Photography for Websites

Today’s computer monitors are unable to reproduce images in anything like the detail you’ll find in a well–printed magazine. So, contrary to popular belief, it is possible to take perfectly good photographs for the web with the most basic digital camera — or film camera, if you still have one of those.

The Most Important Factor

The most important factor is not the number of pixels in your top–of–the–range digital camera, but rather, as always in photography, the light. Good photography is largely about using the light to emphasise the important parts of a scene. Provided you hold the camera steady, point it in the right direction, and get the lighting correct, you will have a photograph easily good enough for a website.

There are, however, other factors to consider. If you require certain fancy effects, such as extreme close–ups or having part of a scene deliberately out of focus, then you will need a camera with a certain degree of manual control, as well as someone who knows how to use it. And, of course, selecting and emphasising the important parts of a scene (i.e., pointing the camera in the right direction and getting the lighting correct) isn’t always straightforward.

Professional Photographers

If your website is especially dependent on impressive images, it will probably be worth the extra expense of hiring a professional photographer.

We will be happy to take the photographs for your website, if you wish. Our resident photographer was elected a distinguished member of the Royal Photographic Society. Please contact us for a quotation.

Photographs for Online Shops

Almost all online shops benefit from photographs illustrating their products. In many cases, the manufacturer of the products will be able to supply images suitable for use on websites.

If you are taking photographs of products yourself, it is a good idea to:

• keep attention on the products by using a plain background;
• make the appearance consistent by using the same background for related products;
• keep the proportions of the images consistent;
• allow extra space around the products to maximise the design options.

Optimising Your Photographs

Images in websites generally take a lot longer to download than text. It is important that all photographs for your website are optimised — in other words, digitally manipulated to produce a sufficiently detailed image while keeping the download time to a minimum. Our service includes the optimisation of images.

Copyright of Photographs

Whatever the source of the photographs and other images you supply to us, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are not in breach of copyright. Please see our Terms and Conditions page for details.