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Shoot ten things: the outside from the street, the door, the room, your hands at work, the finished job, a few close-ups, you, your crew, one detail nobody else has, and the block you're on. That list serves a marina in Fort Erie, a cafe on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines and a contractor with a lettered truck equally well, and a phone from the last few years can take all of it. Somebody deciding whether to call you looks at the pictures before they read a word. A photo of your real door and your real face tells them a person is here, which no line of copy manages on its own.
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The shot list
Take three or four of each and choose later.
- The outside, from where a customer first sees it. Stand across the street or at the far end of the lot so the sign and the door both show. For a marina, that is the top of the launch ramp looking down the docks; for a cafe, the far sidewalk with the awning in frame.
- The entrance. Close enough that someone can picture walking through it. If the door is hard to find from the road, this is the shot that saves them a phone call.
- The inside, wide. Stand in the doorway or a corner to fit the room in. A cafe wants the counter and the seating in one frame, so a first-timer knows whether to order at the bar or sit down and wait.
- The work being done. Hands at work beat a posed smile. A mechanic with an outboard up on the stand, or a crew member cutting trim on sawhorses in a driveway.
- The finished result. The plated meal, the boat back in the water, the new deck seen from the lawn.
- Two or three close-ups of the product or the tools. The pastry case in the morning, or a level sitting on a fresh deck board.
- You, at your own place. Standing where you actually work rather than against a blank wall. People hire a person.
- Your team, if you have one. For a contractor, the crew beside the lettered truck at a job site in Grimsby beats a lineup in the office. Give the truck a shot of its own; it is what customers watch for in the driveway.
- One detail only you have. The old hand-painted sign, the view from the counter, the dog that greets everyone.
- A shot that shows the neighbourhood. The corner, the plaza, the Peace Bridge in the background, so a visitor knows they have the right block.
Seasonal businesses want one more. If the marina closes for the winter, take a shot of the docks at their fullest in July and one honest shot of the yard in the off-season. That way the site can tell the truth in February without looking abandoned.
Here is what each shot answers for the customer looking at it, which is the test for whether a picture earns its place on the page.
| Shot | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| The outside | Is this the place, and how do I spot it? |
| The entrance | Which door? |
| The inside, wide | Do I order at the counter or sit and wait? |
| The work being done | Does someone here know the trade? |
| The finished result | What do I get for the money? |
| Close-ups | How careful are they with the small stuff? |
| You, at your place | Who answers the phone? |
| Your team and the truck | Who shows up, and what do I look for in the driveway? |
| One detail only you have | Why here and not the chain down the road? |
| The neighbourhood | Have I got the right block? |
Where to stand
Hold the phone at chest height, level with the ground, and square to what you're shooting. Tilting up makes buildings lean and tilting down makes rooms look cramped. Small rooms photograph best from a corner, as far back as the walls allow, because the longest view is the one across the diagonal. For products, get down to the height of the thing and shoot it straight on.
Turn on the grid in your camera settings and put the subject on one of the crossings. Dead centre reads like a passport photo. Leave some empty space around the subject, since a website crops every picture differently for a phone and a desktop. Before you press the button, check the corners of the frame for the stray coffee cup or the garbage bin, and move it.
A photo of your real door and your real face tells them a person is here, which no line of copy manages on its own.
Light, and the Niagara seasons
Soft light flatters everything, which is why a late-afternoon storefront looks better than the same one at noon. A bright overcast day is a fine substitute, and Niagara has plenty of those.
| Conditions | What the light does | Shoot this |
|---|---|---|
| First hour after sunrise, last hour before sunset | Low and angled, long soft shadows | Storefronts, trucks, the outside shot |
| Bright overcast | Even and shadowless | Faces, close-ups, anything shiny |
| Midday sun in July | Hard shadows, squinting, washed-out signs | Nothing outside; go in and shoot the room |
| Clear winter morning after snow | Low sun all day, clean white backdrop | The storefront, the truck, the yard |
| Lakeside, late afternoon | Light bounced up off the water | The docks, the patio, the launch ramp |
| Windy lake day | Awnings and flags blurred | Wait for a calm morning |
Lake Erie helps if you're near it. The water throws light back up under things, so a marina or a lakeside patio late in the day picks up a glow that a parking lot inland will not. Winter is no reason to wait either. The sun sits low all day from November to February, which is the soft light you would otherwise chase at dusk.
Indoors, switch every light on and open the blinds. Avoid pointing the camera straight at a window, or the room goes dark against the glare.
Phone or camera
Use whichever you have. If it's a phone, wipe the lens first, since a fingerprint smear can turn a sharp picture hazy. Tap the screen on your subject so the camera focuses and sets the brightness there. Walk closer instead of zooming, because digital zoom only crops the picture and throws away detail. Brace your elbows against your body or lean on a doorframe to stay steady. Nobody needs to buy a camera for this.
Getting the photos ready for the site
Once the pictures are on your computer, four habits save a lot of back and forth.
Name each file for what it shows. Your phone calls a picture something like IMG_4821.jpg. Change that to marina-front-launch-ramp-fort-erie.jpg. You will find it again in a year, and so will whoever builds the site.
Write one plain sentence describing each picture. On a website this is called alt text: the sentence a talking screen reader speaks to someone who cannot see the image. "Owner standing at the parts counter of a marina in Fort Erie" is the kind that works. Keep it to what is actually in the frame.
Put a smaller copy on the site, and keep the original. The full-size file straight off the phone is far bigger than any web page needs, and big files make a page slow to open on the cellular signal a customer has in a parking lot. If you are building the site yourself, look for a size choice when you save or share the photo and pick the smaller one. If someone is building it for you, send them the originals and let them do the shrinking, since a corrected colour or a straightened horizon needs the full file to work from.
What to skip
- Stock photos of handshakes or people in headsets.
- Heavy filters and dramatic edits.
- Flash pointed straight at a person or a shiny surface.
- Blurry shots. Nobody trusts them.
- Crowded counters and cluttered corners.
- Recognizable customers who haven't said yes.
Building it yourself on a page builder? The guide to doing it yourself or hiring a designer covers where the photos go once you have them. The list of pages a small business site needs shows which shots end up where. If you are pricing a build, photos are one of the things that move the cost of a small business website, because a site with good pictures ready needs less work to finish.
Photo coaching is part of every size, not an add-on. Tell me what you sell and I'll quote a site that includes it. Get a fixed-price quote
Common questions
I only have time for five. Which five?
The outside, the entrance, you at your place, the work being done, and the finished result. Those answer what a first-time customer asks before they call: where is it, how do I get in, who am I dealing with, what do I get. Add the rest on a second afternoon.
When does a phone fall short?
In a dim room at night and in a very large space, like a shop floor or a barn. For the room, come back in daylight. For the big space, shoot it in pieces from the corners rather than forcing it into one frame.
Can I photograph my customers?
Ask first. If someone is clearly recognizable in a picture you plan to put on your site, get their yes before you use it, or frame the shot so they aren't identifiable. That includes the regulars at the counter and the kids on the dock.
Who owns the photos?
You do, if you took them. Keep the originals somewhere other than the phone. If a designer or a photographer shoots for you, ask before the shoot that the full-size files are yours to keep and reuse, and get that in writing.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on the shots once you have them, send a few to hello@niagarawebdesigner.com or call [905.682.4642](tel:+19056824642) and I'll say plainly whether they are ready or worth another afternoon.