The 5 best dental marketing photography tips
When it comes to website photography, planning your shots in advance, hiring a professional photographer and keeping your brand front of mind will ensure you have amazing pictures that showcase the best of your practice.
For assistance with your photography, WEO Media is here to help! We can guide you through the planning process and we have photographers across the country that we work with to provide you with beautiful imagery for your new website. Our team has pulled together the 5 best tips to remember as you prepare for your next photo shoot - watch the video, or read on for more information.
Tip 1 - Huge benefits for imagery on the web
We are becoming a more visual society with every Instagram and Facebook photo post we make. It's no surprise. It's faster and easier to digest an image than to read a paragraph of text. The old adage is more true than ever when we say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Even though we shouldn't, we do judge a book by its cover the same way we judge a blog post by its hero image. What is the message we should take away from this? Well, if an image grabs attention better than text does, it better be relevant to what the blog post is about. You don't want to switch-bait your readers and trick them into reading something irrelevant. They won't be very happy with you and will generally leave dissatisfied with you and your website.
What is even better than relevant images are unique relevant images. Google loves uniqueness and rewards you with better ranking results. If an image is worth a thousand words, then a unique and relevant image is worth tens of thousands of words.
It’s not just Google though, we are more likely to remember something if there is imagery to go along with text. It’s said that we are over 90% more likely to investigate into something if there is imagery that goes along with it.
Just imagine your website... Oops, just by asking you to imagine, I bet I made you think for a minute. Did you see a picture? Well if you’re like most, you did. Most of the input from the world to your brain is also around 90% of the total volume of input. Another way you could say that? Most of us are visual to begin with. And when you consider the opportunity you are missing out on by not including pictures on your site, it’s a big one.
Tip 2 - Preparing for a photo shoot
If you want unique images, you are going to have to produce them yourself or hire someone to take them for you.
Hiring a photographer can be tricky. You’ll want to check out their portfolio and see if their style matches what you envision for your site. If possible, try to meet with them ahead of time to plan out shots and discuss style. If you’re not sure where to start, it’s best to go with a naturalistic story building approach.
A first step could be to look at examples of your competitors imagery on their websites to get an idea for the shots you would like to take. Some examples include:| • |
Candid shots of patient interaction with the doctor
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Patient interaction at the front desk
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Portraits of the doctor
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Shots of the exterior building
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Shots of the interior waiting room and operatories
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Detail shots of interesting things in your office that set you apart |
Going into the shoot, and while editing, have a sense of the colors on your website or the color palette. While editing, you can make your images warmer or cooler to match your site, but it is much more important to plan the colors first. Make sure to match your attire accordingly. Patterns and solids don't go together well. Also avoid plaids and polka dots. Generally we discourage red because it is highly distracting and will draw the eye away from the group and focus the viewer on the attire.
Another tip is to not assume a shot you are imagining will be quick or easy. Talk it over with your Photographer, and be willing to compromise. Also, clean up your interior and exterior as much as possible. Don't assume anything can be Photoshopped. It's much easier to get it right in camera first than it is to magically alter it in the post process.
Obviously if you choose to shoot your photos yourself, you won’t be talking to a photographer. It is still a good idea to spend some time jotting down some notes about what you would be talking to a photographer about. Treat yourself as the client.
Tip 3 - Ask things like what is your goal and who is your audience
It’s important to think about who your audience is when you are trying to determine the visual narrative you’ll be creating. Just as the design of your website is crafted to draw a user in, the goal of your imagery could be just as meaningful. Do you want to captivate your audience? Do you want to convey an emotion? Or do you want to simply educate?
There is no right or wrong answer here. You will find the goal you have in mind will closely relate to what your practice’s goal is every day. Do you want more patients? How do you want your patients to feel? All these questions are good to think about before making the shot, but could also be beneficial after the shoot, when perusing through the collection of photos you’ve taken.
Tip 4 - Getting usable shots
Ok, so you’ve spent some time thinking about your photoshoot and asking relevant questions to put you in the right mindset. The day of the photoshoot comes and goes, your designer is excited to see the images, but is dismayed to find out none of the shots they were planning on using were shot in the format they were planning to use them in, or they don’t have enough room to crop.
This is an easy scenario to avoid. Simply have your photographer remember to give your designer room. It’s an easy thing for a photographer to forget. Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask if they have left enough room to crop.
There are two main places for your photos to go. On the homepage or on a subpage. Where a subpage image can be any aspect ratio, typically a homepage photo will span the width of the website and will have a narrow aspect ratio. It is also not uncommon for a designer to need more vertical space or what they call negative space where they could put text or other content.
A good practice is to take two of the same shot, one horizontally and one vertically so that your designer can use them anywhere on your website. Also, have your photographer stand further back and get "lots of extra space" around the subject so that we can crop the image as needed.
Some additional shooting tips from our own research.| • |
Do not include images of sharp instruments.
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Do not include loupes (dental loupes are magnifying glasses that dentists wear. Unless the image is about the loupes, then they shouldn’t be in the scene).
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Encourage your staff to dress in business casual. Coordinating colors are best.
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Take individual head-shots instead of group photos. It’s easier to edit if someone moves on. |
Tip 5 - Get good architecture interior/exterior shots
When shooting architecture, try to get parallel lines in camera. Line up the shot so that the edges of the building are straight up and down. To do this easily, use a tripod in your set up so that you don't have to rely on your arms. When hand holding your camera, sometimes even your heartbeat can bump your shot.
Anticipate which direction the light will come from. If your building is west facing, wait until the sun starts lowering to a 45 ̊ angle. Depending on the season, the opportune time will change. You could also wait until just before dark when interior lights and exterior twilight are balanced in intensity to each other.
If you are doing any HDR compositing or High Dynamic Range imagery, shoot conservative HDR with more of a natural range in contrast. Situations where you might need HDR are for naturally contrasted situations - photographing interior where the light source may be in image, or photographing against a sunset.
And last but not least, when editing your images don’t go overboard with sliders. Step away from the computer every 20 min to adjust your eyes to the real world. It's also a good practice to look at your first edited photo often and compare it to your current photo so to ensure your batch of edits are consistent over time.
Looking for an experience photographer to assist you with updating your practice photos? Give us a call; we're here to help!
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