For prospective students and curious parents alike, the first thing they expect to welcome them on a school website is not a wall of text but a picture of the staff and students. These pictures are the first impression people will get of your school, and it is not just families that will be browsing. To make sure your pictures speak the right words, we have put together this guide to improving your school website’s photos.
Presentation
Knowing how to take photos properly is important, but proper presentation is equally important. School websites are essential for showcasing not only your students but also your core values. This is for people inside and outside the school, so it needs to be up to scratch.
Professional design services are your best bet in communicating everything you want about your school to all your audiences. You can try your hand at DIY website design, but it is usually best to get help with designing websites for schools through established designers such as fsedesign.co.uk/websites-for-schools/.
Let’s move on to the methods you need to employ when taking photos:
Candid
Assembling the entire school to smile for a photo can be nice to reflect on, but candid photos evoke greater responses from viewers and provide better engagement overall. Try to catch genuine moments to build a more sincere image of your school.
Activity
Similarly, photos can look alive when participants are engaged in activities or with one another rather than with the camera. Capturing natural behaviour builds a more honest perception of your school for your audience, replacing the stilted stock photos of old.
Personality
Capturing your school’s ethos and values within a photo will do far more than text can convey, and in a fraction of the time. Try to capture the moments exclusive to your school and how you nurture your students to follow your core beliefs.
Variety
Try to cover a range of events and environments, from sports to study and from the library to the common room. This keeps your school’s image lively and avoids one-note representations.