How to Get Good Photos Without Hiring a Photographer
A professional photo shoot is a lovely thing to have and a real expense to book. Most small business owners put it off, which means their website ends up with either stock photos or no photos at all. Here is the good news. The phone in your pocket takes photos that are more than good enough for a website, and the things that separate a good photo from a bad one are almost never about the camera. They are about light, steadiness, and a little intention. You can learn all of it in the time it takes to read this.
Light is ninety percent of it
If you remember one thing, remember this: chase good light and most of your problems disappear. A cheap camera in great light beats an expensive one in bad light every time.
- Use daylight. Shoot near a big window or step outside. Soft, indirect daylight is the most flattering light there is, and it is free.
- Avoid overhead light. The harsh light in most rooms casts ugly shadows under everything. Turn it off and let window light do the work.
- Do not shoot into the light. Keep the window or sun behind you or to the side, not behind your subject, or you will get a dark silhouette.
- Skip the flash. The phone flash flattens everything and makes it look like a police photo. Find more light instead.
Hold steady and keep it sharp
Blur is the fastest way to make a photo look amateur. It is also the easiest thing to fix.
- Wipe the lens. Your phone lens is covered in pocket smudge right now. Clean it with your shirt before every session. This one habit fixes more bad photos than anything else.
- Brace yourself. Tuck your elbows in, or rest the phone on a table or shelf. A two dollar mini tripod helps if you shoot often.
- Tap to focus. Tap the thing you care about on the screen so the phone focuses there, then take the shot.
- Take several. Shoot five of everything and keep the sharpest. Storage is free.
Keep the frame clean
A cluttered background drags a photo down. Before you shoot, take ten seconds to tidy.
- Clear the junk. Move the stray box, the coffee cup, the tangled cord out of frame.
- Simplify the background. A plain wall, a clean counter, or an open outdoor space keeps attention on the subject.
- Get closer. Fill the frame with the thing that matters instead of standing back and capturing the whole messy room.
Shoot for the shape you need
Websites use photos in specific shapes, and planning for that saves headaches later.
- Leave room around the subject. Do not jam it against the edges. Extra space lets the photo be cropped to fit a wide banner or a square tile without cutting off anything important.
- Shoot some wide and some tall. A wide shot works for a header. A tall or square shot works for a gallery tile. Give yourself options.
- Keep the horizon level. A tilted photo looks accidental. Most phones have a grid setting you can turn on to line things up.
What to actually photograph
Point the phone at the real stuff: your storefront, your workspace, you and your team doing the work, and clear shots of your best finished results or your product. That honest handful, shot in good light and held steady, will carry your whole website.
Where we come in
Taking the photos is your part, and it is the fun part. Making them look sharp and consistent across a real website, sized right so they load fast and never come out stretched, is our part. At Catapult we build you a professional site designed around the photos you take, and we handle the cropping, sizing, and placement so a phone photo ends up looking like it belongs there.
It is $79 to launch, then $9 a month for hosting with unlimited change requests, so as you get better shots you just send them and we swap them in. Most sites go live in about 48 hours, and you keep your own domain. Grab your phone, chase the light, and send us what you get. We would love to help.