How to get gorgeous photos for your full width website (and not be disappointed!)

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a very long time. I’m a big believer in getting your own personal vault of photographs that you’ll be able to use as you or your web designer builds out your new online home.

I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve had disappointed clients because the incredible photos they have do NOT work for full width websites. The key is ensuring that your photographer understands how you want to be using your images so she (or he) can do the best job they can for you!

I’ve created this video tutorial to illustrate how different landscape images can look as you’re viewing the site online. I’ve also linked to the test page I used on this very site to show you the images full sized and cropped. By looking at them, you can begin to get a sense of the distance your photographer needs to be from her subject to get amazing photos for you to use.

Take some time and do your research first so you can direct your photographer on what kinds of things you want in your cropped shots (because, they will need to be vertically cropped for computer screen sizes!). Of course the option is present to use media queries to show different images at different sizes, but it’s important to note you’ve got about 550 px – 750 px in height to play with (and about 1600px-2000px in width).

My hope is that this video clears up any questions you may have!

The link to the page with images I used as examples in the video is here (in case you want to share the perspective with your photographer!).