Website Tips for Photographers

It is important to me to have the navigation always visible so people can quickly find what they need.

If a potential customer were to find your website would they hire you?

A photographer’s website is to showcase their work and help them book jobs. I have been designing my website for 17 years and I have learned a few things through those years.

Here are some tips I have for a photographer’s website.

Contact Information

Email: stanley@stanleyleary.com
LinkedIn: Stanley Leary
Skype:  StanleyLeary
Twitter: Stanley Leary
Facebook: Stanley Leary

How does someone reach you? This should be all through the website and not something hidden. Remember at any point when the customer is ready to hire you after reviewing your work they need to be able to find out how to do so with ease. Sometimes people already are wanting to hire you and go to your website to find your contact information, don’t make them jump through hoops to find it.


I think there are two ways a customer wants to contact you, email and by phone. Remember you need this to be easy and not cumbersome. If you fear getting spam email and do a lot to protect yourself, but in the process make it burdensome for the potential customer—you may not have a customer.



 
Examples of your photography

I think people are searching for very specific needs to fill. If they need a headshot they want to see some headshots. If they need an event photographer, they want to see examples of events you have covered.

I recommend dividing your work into categories that make it easy for someone to find example of what they are looking to hire a photographer to do for them.



 
Tear Sheets

Having a few examples of your work being published by clients helps the potential customer know they are not the first to take a risk on you.  This helps build some credibility.

Client Comments

Having a few of your past clients writing about your work also helps. There are a few things that can help make these better.  When a customer talks about how you solved a problem they are helping potential clients understand something beyond your portfolio. They understand something about how you work and your customer service.

Having comments that talk about how nice your are and easy to work with are nice, but not as compelling as description of how you made their day.

The inverted pyramid is a metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate the placing of the most important information first within a text. The format is valued because readers can leave the story at any point and understand it.

Inverted Pyramid

Put your strongest photos first. When they go to the next photo let is show another skill. Look at these two examples for portraits.  See how I would lead with the little boy and then follow with the lady.

I would most likely lead with this photo on portraits.

I might follow the photo with this one because now this shows I can use strobes and mix it with daylight. Art directors would like to see the variety of skills.

This photo shows my ability to create a concept out of nothing and make it happen in the studio.

This photo helps to show how I can use light to photograph a very dark subject (the hand gun) and grab your attention.

This photo shows I know how to photograph lasers in a research lab.  This is a skill few photographers have.

To get this photo I had to get access. This shows I can be trusted in very intimate moments. The family gave me their permission.

Remember your portfolio shows more than just that you can make pleasing photos.  As you can see each of the above photos tells more about me than I can get a cool photo.


Client List

If you have been working with a variety of clients this is good to showcase.  It helps to separate you from the photographer just starting out and not having much experience.  It also helps clients call their friends at those companies and see what experience they had with you and would they hire you again.  Don’t list a company if they are not in good standing with you.

Bio

You need to introduce yourself to your audience. This is where you help set yourself apart from other photographers in ways that your pictures cannot. This is where you may give some of the reasons why you pursue certain subjects. This is where you may want to tell everyone you have degrees in the topics that you cover regularly. This helps them understand how you are a expert on maybe what they want to hire you to photograph.

Some clients will hire you because of things you have in common in your bio. All clients that visit this page are wanting to know as much as they can about you to help them feel more comfortable about the decision to hire you.  This will give them talking points when they justify to their superiors why they are hiring you.

Wait there's more

I like using that phrase. When we moved to our new house our daughter enjoyed taking some of our close friends through the house.  The house is larger than our previous home, so she was excited to say after a few rooms, but wait there's more.

There is more things to do but I will stop here for now and blog about other tips later.