophe Ross
Pech Piounet
FR46250 LES ARQUES

Everything which appears here (images and text)
is Copyright © Chris Ross and image-world
unless otherwise stated.

 

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