How To
Take Pictures For Your Website
Stock imagery is great, but it just does not have the same effect as your own photography. Look at all the most successful brands…do they use stock imagery? Nope. We have been building websites for over 10 years, so we know what are the most common mistakes, and what makes websites look great. These tips will help you arrange your photoshoots with a better vision in mind.
Before I start, I just want to point out the obvious. High-resolution photography is a must. Everyone has a decent smartphone camera in their hands, so there is no excuse for pixelated images that look like they were taken in a night club back in 2008. Harsh, but true! There is no way anyone will trust your brand if you don’t have high-quality images of your products.
Color Tone
Look carefully at your branding. If your whole brand is revolved around warmer tones – then your photos should be done in warmer tones as well. And on the contrary with colder tones. Yes, it matters, because people will feel that something is off, without realising what exactly is not right.
Color Scheme
This is not a must, but always looks way better, and just shows your customer that you put that little extra effort into your brand. You don´t have to select your outfits with a color picker, but just place an accent color from your branding into the images. If your logo is red, grab a red bag or wear red shoes, place a red flower in the background, etc.
Background imagery
Most of the time we have to use stock photography for this, because rarely clients think of this. But! It is way cooler if your own photos can be used for backgrounds. The key here is to remember that there will be text over the image. These photos tend to be quite minimalistic or abstract. For example, for a picture gallery, I specifically took close-ups of paintings placing lighter colors in 90% of the shot, so the text could be read easily.
Portrait & Landscape
Yes, you need both. Just take 2 versions of each photo. Mobile sites look better with portrait images, and desktops – with landscapes.
You!
Don´t be scared to take pictures of yourself and your team. There is a clear trend for transparency of businesses, and if you are not hiding yourself – it creates trust. Make sure these are not pixelated from your Facebook profile images from 10 years ago ;)
Focus.
This has to be a photoshoot for your website. Don´t try to hire a photographer for a family shoot and then use those pictures for your website. There is a very small chance that these will match.
BONUS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS: If you are a photographer, you can offer people “website packages”, where you would do photos for all the pages, including background imagery taking their branding into account. You are welcome ;)
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