Guest Post by Scott Wyden Kivowitz

Photography is a beautiful thing. It can inspire, bring laughter or anger, and even change the view on life in people.

Creating a photograph is not (usually) just one click. It takes time, vision and thought. Photographs will typically have a deep meaning to the person who went through effort to capture a still image.

So when it comes to displaying these meaningful photographs on a website, each photographer should have a similar experience. What I mean is, a photography website is extremely personal. A photographer won’t use a dark color scheme if they prefer lighter colors. Or rounded corners if they prefer sharp edges.

With that said, here is some advice for a photographer looking to find the perfect look.

There is such a wide range of photography website templates available, so the first thing to do is some searches using your favorite search engine. As you can see, the process already starts off as a personal choice, because you must use a search engine of your choosing. When you find directories of website templates, you can sometimes browse by popularity, color, features, etc. Sometimes the directories will only list the best out there, and that is okay.

Here is some advice on what to look for in a template:

• Make sure it has the gallery sizes you want. (i.e., full screen, lightbox, responsive, grid and/or slideshows
• If you need to sell your work, does it have eCommerce options?
• Are you looking to provide proofing galleries to clients? If so, can the template help with that?
• Does the template provide social media features?
• How easy is it to customize? Not all photographers understand HTML, so hopefully you find a template that can be adjusted without it.

That’s a pretty good list to start with, but ideally each photographer should make a bullet list of every feature they would want. So create your list, and put the priorities at the top so you look for those features first.

In the eBook, 10 Tips To Supercharge Your Photography Website, Jodi Friedman (of MCP Actions) talks about consistency across a portfolio. Her advice is a very strategic, and important, idea for enhancing something so personal to a photographer. For more great tips like this, I recommend downloading the free photography website eBook.

Once you have completed your priority list, I’d love to see them. Please comment below and share the top 3 features on your list.

Thanks for reading,

Scott