Choosing the right photo(s) for your web site is a more difficult task than most people realize. It helps if you have a general idea of what you are looking for but still most of my clients become overwhelmed with the choices as we sort through hundreds of stock photos.
The photos you choose can set the “mood” of your web site. You want them to represent your business but I think it should also reflect the personality of the business owner (for a small company) or the business culture (for a larger company.)
My clients who really get this, who realize that the photos on your site can affect the feeling & emotions of visitors to their website, are often the clients who surprise me with their photo choices. Once of my favorite examples is a Family Law Attorney who thinks out-of-the-box. Instead of the typical courthouse or scales of justice, she wanted nature photos as the theme of her web site. In addition to the fact that she loved nature herself, she felt that her divorce clients who are under so much stress would benefit from the calming affect of this type of photo. What an insightful decision!
As a web designer, I feel that my website is a direct reflection of my skills and there’s nothing worse than a web design firm whose own website looks dated! So I usually get the itch to update my design every year or two. I haven’t always made the perfect photo decisions for my own website. My first 2 designs used photos of business people – after all I build websites for businesses. Over time I started to realize that these stuffy business people in my photos were not a great representation of me or my business. So my next 2 designs had a flower theme. Yes flowers. What do flowers have to do with web design? Absolutely nothing. But I love flowers and being in a creative business gives me some leeway in my photo choices. And besides, I think the beautiful sunflower theme and the bright colors leave my visitors with a warm, sunny, happy feeling. And that’s exactly how I want every one of my clients to feel!