An online photography portfolio shows your talents to potential customers and can easily boost your business. If you want to increase your business and share your photography talents with the rest of the world, use this guide to create the best in photography-related portfolios online:
Keep it simple
You don’t want the focus of your website to be the website. Rather, make the design simple so your photos shine instead. What you want is something that is easy to look at, and shares your most important information, like your contact information or Facebook page with visitors. Keep your images a consistent size. Most browsers do well with images around 700 by 900 pixels. When you use watermarks, use a light hand and don’t cover the entire image with a watermark. Keep it relatively out of the way at first glance.
Simple Navigation
Make your labels, categories, sections, and navigation simple and easy. Don’t use cutesy navigation titles or categories. Use obvious words that will help people realize what they are clicking on. Use words that people would commonly look for in a photography site, such as “wedding packages,” “hourly rates,” and “outdoor shoots.”
Create Easy Links
Make it easy to link to your images individually. This will help your visitors be able to share your photos with friends and family, which is the best way to boost new business. If your visitors want to share a specific image, make it easy for them to do so. Don’t use a lot of slideshows unless you can link to individual photos in that collection. Visitors get frustrated trying to search for a specific image, and might rather give up and go with another photographer.
Include Your Best Images
Don’t include any weak images in your portfolio. Only include your best shots and features. A smaller portfolio full of amazing images is better than a large portfolio filled with so-so pictures. You can ask a friend to help you choose your best photos.
Make It Easy to Contact You
Every page should have your contact information. This will make it easy for people to contact you andcommission you for new jobs.
Set Up Your Niche
Do you do a certain kind of photo shoot? Make sure that comes across clearly in your portfolio. For example, if you don’t want to do weddings, then do not post any wedding pictures on your site. Put examples of things that you specialize in. If you are a photographer that likes to do gritty outdoor shoots, make sure that is clear in your portfolio. It can be helpful to create a section on your site for each specialty that you have.
Add captions
In some cases, captions and text-based info can be helpful. Not only is it helpful for viewers, but it can also be helpful in search engine recognition. Helpful information includes what features you used to capture the image, if you did any editing, and maybe a little story behind the image. You can hide the caption info behind a “more info” button, if you would like.
Cut Down on Loading Time
No one wants to wait a long time for images to load. Make sure that images pre-load in the background so your viewers don’t have to wait between image viewing times. This could help visitors stay longer on your site and increase your chances of making a sale. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, you can hire a website builder to do it for you.
These easy tips will help you design and build the best possible portfolio for your business. You will find that your clients increase, and you will feel happier about your website.
