What features do you want in your photography website

You might think that creating an effective and unique photography website is difficult when there is so much competition. But if you find a simple website builder with ready-made professional templates, you will only need a short time to showcase your business and work in the best light. There are some key elements that you should consider including into your website to make sure it stands out, and we’ve outlined some of them here. 

Key Information

Having up-to-date information regarding your business is key in gaining new customers and expanding your business. Without core information visitors to your website will find getting to know your brand and services difficult and may decide to go elsewhere. There are a few pieces of information you should include, and when building your website, make sure that they are easy to find!

Type of Photography: visitors to your website may be looking for a specific type of photography, for example, wedding photography. By advertising what kind of photographic services you can provide potential customers can instantly see whether your business would be right for them. When providing this information ensure to include photographs of your work. If you’re not sure which is right for you, have a look at this list of professional photography genres to give you some inspiration.

About You: in a customer facing job such as photography new customers will often want to know about you and your experience in the field. This should not be a long essay about your life. Keep this section short and informative, if you are comfortable maybe add a photograph of you working. 

Contact Details: in order to turn visitors into customers having contact details is incredibly important; according to Ko Marketing, 44% of visitors will leave your site if there are no contact details. These should be displayed clearly on your website and you must ensure you check the email you provide regularly for potential clients. Generally you should include an email address, phone number and work address (if applicable). 

Range of Services: providing information on the range of services you offer allows visitors to your website to discover more about your business without having to call. This may be more applicable to photographers who offer many different kinds of photography. If this is the case arranging your website by type of photography can be effective. For example, one section on wedding photography, one on commercial, one for industrial etc. 

If you specialise in one type of photography you may have a narrower range of services. Therefore, the way you present your services will affect your business. You may choose to arrange service by time, for example a day session or half day. Alternatively, you may arrange by the number of prints ordered, for example offering a photoshoot for an hour with 30 prints included. These types of offers can help bring more customers to your business. 

A Page Showing Your Portfolio

A photography website without a gallery or portfolio will not gain any new customers. Without a portfolio visitors to your website cannot see the best aspects of your work. A portfolio page should be organised by category if your work spans multiple photographic disciplines. Images in your portfolio must be high quality and edited professionally. Consider including captions to your photographs, describing the scene or the service that links to the image. Some photography websites also watermark their photographs so that they cannot be stolen and used by other people. 

Reviews and Testimonials

Another key aspect you may consider for your photography website are reviews and testimonials. These can help legitimise your work and show visitors the standard that you are working at. Be sure to include reviews that mention a range of skills such as:

  • Your attitude on the job
  • The satisfaction of the customer 
  • Communication 
  • Quality of photographs 
  • Quality of prints/photo books you produce 

These kinds of reviews will show you in a highly positive light and allow you to showcase your skills to new visitors. Reviews and testimonials can also show the variety of events you have worked at or the different types of jobs you undertake. 

Simple Design and Layout

A major pitfall of many websites is overcomplicating the design, which leads to a messy crowded website. Good website design should be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. Ensure your photographs are well spaced in the website and text is clear and concise. Often a neutral colour scheme or accents of colour are the best way to create a photography website as they do not distract from the images.  

If you are looking for a good website builder for your company, then look no further than Go Sitebuilder! Our simple design means you can have a professional looking website up and running in minutes. With built-in features such as image galleries, a professional photography website is quick and easy to design. Try our 14-day free trial today.

How do I build a strong photography portfolio?

Female photographer building an image gallery on her website with a laptop

Building a photography portfolio isn’t just building a website to upload all of your favourite pictures and hoping that people will engage with them. There are many different approaches to exhibiting your photos in a way that will highlight the quality of your work, and we have put together a list of top tips so that your photography website will stand out from the crowd and showcase your skill. 

Take more photos

Get out there! The more photos you take, the more experience you get shooting different subjects and in different environments, which will help you develop your skill and creativity – check out these top tips on taking more interesting photos if you’re struggling for inspiration. If you’re just starting out in the photography business, you might need to take cheap or unpaid gigs to start with. Use your friends as models, shoot events for charity or ask to be a second shooter to professional photographers – but make sure you can use the event photos for your own portfolio! One tip – don’t shortchange yourself for too long. You may think you’re inexperienced, but offering free or extremely reduced rates devalues both your work and the profession at large. 

By putting yourself out there and trying new things, it will be easier for you to create your own style, which is a crucial element in designing your portfolio.

Think about your target audience

What are you making a photography portfolio for? Is it to get a job, start your own photography business, or just to exhibit your work in one place? This is key to understanding your audience, as you want to show them images that they want to see. If you are trying to get into wedding photography, for example, you don’t want to upload your pictures of scenery or floral close-ups, no matter how beautiful they are. Upload images that your audience will want to pay you to create. 

Select your featured images

This is never going to be easy, and it might take a long time – that’s ok. In a photography portfolio, you are only as good as your worst image, so this is a crucial step to wow your audience. 

Your website builder should have an image gallery to embed onto the site, but think of your featured image gallery as a sneak peek into your work, so don’t upload hundreds of pictures. Instead, choose a handful of photos that represent you as an artist. Great photography portfolios have varied images, but they are all in one style – this is what will set you apart. Don’t make it look like you are copying loads of different artists! Keeping all your photos within your personal style creates a strong visual identity and will help your clients remember your work and decide if you are the artist they’re looking for. 

Layout

Do some research on other photography portfolio websites. A clean, simple homepage is best as it makes your photos the main attraction. Don’t crowd the page either, make sure you leave some negative space between the images so that they stand out. If you are trying to showcase your versatility, put your photos in different categories – mixing newborn photos with late-night event photography can be jarring for a viewer. 

The order you put your images may seem arbitrary, but it is a critical decision! On a basic level, you want your first and last images to be some of your best, as these are what the viewer will remember most, but ideally you want to think about the order more deeply. You can order them according to mood, composition, colour or movement, but you want them to flow and tell a story. You want your visitors to be moved by your images, as this will make sure they don’t forget your work. 

Keep it simple

This is a delicate balance. You don’t want to fill your photography website with unnecessary elements or crowd your photos with a wall of text. However, you want your viewers to have an emotional connection with your images. Include a short caption describing the photo and where it was taken for each image, but if you have a short sentence-long story behind the photo that adds to the image, post that as well.

You are not alone!

As a photographer, it’s easy to stare at your photos so long you can’t work out if they’re good or if you just have a personal connection with them. Ask for feedback as much as you can, from friends, family, professional photographers or even someone you trust in your target market. Ask them how your photos make them feel, and whether they have questions about them they want to be answered. 

Beautiful images, beautiful website

If you’re still looking for a website builder to showcase your photos, then Go Sitebuilder is a great option! With beautiful themes preloaded onto the website builder and image gallery plugins just a click away, you can have a professional photography portfolio website up and running in minutes. Try our 14-day free trial today to see how you can make your photos stand out against the competition.

How can I make my photography website stand out?

Male photographer on a laptop making a website

In a saturated market such as photography, designing a website that stands out from the competition is incredibly important. Whether you are a wedding photographer or a visual travel blogger, creating a website that reflects your personality can result in new clients. 

This can be done through a variety of means. The visual aspects of your website such as colours and font are important, as are features such as specialised services and offers. If you are looking for ways to make your photography website stand out then read on!

Making your Photographs Centre Stage

As a photography business, the most important part of your website design should be to make your photographs the focal point of your website. Your photographs should be the main selling point to potential customers visiting your website, so  to show your work off to the best quality consider the following:

High-Quality Images: the best way to showcase your images is to present them in a high-quality format. High-quality images show the professional quality of your services. By presenting your images in this format you can show your work in the best light and have a higher chance of gaining new clients through your website. 

Spacing: a key element of website design is the layout. This is especially key when you are a photography business. The spacing of your photographs is important when presenting your photographs. Placing your images too close together can result in a crowded website. 

An effective gallery: in order to show a large range of images on one webpage a well-designed gallery is important. An effective gallery will clearly show a range of images without looking crowded. A key aspect is also a feature to allow visitors to click on each image and see a larger version and find out more information about it. If you choose to have a scroll-through gallery, make sure your best photos are at the beginning and at the end – these are the photos that your visitors will remember the most. 

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Creating Visual Impact

One way to make your website stand out is to carefully consider what visual aspects you need to include to create impact. Visual elements such as colours and fonts can portray your brand image and show a customer what kind of photography business you have. Some elements to think about are:

Colour Scheme: certain colours are associated with particular brands or occasions. For example, a white and gold theme may imply a wedding photographer, whereas brighter colours may imply a more informal family portrait photographer.  

Font: different fonts can create different impressions on visitors to your website. More traditional fonts, such as Times New Roman, give a sense of professionalism. Whereas more unique fonts give a sense of individuality. Whichever kind of font you choose for your website, the main focus should be to portray your brand identity whilst maintaining a professional web design. A general rule of thumb in design is to have one ‘Serif’ font and one ‘Sans Serif’ font, using one for headings and another for body text. 

Logo: an easy way to show off your brand is the design of your logo. This should be something you can display on your website and use in aspects of your business such as business cards. Your logo should be eye-catching and professional.

Consider Layout and Navigation

Another key element of any good website design is the layout of elements of your website. This includes features such as the layout of menus and photographs on your website. One key thing to keep in mind when designing the layout is that less is more. By including as many elements as possible you risk overcrowding your website and making it difficult for visitors to navigate. 

The layout of your website should be simple, with clean lines and panels which are easy to navigate. Elements should be intuitive for visitors of your website, for example, collect all your best wedding photographs on one page and all landscapes in another to allow visitors to find the images they are looking for easily. 

Clear Contact Options

With any online business having clear contact options are incredibly important. If visitors to your website have to search for a long time to find your contact options, it may deter them from contacting you. As a rule, keeping contact options at the bottom of every web page makes sure visitors know how to contact you.  

If you are looking to build a website for your company, then look no further than Go Sitebuilder! Our simple design means you can have a professional-looking website up and running in minutes. With built-in features such as image galleries, a professional photography website is quick and easy to design. Try our 14-day free trial today.

How do I make a photography website?

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Having a website is an important tool for any photographer, whether you’re new to the business or an established brand. But, how do you go about creating a photography website where your images can do all the talking?

Identify your goals

Before you start designing your photography website, think about what you want it to achieve. Are you hoping to sell your images, gain local custom, acquire a new job in the industry or simply raise your profile? The goals of your website will dictate how you design it, what styles you should focus on and what content you should create.

Categorise your images

Your photos will be your selling points, so it goes without saying that these should take centre stage on your website. But think carefully about how you organise and display them. If you snap a wide range of images, create separate pages within your site to differentiate genres, such as landscape photography, portraits, weddings etc., rather than lumping them all together.

Display your style

How you display your photos will have an impact on the kind of impression you create, so pay attention to this aspect. Choose simple, plain backgrounds that won’t clash with your images. Horizontal images are best displayed as thumbnails, while it may be easier to scroll down vertical images. Here at Go Sitebuilder, we offer a wide range of pre-designed sections, slideshows and galleries that can be used to display your images beautifully. Play around with different templates to find a display that suits your style and images the most. It is also very important for you to optimise your site so that it can be easily viewed on different devices – this can be done instantly with Go Sitebuilder.

Choose quality over quantity

While it’s important to include your portfolio of images on your website, don’t go overboard. Opt for quality over quantity and only include the best examples that showcase your work. By only including a small number of images, this ensures they won’t slow your website’s speed down, and it will help to whet the appetite of your potential clients. You might even wish to include some brief explanatory text with each image to help set the scene and tone.

It’s also a good idea to add features to your site that enable viewers to like or share your images, to help increase awareness of your brand. You might also want to include links to your social media pages, such as Instagram so that people can view more of your work.

Make sure your images are copyright protected, however, and can’t be downloaded for free, if you intend to sell them.

Tell your story

Although your photos are the main focus of your website, don’t forget to include information about yourself on your homepage. This should be a brief introduction of who you are, how you work, your photography style and any other relevant information that helps to achieve your goals and sell your brand. Include your photo to personalise your site and your contact details.

Making a website is an exciting experience where you get to showcase your work in unique ways. Here at Go Sitebuilder, we make that process easy. Try our editor out for 14 days – absolutely free!