Being a good photographer doesn’t automatically mean you should be good at web design. However, if you want to turn your hobby into a business, you should absolutely create an online portfolio website for yourself. Luckily, there are plenty of tools available that allow you to build a stunning website in just a few clicks, without the need for complicated technology and years of web design experience.

In this article, we’ll be giving you some useful tips and tricks that will help you build a gorgeous photography website that will actually attract clients. Your website is your business card – if it’s lousy and sub-par, clients will go seek services from your competitors.

 

1. Sort by Theme

A common mistake most of the photography websites make is having one single gallery section that showcases every piece of work. While this might work for a mobile dev, it’s rather counterintuitive when you’re creating a photography website. Just imagine what would happen if eBay would have only one category named “Products”.

You should break your work into themed categories. If you specialize in certain types of photography, keep them separated. For example, if you take wedding photos, it would be recommended to keep those separated from the pets photos.

 

2. Keep it Simple

This mainly goes for the design of the website itself. But your gallery isn’t an exception either. On your website, you’ll want to only feature the best of the best so take your time, browse through your work and choose the best pieces that best represent each theme. Keep it short and sweet and you’ll make a better impression than a photographer who uses endless galleries of good and mediocre work.

From a design point of view, keeping the pictures low means you’ll be able to feature bigger thumbnails. This is a great way to better showcase your visuals and even have full-page galleries.

 

3. Don’t Waste Time with Scrolling

Some photographers make the mistake of having everything on their homepage. This creates an endless scrolling cycle that will annoy your visitors and force them to leave. Besides the long scrolling times, this will also make your website look messy and carelessly put together. You don’t want that.

Instead, keep your homepage simple. Add a few sections such as About, Best Work and Contact, while linking to relevant social medias in the footer. When you keep things organized, you show your potential clients that you take yourself and your work seriously and will only deliver the best quality.

 

4. Be Human

When people are looking for a good photographer for a special event, they want to feel like they could connect with that person. They want to know that there’s an actual human behind the camera and you can achieve that with the About Me section. This is the space where you talk about yourself and become as relatable as possible.

Use this page to share a little more info about yourself and don’t be afraid to add some personal details. Keep it short and simple, though – this is not the place for an autobiography. You have a few paragraphs to show your human side and make sure your customers relate to you.

 

5. Showcase Awards

If you’ve won any awards or special mentions during your career, don’t be afraid to showcase those. After all, they were earned thanks to your hard work and your potential clients will always appreciate a bit of extra credit. You can create a standalone page for this, where you can also include testimonials and reviews from previous clients.

This earns more trust from your potential clients. When they see that other people had a pleasant experience while working with you, they will feel confident enough to contact you for a collaboration. And speaking of contact…

 

6. Add ALL Your Contact Info

Sure, this might sound obvious but when you run a photography business, it’s crucial you add your contact info on your website. Besides providing a way for your customers to reach you, this will also prove to them that you’re human. Working with strangers on the internet can be quite scary but seeing a phone number of an active social media feed can put some of these fears at ease.

Your visitors might have different preferred ways to reach you. That’s why you should add as much contact info as possible, to make it easy for everybody. Display your email address, your phone number, along with links to your active social media accounts. You should also mention the city or town you work in – some people are looking for local talent for personal events.

 

7. No Watermarks

Let’s face it – no one likes watermarks. Viewers won’t be able to see the entire picture, while photographers loathe them because they ruin photos. They disrupt the visual flow and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters on a photography website, while undermining your abilities. There are really no pros to adding watermarks to your pictures.

And if you’re afraid people will steal your pictures, do you really think a watermark will stop them? In order for watermarks to be efficient, they will need to be plastered all over the picture or in the middle of it. But that will simply ruin the original picture. Instead, you can just display your copyright information as clear as possible.

 

Our Conclusion

A good photography website can make or break your success. After all, it’s the only way for a potential client to see your work, browse through your projects and get a better understanding of your services. Keeping that in mind, you should always aim to make sure that their experience is as smooth and streamlined as possible.

 

No one wants to spend hours scrolling and browsing through dozens and even hundreds of pictures. So keep everything simple, trim down the fat and make sure your website isn’t too busy. We hope this guide was useful to you and offered some insight into what your photography website should look like!