Photography in Web Design – Things to Remember

For photographers, having an online presence is very important, and to have your own website is even more crucial. You want to showcase your work in the best way possible – but some designs don’t do your work justice. Having a typical blog site does have its benefits by letting you engage more with an audience, but it still has some drawbacks. Below is a list of what photographers should be looking for in a website.

Let it Breathe

Your photography work is why most people are coming to your site. They want to see your work, and they want to see your capabilities. Try to have a nice open site where your work can stand alone from text and other distractions. You want your work to stand alone so it can be admired for what it is. Having thumbnails isn’t a bad idea for easy browsing, but try not to pick a style that has a large thumbnail area that takes away from the image that viewers are trying to see. Any design or template that allows photos to be viewed alone without any other distraction is preferable so your audience can look at your work on an individual basis, not amongst the whole.

Be Careful With Blogs

There is a trend out there to incorporate the blog format with photography. While there is no problem with mixing the two for the purposes of a blog, if you want your work to stand out, let the blog part of your site stand on its own. Don’t let your images and other creative work be lost in a mass of words. Hopefully visitors are coming to see your work, and if they want to know more about you or your everyday life, have that in a separate area of your site, or possibly keep a blog linked to the site, but not actually on it. This allows for your work to stand out and not get lost in distracting text.

Color Schemes

This is another thing to be careful with. You are trying to show off your creative work, and you don’t want your site’s template or layout to distract viewers. If you are a photographer that uses very vivid colors in your work, don’t let the color scheme of your site match the intensity of your work, otherwise viewers might get lost in the ether of your site. Perhaps if you mainly do black and white, then vivid color might look good to add some flare to the site, but if you shoot in color, as we mostly do, don’t let the site distract viewers. Also, pick colors that complement your work. There is nothing worse than an inconsistent color theme than might also make you lose credibility as a creative professional.

Keep it Simple

The best thing you can do to highlight your work as a photographer is keep your site simple. Let your work do the talking for you. Anything that is clean and gives more gravitas to your work than the design of the website is good. It is nice to have a functional site, but functionality doesn’t require intricate layouts that can take away from the work that you want people to come for in the first place. It is easy, and just don’t over think you’re design.

This is a good place to start for any photographer that wants to increase their web presence. Social sharing sites are okay to simply have your work online, but to have the greatest impact, you are going to need your own piece of web property. Just remember that no matter what, your site is there to enhance and show off your work, no to distract from it.