While stock photography is great, often the difference between a mediocre website and one that looks absolutely stunning is using high-quality, on-brand, professional photography unique to your business. Hiring a good photographer can be a considerable expense and one that you might be tempted to try and get around, but we can’t say it enough– EVERY business should budget for and have professional photography. Your media is so incredibly important to showing off your business; for everything from its products and services, its team, and your company culture. While stock photography can be useful, especially in a pinch, absolutely nothing beats having photos uniquely suited to your brand.

When hiring a photographer, its important to let them know what you intend on using the photos you are taking for. Traditional portrait style photography is very different from the types of photos you will need to make your web project successful. So, what types of photos do you need? 

Hero Image

(aka Header Image)

The hero image on your website is the first image that people see, directly below the menu, on the home page. This image should capture who your business is and what it is about, visually. Whether it contains people or not is completely up to you. This section often contains the main heading, a description, and buttons, so it’s important to keep in mind that your image should have copy space. This means that the subject(s) of the photo should be positioned off the left or right, with plenty of non-busy background space where text would go.  Below are some stock photo examples of hero images to show what we’re talking about. 

Team Members

You & Your Staff

You want your customers to feel like they know you before they ever step foot (or digitally) meet you. So you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of images of your team. This is going to include both individual portraits and images of the entire team. Having them all day on the same day by the same photographer guarantees consistency, so whether you go with traditional headshots or something more creative that lets your team’s personality shine, your customers will get to know the people behind the company. Tip: Looking for consistency? Let your team wear what they are most comfortable in, but ask that they keep the colors they wear within your brand guidelines or specify something like “wear black pants a white shirt!”

Your Physical Space

The location

Something often looked over are photos of your space, either with people in it or on its own. This is especially important if you are expecting any foot traffic to your business. 

Your Products & Services

Letting your photographer know what types of products and services, and how many of them will help them prepare for the right amount of time and equipment needed. That way you’ll have amazing product photos to showcase on your website and social media. 

get the checklist

A fillable PDF checklist containing all of the above information, and spaces to write your own.

More from our blog

How to Define A Target Market

In this blog post we cover what is a target market, why you need one, and how to define it.    What is a target Market? Your target market answers the question "Who is my customer?". If you asked yourself that question and came up with the answer "everyone" or...

Our Favorite Remote Team Building Tools

Setting the Stage Let's set the stage. It's March, 2020 and the world is gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just about everything is shut down, most of the world has self-quarantined for the foreseeable future, people are hoarding toilet paper and other necessities and...

How To Know if Your Website is Too Slow

Why Page Speed Matters We are an impatient species. This is evident in just about everything we do-- we're accustomed to having things shortly after we decide we want them. We have information and socialization at our finger-tips, products are a quick two-day trip via...

How to Create an Effective Lead Magnet

Having a good lead magnet should be one of the biggest strategies in your lead generation growth plan, and in our humble opinion, every single business needs at least one. If you're not sure what a lead magnet is, we're willing to bet you have interacted with one, and...

What A Sales Funnel Is, and Why You Need One

Fact: Every business has a sales funnel.  As a business owner, the more aware of it you are, the better your results will be.    So, what is a sales funnel? Basically, it's the overall path that a customer would follow from the point where they are learning of...

What is Value Marketing?

On average, the average person sees over 5,000 ads per day. Assuming you sleep 8 hours, that's an advertisement for every 11.52 seconds we have our eyes open, on the conservative end. So, if you're someone considering entering the advertisement space, how do you cut...

Top 5 Stock Photography Resources for Small Businesses and Organizations

Stock photography is a fantastic tool to use that helps produce high-quality content for everything from social media, branding, and more. It's always best to use unique photos, but let's be honest, that just isn't always an option! Stock photography can range in...

28-Day Content Calendar for Small Businesses

One of the biggest questions we get regarding social media is "how do I know what to post!?" It can be tough to schedule a week's worth of posts, let alone an entire month's worth-- but we've made things easier. Introducing our 28-day content calendar! Education--...