How to Take Good Photos for your Website

Photos play a key part in web design. No matter what is being displayed, having high-quality images greatly improves the overall caliber of any website. People are very visual, and the more visual your website is, the more engaging it will feel to your viewers.

Additionally, the higher quality the photo, the more creatively we can use them in the design of your website. Images as backgrounds, buttons, and headings all make a website feel dynamic and modern.

What kinds of photos are helpful for a website?

Profile / team portraits:

Photos on About Us/Profile pages are important for introducing yourself to the client, and helping them understand who you are even through the internet. A potential client seeing a personable profile picture goes a long way in creating familiarity and then getting their business. 

Place of business / your street / your town:

These photos make great background or header photos, and are useful for giving viewers a full picture of your business. To see where your business is and what it looks like can create a meaningful connection for your viewers. 

Action shots:

It’s important to have profile pictures to introduce your audience to your team, but quality action photos can further develop that familiarity. What an “action shot” looks like will vary depending on the industry, but usually it shows people in their place of business, interacting with their work and/or clients.

There two ways to get great photos:

DIY

Tips for taking your own photos for your site

Lighting: Aim for white light that’s not too bright and doesn’t cast strong shadows. For profile pictures it can be helpful to take them facing a window, as natural lighting usually brightens the image evenly.

Composition: For team / action / workplace shots, try to create empty space as you capture the scene. For example either of these photos would be useful for a website — a page title could easily be placed in the center without blocking too much of the image’s content. They would also be great background photos because parts can be covered without detracting too much from the photo.

For portraits, it looks best when the frame starts the chest and leaves some space above the head. Photos cropped too close to the top of the head often look cut off or poorly cropped. Using the same background for everyone like on the left also creates consistency in the photos which looks professional. On the other hand, you can also get creative with profile photos like the one on the right. These types of portraits show more of the personality of the individual and can be fun in tandem with professional shots. 

Camera: You don’t need the latest photography tech, but you should use something more advanced than an iphone. Iphones or point-and-shoot cameras usually can’t offer the high-resolution needed for display on a website. However, most digital cameras will be fine. If you can control the image resolution, 2000-2500 pixels is a great size that will maintain the quality of the photo. 

Professional

Hiring a professional photographer is more costly than doing it on your own, but for the quality and ease they provide, it’s almost always worth it. We at exSite are happy to connect you with photographers in your area, but you can always search for your own as well, here’s an article about finding a good photographer.  Professional photographers will usually have a portfolio online that you can look through before scheduling a photoshoot.