In a recent blog, we talked about the power of video on a website. While not every site will incorporate video, it will almost certainly include photography. But, just as the content you add to your site needs to be of a good quality, so do any images. First impressions count and if you use low resolution or poorly cropped photos, visitors will probably not stick around.
The chances are that you’ve worked hard to create a high-quality and recognisable brand for your business but poor photography can detract from that. Great photography is brilliant at telling a story and, on the website, this the story of your brand.
If you are launching a new website, you might consider commissioning a photographer to create images for you. If this is the case, then it’s important to brief them properly and tell them where those photos will be used. For instance, you might need images for different purposes, such as a campaign on a bus, and these will be different from the images taken for your website.
It is important to understand how your individual website platform scales and crops any imaginary, as it will affect where the focal point is of any images you use. Some websites will automatically crop images to suit the space.
When it comes to images for a website, there are three metrics to consider – resolution, size/aspect and the format it has been saved in (such as PNG and JPEG).
Here at Lake Solutions, clients often ask us what resolution their images need to be for the website. To be honest, it’s always worth getting hold of the highest resolution image you can, as it’s easier to decrease resolution than increase it. It does depend on your website, as some platforms do require images of a specific resolution or quality, while other platforms – including Sitecore and Umbraco – can apply this for you when you upload the images or when the image is used on the site.
In terms of how the image is saved, it depends on where you are intending to use it. For instance, you’d tend to use a PNG for a logo and a JPEG for a photo online. This is down to the compression ratios. Logos often have text or hard lines in them and you don’t want these lines to look frayed at the edges or fuzzy, so PNGs are the best option, as they look crisper.
There is an alternative now in the shape of WebP, a raster graphics file format. Developed by Google, it is intended as a replacement for JPEG, PNG and GIF file formats. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as animation and alpha transparency.
The photography which typically gets the most attention during a new website launch are the images chosen for your home page. These images need to be impactful and engaging. The ‘big’ photos need to convey emotion and look right on any platform – whether that’s a big screen, tablet or mobile. Using a team photo, for instance, can be tricky. You might see the whole team on a big screen and some of them might drop off on a mobile. Aspect ratio is key here.
The image you use in a page banner position also needs to be chosen carefully. It could look great on a mobile but end up slightly stretched on a wide screen. This is likely to look fine if it’s a photo of a landscape but, again, potentially a bit odd if the image includes people, wording on signs or recognisable buildings.
When it comes to banners, it’s important not to put any text within the banner but over it. This means that if the banner photo is stretched to accommodate a different sized screen, the text doesn’t shrink, stretch, get cropped or move around to a different position on the banner. In addition, search engines will not read text within an image. This means that if the text in the banner is important – particularly for SEO purposes – it should be available to scan. It is also vital for accessibility that any text is easy to ‘read’ and has the correct contrast ; if it’s lost in an image it won’t be.
While we’re talking about SEO, you should consider optimising images to improve your website's SEO. Alt tags, captions, and file names can all be optimised with relevant keywords to improve visibility.
The page where consistently often goes out the window is the ‘meet the team’ section. When a new website is launched, the whole team will have their photos taken at a similar time and hopefully against the same background. If companies are growing, then it won’t be long until a new team member joins and it’s important they are ‘styled’ in a similar way to everyone else. Here at Lake Solutions, we’ve worked with clients which keep a flat cream-coloured piece of board (typically plywood) to hand to use as the consistent background for team shots. As long as the lighting is similar too, the photos should look fairly standard.
Photography is also key for product shots, particularly if your business depends on e-commerce. You might have different products to photograph – but those images need to look consistent. Some companies have mini ‘photographic studios’ where small items can be placed for photography – to ensure the lighting and background are standardised. It’s important not to crop these types of photos too closely.
You also need to make sure you have permission to use any photographs on your website. Even if you find a photo of your team on another website – perhaps attending a recent conference – you can’t just download it, even if it feels to you that it’s ‘in the public domain’.
Copyright isn’t always the easiest thing to ascertain when it comes to photographs – in reality it lies with the photographer. If your business has paid for a photography session, you should check what your agreement is. Sometimes you might be expected to pay an extra fee for photos to be used on a website. At the end of the day, it’s sensible not to share any photos on your website or any company social media channels unless you are completely sure where they’ve originated from. There are photo libraries online which offer royalty-free photographs, while you can also buy photographs from reputable online sources.
We’ve written about AI before and it is, in theory, possible to create the type of photo your business needs in this way. However, it is usually possible to see that the photo has been generated by AI. That said, it could suit your business to include a photo in this style.
It is usually possible to make images work for your business. You might want a darker effect or a ‘washed out’ effect and, using overlays, this is generally achievable through the CMS.
There are a lot of issues to consider with any photography you use as a business. Make sure you have the permission of an individual you are photographing. If you are hosting an event, it’s worth either putting a note up at registration to say photography is taking place or if you’ve asked guests to sign up to the event, you could include a tick box for those who don’t want their photos shared.
Be very cautious when photographing children or anyone vulnerable. In fact, if your business involves working with members of the public a lot – such as family groups - then it’s prudent to create a consent form.
Always be aware of what’s in the background of shots, particularly in the office, and do not photograph screens which might have sensitive information on them, such as customer details. Also, if your team has put some silly signage around the office or photos of the latest team get together, just be aware of what’s in your field of vision.
Finally, be cautious of elements in a photo which might date or age them and prevent you from using them regularly, such as the date, somebody wearing a poppy or Christmas decorations in the background. If you’re sharing a news article online about the festive season, then sharing a photo of the company Christmas tree is fine but it obviously shouldn’t be in the foreground of all your team photos for the whole year.
If you want to talk about photography on your website, do get in touch on tel: 020 3397 3222.