by 
(This post was sponsored by Dreamstime. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Despreneur.)
Your photography website design is not just your online identity, it is your business card, your gallery and your clients’ first impression. If you are really good at shooting photos, a properly tailored website will make your art perfect.
Mentioned below are 5 things that you must have to make the best out of your new photography website.
A good hosting service
A photography portfolio is where many general “tips for creating a website” stop working. Just as the content of websites varies widely, so do their technical requirements. A blog or a business website may do fine with low-resolution images to assist the main text. The opposite is true for a photography portfolio. The main content of your website are high-resolution images and it is necessary that the images strike a balance between loading time and image quality.
By choosing a proper hosting service, you can have a website that performs brilliantly with all types of devices and connection speeds. Here are some options that best fit your budget:
1. PhotoShelter (for professionals): Loved by professionals all over the world, PhotoShelter offers some of the best solutions for building a great portfolio with minimal programming experience. Not all photographers are web developers and PhotoShelter makes it easy for beginners to create a neat website and also allows minute customizations for the creative professionals – all without any coding skills. The cloud storage and website loading time are just impressive and images are served very fast with CDN support.
Find inspiration:
Yuri Barichivich
Corey Rich Productions
2. Zenfolio (suits all): Zenfolio has been around for a decade now and has added up the best features for creative professionals every single year of its journey. The plans are moderately expensive and you get the freedom of choosing from their great collection of layouts and themes. The website is probably the best option for beginners who want to launch a photography website to see how things take off.
Find inspiration:
Chris Bonini Photography
Tom Keenan Photography
3. Generic hosts (for absolute beginners): If you do not plan to upload a lot of your content or if you are planning on staying local, a generic hosting service like BlueHost or GoDaddy will suit your needs best. The basic plans are very inexpensive and you can opt in for a simple web builder software that these hosts offer or you could get started with CMS services such as WordPress.
Note that the serving speed is low for basic hosting plans and it will affect your website badly if you have heavy themes running or very high-resolution images in your albums. For this very reason, portfolio hosts are recommended for artists earning from their photography.
Your bio
What got you started with photography? Does it run in the family or did you have to put all your efforts in to turn your passion into your profession?
While your story might not seem relevant to your photography portfolio website and writing a bio may look like an agonizing task, it can make the difference between getting and losing a contract. Especially for travel and wedding photographers, your story defines you. Your bio should fascinate your readers and convince them that you are the one who has the experience, motivation and attitude to create the best content for them.
Still not sure what to write? Here are some tips to help you:
- Introduce yourself in a friendly way, like a real person! A rigid bio full of facts and figures is not as attractive as a conversational one. Remember, your bio will create a mental picture of you for your clients.
- Break your story down into small, enjoyable paragraphs. You may write in the third person. Enhance it with some of your best work inserted in between.
- What/who motivates you to do your best? How has your art changed your life and how has it made a difference for those around you?
- Write 3-4 bios and pick your best. Update the bio frequently.
- Don’t forget to add contact information!
Find inspiration:
Tamara Lackey Studio
Jasmine Star
Photography by Mark J. Sebastian
Responsive gallery
A large fraction of visitors to your website will be accessing your portfolio through mobile devices. The number of portable devices is on the rise and to make your website look its best in every situation, a responsive theme is extremely important.
Never settle for a non-responsive design for your new portfolio. If you are using the hosting services and themes from specialized photography hosting websites, they already deal with the tough part for you and offer you responsive web templates that are fit for viewing on any screen size. Here are some secrets to creating a website that suits every device it is viewed on:
- Avoid unusual aspect ratios, especially panoramas. When viewed on a mobile device, panoramas may become too small or get cropped out, destroying your careful composition.
- Prefer a seamless or solid website background. An image in the background is very distracting and might get partially cropped or tiled on some devices.
- Have a mixture of portrait and landscape oriented shots in your albums.
- If you are developing your own website, never use absolute coordinates for placing objects.
Find inspiration:
Kiran Owal
Joey L. – NYC-based Photographer and Director
A shopping cart
A shopping cart is very easy to add to a photography portfolio . It is not necessary that you enable payment and ordering through online terminals. Many websites use third party websites to enable ordering of prints and purchase of digital files. All you have to do is add a link to your image that enables your customer to purchase from another trusted agency/website where you host your photos.
Here are some good practices when it comes to having your own new online shop:
- Include privacy policy, disclaimers and FAQs on your website. It is necessary for building trust and being authentic as well as for good SEO.
- Opt for a secure website (https) if you are collecting personal information from your visitors.
- Have multiple outlets or modes of payment. Place your contact information such a way that it is easily accessible throughout the purchase process. This helps avoid loss of customers who get stuck on something.
- If you cannot have a checkout facility, at least, have a lightbox system where a visitor can add images and request a quote through E-mail.
- For plugin-based store services, such as those available for WordPress, make sure you are using plugins from trusted services like WooCommerce. Always keep your store software updated.
Blog
A blog is a MUST have feature for photography portfolios. The life of a photographer is interesting and people love to follow artists they admire. Also, little photography hacks, equipment reviews/suggestions or blogs about events can get in a lot of viewers to your website.
Having a blog is a business strategy. For every online venture, you need two components on your website – one that brings in new visitors and the other that holds on to them. A blog can bring in people looking for tips on photography or clients looking for your skills. You must remember that photos cannot be searched directly and do not attract new visitors on their own – photos can only help hold your visitors.
Best practices for a photography blog:
- Carefully chosen, short and expressive captions that add a subtle touch of playfulness and mystery to your images can completely change the experience of your clients.
- Make sure your images have all necessary metadata, including your name.
- Blog articles should be about 700-1500 words in length. This is reader-friendly and shows up high in search results.
- Include links to next/previous articles which keeps readers engaged.
- Have a newsletter system if possible.
Find inspiration:
Joe McNally’s Blog
David duChemin – World & Humanitarian Photographer, Nomad, Author
Over to You
These 5 things will help you get a good start with your photography portfolio and as you grow, the blog and portfolio together should attract and hold new visitors. Once your website is having enough content, social media like Facebook and Twitter can help bring in more admirers and launch your website to a whole new level!
