No Selfie Zone: Why Professional Photography is a Must for Your Website
Professional Photography is a MUST when it comes to designing a website.
We’ve all visited a website before and experienced one of two things: 1) Cringing when you see a selfie on someone’s About Me page or scrolling through endless amounts of stock photography and wondering: Does a real person even run this business!?
Back in the day when I first started designing websites, I constantly had to have the hard conversation with my clients: You can’t build a beautiful website around pixelated or low-quality images off of your iPhone. And yes, I know these days iPhone camera technology is WAY better than it was in 2013, but you get the point. The wide angle, depth and perfectly curated shots that my super talented photographer pals can capture with their fancy DSLRs are unmatched, to say the least.
Photography is an integral part of every website.
Now I’m going to take a wild guess that no one wants to visit a website with all text and no pictures, right? That would be the absolute worst website ever. The cliché that pictures are worth 1,000 words is absolutely true, especially when it comes to web design.
Photography is on the same level of importance as is the website platform that you choose and the copy (words) that you choose for your website. To give you some insight into my custom web design process, I work directly with the photographer on our project to provide them with a detailed shot list of EVERY single photo I will need for all pages of the website. In fact, the way in which I lay out my clients’ websites most often is determined by the photos that are captured during the shoot. Quality photography can not only set you apart from your competitors, but is an integral part of the overall credibility of your brand. Photography paired with effective copy on your website will attract your ideal clients and customers just as a clean, organized and inviting storefront would do for those who are just passing by.
These photos also gain you credibility outside of your website.
Besides capturing the moments that you’ll need to captivate your visitors on your website, there’s a little thing that you’ve probably heard of called social media. Branding and website photos can be repurposed easily to post on your Instagram feed or to use for paid advertising to engage your audience. After all, your target audience will connect best with photography that they can resonate with. Plus, having professional and on-brand photos brings your business up to a whole new level of credibility. Think of it this way, would you rather trust and buy from a company that cares about how it shows up in the world? Quality of the brand that they put put usually directly correlates with the quality of the product that they are selling to you.
Brand photography is part of my custom website design process.
Recently, I have made the intentional decision to offer brand photography and copywriting as a part of my custom brand and web design packages so that getting your website redesigned is a one-stop shop to a successful launch. It’s been so much fun growing my network of photographers, even outside of the Seattle area. Below is a list of the oh-so gifted photographers in my network and would highly recommend. What I love about each and every one of them is that they each offer a unique vibe. When we work together, we’ll pair you up with the one that fits your brand’s vibe, look and feel:
Chamonix Films - http://www.chamonixfilms.com/ - Seattle based
Jenny Jimenez - https://photojj.com/ - Seattle based
Life Created - http://www.lifecreated.com/ - Arizona based
Meagan Puett Photography - https://www.meaganpuett.com - Florida based
Seattle Premium Headshots - https://seattlepremiumheadshots.com/ - Seattle
S Wolfe Photography - http://www.swolfephotography.com/ - Seattle based
The Grey Edit - https://www.thegreyeditphoto.com/ - Seattle based
Tiffany Kelterer Photo - https://www.tiffanykelterer.com/ - San Diego and Seattle based
That’s the scoop for today!
❤️ Michelle