Photos for your website: how to take them well with your phone
You don’t need a photographer to start. With natural light and a few simple rules, your photos can look professional.
Real photos of your business build more trust than stock images. Customers want to see where they’re going and who will serve them.
When you take them
- Clean the lens. It sounds obvious, but it’s the number one cause of blurry photos.
- Use natural light: near a window, or outside when the sun isn’t harsh.
- Shoot website photos horizontally. They work better on large screens and can be cropped for phones.
- Don’t use digital zoom. Move closer instead.
- Tidy up before you shoot: the fewer objects in the frame, the more professional it looks.
- If people appear, ask for their permission.
Which photos you need
- The storefront, so people recognize it when they arrive.
- The inside, or your workspace.
- Your team at work.
- Your finished work: dishes, haircuts, projects, results.
Before you upload them
A photo straight from your phone is heavy and slows your site down. Resize it and use modern formats like WebP. And describe every photo with alt text: Google says it’s the most important piece of information for understanding an image, and it helps people who use screen readers.
Do a 30-minute session on a day with good light and take far more photos than you need. Choosing is easier than reshooting.