Photo to Website Tips
The very best photos for your professional business website should be taken using a professional camera such as a Nikon, Sony or Canaan. If you don’t have the budget to invest in this equipment right now then the next best thing to do is use your phone and a killer app to provide quick editing. Something is better then nothing.
If you are taking the route most taken of using your phone for now then there are some crucial tips to be aware of to improve the quality of those amateur photos.
Photo Positioning
When you take photos using your phone please remember to shoot LANDSCAPE. Do not and I repeat do not take photos with your phone in a vertical position. When I say landscape this means the rectangle of your phone is positioned in a horizontal fashion – longest length going to the left and right – shortest width of your phone going up and down. I apologize to those of you who are art and design orientated that know what landscape means. A lot of people do not but will say they do and then they upload photos that are vertical instead of horizontal which provides a cropped awkward photo.
The reason taking landscape photos is so important is that most of our devices are displayed in a landscape orientation. When a photo is taken in the same manner it fits nicely without having to do a bunch of resizing manually. The goal is to streamline a media process that is as quick and easy as possible.
Back Drop
When taking a photo of a project or service be mindful of the surrounding “set”. An example is when you are an installer and you take a photo of the project in progress or complete and forget about all of the clutter, either from your customer or from your own equipment, that is laying around to distract the photo. Two great opportunities to take a project photo is Before and After. Both occasions benefit from removing clutter out of the photo frame. Take a few minutes and clear out anything that does not pertain to the project before taking the shot. This is especially important for the all important After photo. It is well worth it to ask permission from your customer to spend a little time and effort making the After photo especially appealing. Most customers don’t mind. Some might even jump in to help.
After Photo
What does an excellent After photo look like? Think of a magazine cover shot and make it look as close to that as possible with the resources available. Clear out all equipment, clean up any smudging, dirt or clutter that is on or near the product. Insert staging props if appropriate to the job. For example, if you are a construction company, after completing a job, ask your customer to help you stage the completed room with appealing accessories. After you spend a bunch of time applying extra cleaning and attention to the completed product your customer will be beaming with pride. If the photo is good enough you may even want to use it in a local magazine.
Photo Editing Apps
After you have collected a good amount of photos you can use one of the many apps available on your photo to perform some basic editing. Typically photos need better lighting and color vibrancy added. Most photo editing apps have nice brighteners and filters to play with.
Here are a few that are highly recommended;
Snapseed
VSCO
Afterlight 2
Enlight
TouchRetouch
After you have saved out your edited photos it’s time to deliver them directly to your CMS in the form of a new post in order to maximize efficiency. A suggested delivery size is no more than 1000 pixels wide per photo so as not to use up too much of your hosting media size allowance. If your website is using WordPress then the WordPress app is available to download on your phone, enter your username and password and add new posts.
New Post Key Elements
Post Title
The post title should align with a target category that your company is focused on. This can be a primary or secondary category. When you think of your post title, think about what you would search for if this was something you were looking for as a customer.
Description
Fill in the description with as much detail as you can. This is where you prove to your audience that you are the expert for this subject. Use appealing vocabulary instead of just standard boring terms. Mixing in methods used, materials used, difficulty overcome and success conclusions is very helpful in drawing in your audience and proving to them they can be confident choosing you as a vendor or service provider.
Location
When possible include the location that the service or product was delivered. This is especially important if you are a business that targets local business.
Quote
If possible be sure to include a customer quote. Their words about you are far more impacting then your words about yourself.
After you have entered all of that save to post live or draft. It’s always a good idea to establish an editor who polishes your rough draft, especially if you are the business owner who is running your business AND trying to deliver media. If you have a marketing agency (like BrandSpire for instance) your rough draft will go in their que for editing, marketing polish and SEO optimization.
After all of that be sure to pat yourself on the back that you “gotter done”! The project is complete and displaying nicely for all of your future customers to see online. Great job!