How to Choose the Right Photography for your Website or Blog

It cannot be stressed enough how important good photography is for the look and feel of a website or blog. A good design can only do so much when presenting your company’s brand and personality; the right photography is what brings it all together. There are three ways of obtaining photography for your website.

1. Hire a Professional Photographer

Hiring a professional will usually yield high quality results while still maintaining the ability to have a say in what photos are taken and how. This also guarantees you that you will be using images unique to you and your business.

2. Stock Photography

You can choose from thousands of available images for a decent price from sites such as istockphoto.com or shutterstock.com. From time to time you may get lucky and find free images from websites such as stockvault.net that will work well with your site.

While choosing stock photography may be a simple and cheaper solution, it is important to remember that images you choose are influencing your credibility. Using photography that isn’t personal or unique to your company can diminish the sense of trust someone feels when visiting your site.

3. Take your own Pictures

With today’s easy access to digital cameras and equipment, many people chose to take their own pictures. While in some cases this works out wonderfully, often less-than-desirable results will be achieved.

Did you know that, according to a study done by Carleton University, visitors to your website form an opinion about your business in 1/20th of a second? That almost instantaneous reaction subconsciously continues to weigh on them while viewing the rest of your site as well. Achieving that great first impression with your visitors can be as simple as choosing the right images. Here is how to pick the right pics to prevent visitors from hitting that back button.

Keep your Design in Mind

The look and feel of your website should match the look and feel of your images. You want your images to look like they belong on the page.

Size and Orientation

Again, you want your images to look like they belong there, not like they were stretched or cropped to fit. If you hire a professional photographer, it is a great idea to provide them with the dimensions of images on the site. Pay attention as well to any text or rollovers that may appear on top of the image. You want the text to be readable, yet you don’t want it to cover up the main focus of your image.

Ask Around

Ask others, such as coworkers or friends and family, what they think of images before you come to a final conclusion. Hearing the opinion of a few others may change the way you feel about an image.

Effort

Lastly, and most importantly, put time and effort, into your photography. If visitors feel like you’ve slacked off when it came to choosing images for your website, they will begin to feel the same about your content, products, or services.

In conclusion, the photography you choose can either make or break the trust a visitor feels towards your site. The time, effort, and money you put into this decision will be directly reflected in the happiness of your site visitors, and the success your website achieves.

Contact us today to talk about your website design!