Let’s face it, you have all been there….your customer has paid you to design their new website, you have helped them massage the text, you have edited, perhaps ghost written a few parts and now you are ready to add the pictures. You open up the jpegs that the customer has sent you and they are less than great. In fact, not one of them is close to pro quality, or worst they have 2 pro shots and 20 poorly exposed and composed amateur images. So what’s a web designer to do? Is the customer always right? Do you try to work with what you have and fix them with Photo Shop? If you care about the success of your customer on the web, it is time to get honest.
As a professional freelance photographer I feel your pain. I have two distinct types of customers, publication and local. My editorial publication side of the business is easier, I work with professional photo editors and buyers that know what they want and I only submit tightly edited images. My local clients are different, I shoot images on site for them and then they review and pick from everything without a pre-edit. Not every image is going to be great and I work hard pointing out all the faults of the various images, educating and helping my client select only the very best. Sure it might be faster to just let them pick what they like and take the money, but my name is going to be associated with those pictures and I only want the very best out there. As web designers you need to think the same way. Any site you create with poor or inconsistent quality pictures also reflects on you. Your name is on that site. It is in your best interest to educate your customer.
Become aware of Tunnel Visions
One of the biggest challenges with business owners providing their own photography is that most of them are not photographers. As business owners they can see their product in a photo however they don’t have the ability to see the image photographically. It is a common form of tunnel vision. They see only the product but not how it appears as a picture. They don’t see the bad light, the dark shadows, the cluttered background, the harsh light from the flash, you name it, they don’t see it…….until……you start pointing it out. Believe it or not your best defense against bad photos is taking the time to educate your customer. Correcting photo tunnel vision is actually easier than you think; you just have to draw attention to the faults you want them to notice. Once you show them something that is wrong with a photo, they will notice it every time they look at it, because now it has been brought to the attention of the eye/brain connection. Most of the time when people look at photos the brain is automatically applying filtering for our eyes, after all we live in a world of visual overload. We just can’t possibly take in all the sights and sounds we are bombarded with every second of the day, so our brains automatically filter out what we feel is unimportant. When someone looks at a photo they took, for the most part they only see the subject, because the brain is automatically filtering out all the rest of the stuff. But look at the photo again and start discussing all the faults and the brain will automatically start zeroing in on this new information and the photo will now be viewed differently. Some customers may still cling stubbornly to a bad photo, because they still don’t see the faults or it has great sentimental value to them because they are remembering the day they took the image. Again education is the key. Remind them that others viewing the photo were not there and do not have the same set of memories attached to an image, others will only see what is in the picture.
Comparisons can be key
Some of the techniques I find helpful is to put a better picture next to the mediocre one so the customer can see a side by side comparison.
Show them a photo at web size, so they can clearly see the impact or lack of impact that it will have at a smaller size. Show them other websites that are utilizing less than average photography versus websites using pro photos and point out the differences to them. Last but not least don’t mix pro and amateur images, the result is that both will suffer. The amateur image will look even worse next to a high quality pro photo and the pro photo will not have as much impact if it is shown next to a less exciting image.
As a photographer for both web and magazines the rules of thumb for good images is that they tell a story and convey emotion. They also need to be visually clean, meaning they are set against backgrounds that make the subject stand out and don’t detract from the main subject. Finally they need to be close ups so that the subject is clearly seen even at a small web sized image size. This last requirement can usually be met by cropping an image if it has too much background.
Your customer’s website is their window to the world. Explain that to them and emphasize the importance of top notch photos even if they have to pay for them. If they want to post fun photos or share photos they can do that on Facebook or other social networking sites. Remind them their website has to show that they are a professional business in 30 seconds or less, and only the best photos can help them attain that goal.
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About The Author
Dusty Perin
Dusty Perin is a professional photographer and occasional writer specializing in horses. See examples of her work at www.dustyperin.com.
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Comments
Very good points made here. Educating clients when it comes to the photography on their website is EXTREMELY important. If you’re trying to tell a local business that they need to spend extra money to hire a professional photographer, you have to justify that cost. Comparison is an excellent tool for education, and it can really open the eyes of the business owner. It’s important to make this kind of effort, because as you said, this website will be an extension of you.