clickbrand

The Art of Photography in Web Design

Browse through some websites currently out there and you might notice that photography dominates as the main artwork on many website designs. As a web designer, it would be great to hire a professional photographer and get exactly what is wanted and needed for a web design. In reality however, this scenario is not very likely. Fortunately, there are some great alternatives and resources to turn to.

Here is a quick summary of the different factors that influence what, where, and how to choose photography for a web design project.

One of the first things to think about is accessibility. Can a photoshoot be arranged or will the art be found through stock images or provided by the client? With non-local clients, it is much more difficult to arrange photo shoots. Scheduling and time constraints also weigh heavily on the decision of dealing with photographers or not.

For those reasons, the majority of projects will use stock photography and art. It is easily and readily available to anyone. There are tons of photography resources online – iStockphoto, Veer, and Corbis, just to name a few. You perform a search and once you find something you like, the photo could be yours with a click of a download.

As the saying goes, “You get what you paid for!” The budget limitation of a project can greatly influence where and what type of photography you can use.

Custom photography and working with professional photographers can be quite expensive. There are photography fees, equipment fees… etc. that factors into a custom photoshoot. Since this is most likely the most expensive method, it is often a huge limitation to go through this route as a resource for images and art.

While stock images rate high in accessibility, the allotted budget of a project can narrow down the choices greatly. Take the resources I’ve mentioned above for example. Between Veer and iStockphoto, Veer would be a great resource to look into if the client has a bigger budget, as images typically price around the hundreds range. iStockphoto on the other hand, is a popular resource for projects with a tighter budget. Images can start as low as $1, and typically stays within the $1-$20 range.

Another route to mention is client provided imagery. This happens most often with redesign projects and the client already has photos from a previous design or photo shoot. Clients prefer this as it saves them from spending extra budget on photo art. This could work in your favor, as it also saves you the time and effort from searching for new images and allows more time for design, but could also work against you, because of the limited flexibility in getting the images to fit with the rest of the design.

When thinking about “photo quality,” the first to come to mind would be: pixilation, graininess, sharp vs. blurry… etc. In this case though, photo quality is all about the aesthetic quality that a person would perceive when they see the photo. A high-quality photo will feel unique and has a certain emotion or personality attached to it. A low-quality photo is the opposite; it is generic, cheesy and can come off forced. The quality of photos can vary greatly between one resource to the next. As most would agree, images found on Veer have a much nicer quality, while iStockphoto may appear as more “stock” or generic.

Custom/Professional Photographers: Low accessibility, high budget, high quality, high flexibility for creativity.

Stock Images (High-Quality): High accessibility, med-high budget, high quality, flexibility for creativity varies.

Stock Images (Low-Quality): High accessibility, low budget, low-med quality, flexibility for creativity varies.

Regardless of where the photos come from, it is most important to think about how you will integrate the images with the rest of the designs. Whether it is thinking about a simple crop and place or doing some heavy photoshop work to piece together something really creative, it is up to you as a designer to transform the photography and turn it into art.