Tips & Tricks: Getting the Best Photos for Your Site

By Colleen Williams|October 14, 2024

Did you know that profile photos can help your site convert a visitor to a customer? One of the most compelling elements for potential clients in our online directories is a profile with a headshot. While it seems like a given, many attorneys and firms don’t prioritize this crucial step in completing their online presence, and sometimes choose a logo or leave the frame blank.

While a professional photoshoot can be a hassle, not to mention expensive, you can take your own photos to include on your website and online profile; this is still better than a placeholder. Nowadays digital cameras or smartphones can take surprisingly good photos with a little care. Plus, if you find yourself wanting professionally done photos, you can always update later.

Tip #1: Lighting

You may not have a professional ring light and backdrop, but you do have the sun. Try taking photos in natural light, either by a window or outside on a nice day.

Pick an area bright enough that you don’t need a flash and keep an eye on shadows. Ideally, the subject should be facing the light source to avoid having shadows cast across their face. Try the afternoon or mid-morning for the best outdoor light.

Tip #2: Use the rear camera

The rear camera on most phones have better lenses and resolution than the front camera, which is meant for video calls or quick selfies.

Tip #3: Get assistance

Don’t be shy! Enlisting a friend or colleague to take your pic for you can eliminate awkward selfies. Another person can take the photo at a reasonable distance since it can be hard to frame your shot while using a timer.

Tip #4: Focus

Most smartphone cameras have automatic focus. For more control, you (or a friend, see above!) can make sure the focus is on the right place by tapping or holding your finger to get a yellow targeting box. This can help make sure that your face is in crisp focus.

Tip #5: Take lots of pictures

Taking several pictures in a row can help you catch just the right expression or avoid accidentally catching someone mid-blink. By taking more photos than you need, you have a bigger pool to draw from. You can always delete the ones that you don’t like.

Tip #5: Keep it simple

Don’t use “busy” background patterns or wear clothing that might be distracting. By choosing a simpler color scheme, you increase the professionalism and elegance of a proper headshot.

Tip #6: Image size

First, we’ve built a cropping tool into our media manager, but you don’t really have to worry so much about resizing yourself. You can send your Account Executive the largest size and we can do the cropping and sizing for you.

With the cropping tool, our recommended sizes for square photos are 450 pixels by 450 pixels; these work well in almost any design. If you want a picture a little longer vertically than it is wide/horizontal (think “portrait” orientation), we recommend the size adhere to 400 pixels by 600 pixels.

Tip #7: Editing

Our media manager and your Account Executive have the tools to adjust a photo for you, and it’s typically easier to produce a better result by starting with an unmodified image. Try to take an original that looks the way you’d like it to (a good rule to follow it that the most editing you want to do is crop) and if you cannot avoid tinkering with filters and adjusting the exposure, go easy on it.

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