What to photograph for your small business website, and how

A stranger deciding whether to phone you has about ten seconds and a handful of pictures. Photos of your actual door, your actual work and your actual face tell them somebody real is here, and no amount of clever copy does the same job. The good news is that a phone from the last few years can take every photo a small business site needs, if somebody tells you what to shoot first.

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The shot list

Ten pictures cover most businesses. Take three or four of each and pick the best later.

1. The outside, from where a customer would first see it. Stand across the street or at the end of the parking lot, so the sign and the door both show.
2. The entrance. Close enough that someone can picture walking through it.
3. The inside, wide. Stand in a corner or a doorway to fit the room in.
4. The work being done. Hands at work beat a posed smile every time.
5. The finished result. The plated meal, the fixed engine, the tidy garden bed.
6. Two or three close-ups of the product or the tools.
7. You, at your own place. Not a headshot against a wall.
8. Your team, if you have one.
9. One detail only you have. The old sign, the vintage till, the view from the counter.
10. A shot that shows the neighbourhood, so a visitor knows they've found the right block.

Angle

Hold the phone at chest height, level with the ground, and keep it square to what you're shooting. Tilting up makes buildings lean and tilting down makes rooms look cramped. Tight spaces photograph best from a corner, standing as far back as the room lets you, because the widest view is the one across the diagonal. For products, get down to the height of the thing rather than looking down on it.

Time of day

Soft light flatters everything. The couple of hours after sunrise and before sunset give gentle, angled light, which is why a late-afternoon shot looks better than the same one at noon. Straight overhead sun creates hard shadows and squinting faces. A bright overcast day is a fine substitute. Indoors, switch every light on, open the blinds, and avoid pointing the camera straight at a window, or the room goes dark against the glare.

Framing

Turn on the grid in your camera settings and put the subject where the lines cross, rather than dead centre. Leave a little empty space around it, since a site will crop the picture for different screens and a tight shot loses its edges. Shoot some horizontally and some vertically. Before you press the button, look at the edges of the frame for the stray cup, the cord, the garbage bin, and move it.

Phone or camera

Use whichever you have. If it's a phone, wipe the lens first, since a fingerprint smear is the most common cause of a hazy picture. Tap the screen on your subject so it focuses and sets the brightness there. Skip the digital zoom and walk closer instead, because zooming just crops the picture and loses detail. Brace your elbows against your body, or lean on a wall, to stay steady. A proper camera is welcome, but nobody needs to buy one for this.

What to skip

• Stock photos of handshakes or people in headsets.
• Heavy filters and dramatic edits.
• Flash pointed straight at a person or a shiny surface.
• Blurry shots, which nobody trusts.
• Crowded counters and cluttered corners.
• Recognizable customers, unless they've said yes.

Photos are the part of a site most owners put off, so I'd rather talk you through the shot list on a call than leave you to guess. You take the pictures, I finish them here. See the three sizes. The same list of pages a small business site needs shows where each photo ends up.

Email hello@niagarawebdesigner.com or call 905.682.4642 if you'd like to talk it through before you shoot anything.

Common questions

How many photos do I need?

Ten is the working number, and the list above is what they are. Shoot thirty or so and choose the best, since most of them won't make the cut and that's normal.

Is my phone good enough?

Almost certainly. Clean the lens, shoot in good light and hold it steady, and a recent phone will do everything on the list.

Can I photograph my customers?

Ask first. If someone is clearly recognizable in a picture you plan to put on your site, get their yes before you use it, or frame the shot so they aren't identifiable.