If you’re a photographer, you need a very different website from an online store owner, or a dentist, or a restaurant…you need one that puts your photographs front-and-center, without any distractions. A website with a “wow” effect.
There are lots of ways to create your own photography site—one that’s as distinctive as your own style. Take a look and see how these photographers did it.
Tips for Photography Websites
- Keep your navigation menu short and simple. You’ll notice that in many of the websites here, the top navigations have Home, Portfolio, Blog, About, Contact, and that’s it! Anything more might just detract from your work.
- Include some text on every page. You may think that your work speaks for itself, but it helps visitors to add some text describing who you are, how you work, and perhaps some context about each gallery. Also, remember that search engine crawlers can’t appreciate your photographs (one of the downsides of being a bot), but they can read your text, so adding text and alt tags to your photographs will help with your search engine ranking.
- Don’t post every photo.
Though it may be tempting to load your website with gallery after gallery, it pays to go through and edit your collections to only show your favorite work. There’s only so much that people can absorb when they browse your website, and you don’t want to overwhelm them. Learn more about Jimdo’s different Photo Galleries.
- Link to all your social media profiles. Your website should be the central point for all of your social media profiles, so be sure to add clear links, whether as icons or as links in your footer or top navigation. Remember that you can also add your Instagram feed right to your website.
- Keep updating your website, even after it’s “done.” You may have created the perfect website, but be sure to keep it up-to-date. Add new photographs and galleries to keep things fresh, or better yet add occasional blog posts with galleries showing off your latest projects. This will show search engines that your site is still active.
Examples of Awesome Photography Websites using Jimdo
Philipp Steiger
The decay is visible all over Philip’s website. Rusting cars, abandoned warehouses and magnificent decaying buildings are all part of Phillips chosen theme “the beauty of decay.” His ethereal landscape paintings are equally impressive, both individually and as compositions in the gallery view.
Chris Fiddrich
Chris’ breathtaking nature shots wouldn’t look out of place in someone’s living room. Powerful and atmospheric— it feels like you could reach in and touch the water. The hobby photographer shows off his skillful portraits in a chic gallery. Overall, the website is thoughtfully structured and definitely makes you want to see more!
Philip Heuser
Philip is a travel photographer. His motto? “Discover something new every day—always with a camera in hand.” Philip is true to his word, as you quickly discover when visiting his website. The photos are varied, colorful, and give an idea of how diverse his subjects are. We love the different category videos Phillip has used on his homepage.
Visual Aspect
Rebecca loves textures and it shows on her website. She plays with close-ups of walls or wood panels in her background images to give her website a unique character. In addition to her photography, Rebecca shows a selection of her own illustrations. You can find even more on her Instagram profile. Very artsy!
Lunaphelia
Lunaphelia roughly translates from Latin as “the girl who loves the moon.” Swiss photographer Linda understands “photography as a form of expression” and likes to play with the mysterious atmosphere of the moon on her website. We particularly like the section on her website with “Tips and Tricks,” where she passes on her photography tips to visitors. The site is still under construction, but it’s already looking impressive.
Mor Yossef Photography
Mor Yossef lives in Maastricht and has a broad portfolio ranging from weddings to portraits and baby photography. He’s all about “capturing the spirit of an extraordinary, or even everyday moment.” That’s what Mor says “sets a mere snapshot apart from a real photo.” He keeps his website simple with only four subpages and lets the photos speak for themselves.
Mary & Dean
Wedding photographers Mary and Dean work together to capture a couples’ special moment. They have an impressive collection on their website and make it clear that even classic wedding photos don’t have to look rigid and posed. We really like their fancy logo lettering on the background image of the landing page.
Neumann photo
Daniel was a hobby photographer until 2016, when he turned his passion into a career. His specialty is weddings, family celebrations, baby photography and couples photoshoots. Visitors can browse through the different parts of his portfolio and get an idea of his style. We really like that visitors can easily find packages and prices clearly laid out on his website, so there are no surprises!
Thank you to all the Jimdo users who let us show off their amazing websites! Do you have a photography website you’d like to share? Or any tricks you’ve learned from building your own site? Let us know in the comments.