So you’ve done your homework for your site and written some great content but your site visually is rather boring. Time to get creative and pick out some photos to enhance the visual appeal of your website!

When selecting photography for your website you have a couple of options:

1. You can use exisiting photos you may have taken of your product, employees, in action, or relevant location shoots; or
2. You can purchase photography through your business and pass along that photography to your designer.

Using your Own Photos

Using photos you may have taken on your own is a great way to save some money when designing your website. Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design has a client, Flavors of Rome, who specializes in educating others about the beauty of Roman cusine. As a part of her business, Carol Malzone, president of Flavors of Rome, travels to Rome frequently and has the opportunity to take beautiful photos of the local markets and cusine during her stay. When she returns to the States we will then take those photos and incorporate them into her website and blog. The nature of her business, and her excellent eye for photography, allows her to add a personal and unique touch to her online marketing efforts.

Purchasing Stock Photography or Hiring a Photographer

If your business doesn’t allow the opportunity for you to take custom photography, there are other resources you might want to explore.

1. Online Stock Photography Companies
   There are numerous online stock photograph companies that allow you to search their database of photographs for purchase. Some popular companies include iStockPhoto, Getty Images, and Corbis. These companies offer royality free (which means you can use the photo however you’d like and for as long as you’d like to use it), or rights-managed (which means you have certain restrictions for using the photo) at different price levels. Most of the time purchasing a web-based photo is the best option for your website but if you’re unsure what size you need, you may want to first discuss all available size options with your designer.
   
   
2. Hiring a Photographer
   If you have the time and the budget, hiring a photographer to take custom photographs for your company is recommended. The reason being that photographers can create stunning professional photos that are only available to your company for use on your website and marketing materials. With stock photography there’s always a possibility that the photo you choose to be the face of your company could be the face of someone else’s company as well. However, your designer certainly understands budget constraints and can help you either find photographers in your area or help you decide the best, most cost efficient, option for your company.

For either option above, it’s best to consult your designer for all your photography needs so they can help you choose the most attractive photography for your site and the appropriate amount of photos that would look best without causing clutter.

Once You Have Your Photos How Should You Submit Them to Your Designer?

If you’ve decided how you’re going to obtain the photography for your website, here are a few things to keep in mind before sending your photos to your designer:

1. Check on photography permissions. If you’re photographing a business, cusine, or people yourself – you will need to ask their permission and sign a release saying you’re able to use that photograph on your website. Any photography given to the web designer is under the impression that all photos are legal to use and the designer will not be held responsible for any violations.If you’re purchasing photography from a stock photography website, pay close attention to the terms “Rights-Managed” versus “Royality Free” and fully understand what they mean, so the photo will be used appropriately on your website.

   If you’ve hired a photographer to shoot custom photos, get the terms of use for those photos in writing. Agree to the ways your company will use the photos, how often, and the number of photos you have rights to up-front so no issues arise once the photos are placed within your website.

2. All photography should medium or high-res format (150-300dpi and at least 4×6” or larger in size). By saving them in this format, your designer can always take larger photos and size them to the appropriate dimensions and file size they will need for the web. Larger photos can always be sized down to the appropriate file size or dimension without compromising the quality of the photo. However, trying to size a photo from small to large has unfavorable results. Please note: If shooting photos yourself, your digital camera should have different settings that will allow you to choose small, medium or large format photos. Consult your manual for how to change your camera settings.
3. Photography should be saved as JPGs and zipped (or compressed) all together before sending. Your computer should have a “compression” feature for folders you create. If not, the program Zip It is available online for a nominal fee. It’s important to note that most email programs will only allow up to 5MB to be transferred from one email account to another. If your files are larger than 5MB, you can look into a free online program called You Send It to send files up to 100MB. If your files are larger than 100MB, you will need to save your photos to CD, flash drive or DVD and send them to your designer.
4. How many photos should you send? It’s best to discuss how many photos your site will contain and where the photos will be placed with your designer since each site design varies.
5. How will your photos be displayed on your website? It’s also important to discuss how your photos will be displayed within your site. Will you have a flash rotation on the homepage? Will you need a photo gallery? There are many photo viewing options that might require special dimensions or file formats so it’s best to know that information up-front.

We hope you found these tips useful! Have any questions about the information supplied above? Throw us a bone!

Tags: GDBD Creative Design, GDBD Design, Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design, hiring a photographer. using stock photography in your website, photography, tampa website design, website design, website development