As a photographer, you likely have an idea of how you want to present your work. However, you’ll also need to keep your users in mind. Creating a photography portfolio that meets your artistic vision and provides a pleasant User Experience (UX) can be a little challenging.
By following a few simple tips, you can give users a good impression of your work. This positive experience might encourage them to return to your site and use your services.
In this post, we’ll share five tips to help you improve your photography portfolio gallery. Let’s get started!
1. Create a Clean Layout
Having a clean layout for your portfolio is crucial. A navigable gallery with neatly placed images can encourage users to take a closer look at your work.
Using a grid can be an effective way to accomplish this:
However, you’ll want to avoid displaying a lot of images at the same time, as visitors may find it overwhelming. It can also slow down your site, leading to a high bounce rate and poor rankings. Therefore, it’s important that you choose your best photos wisely.
If you have more than one gallery, you’ll want to make sure that you use a consistent design. This means using the same fonts, color scheme, and layouts on all of your galleries. A cohesive look can make you look more professional.
2. Use a Lightbox
Another way to improve your photography portfolio gallery is to use a lightbox. This is a type of popup window that’s designed to highlight a feature without taking the user to a new page. For instance, if a user clicks on an image, they’ll get an enlarged version in a window:
This feature can help highlight the details in your photos. However, it’s important to ensure that your lightbox is adjusted correctly for all screen sizes. Many users will visit your portfolio from their mobile phones, and a poorly configured lightbox can disrupt their experience.
There are many plugins you can use to add this feature. For instance, Lightbox for Gallery & Image Block will add a simple lightbox for the Image and Gallery blocks in the Block Editor.
3. Make Your Gallery Responsive
When designing your photography portfolio, it’s important to remember that users will access your site from different types of devices. This means that your gallery will need to be adjusted to fit into different screens. A responsive design will help you ensure that your website looks good across all devices.
For example, if you’re using a three-column gallery for desktop, you’ll probably need to switch to one column on mobile phones:
Having an unresponsive site can make you look unprofessional. It might also turn visitors away, especially if they’re unable to view your photos.
Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that your photos are properly sized for different screens. Otherwise, they might look blurry or distorted on some devices.
It’s also a good idea to compress your photos. Large image files can slow down your site and take up a lot of storage space. You can use a tool like TinyPNG to compress your image and improve your page loading times.
4. Choose Your Theme and Plugins Carefully
There are hundreds of WordPress portfolio themes. However, you’ll want to choose a theme that’s lightweight and responsive. This can help improve the user experience and make your content load faster.
At WPZOOM, we have a selection of WordPress themes for photography portfolios:
For example, our Inspiro Pro theme comes with a variety of video and photo features. It also includes custom modules, different layout options, and pre-built templates.
You’ll also want to select WordPress plugins that improve the functionality of your gallery. For example, if you offer photography services, you might include a tool that enables users to book a session. Additionally, you could use our Instagram widget to display your latest posts on your website.
When choosing plugins, it’s important to opt for tools that have been updated in the last few months. Outdated plugins can contain vulnerabilities that leave your site open to attack.
5. Increase Your Engagement with a Call to Action
A Call To Action (CTA) is an element on your page that encourages users to perform an action. For instance, you might add a “buy now” button next to your photos.
CTAs should be placed in a prominent area, where users can easily see them. Additionally, you’ll want to use contrasting colors, such as white text on a black background, to make the button more noticeable:
You might also want to encourage visitors to share your work on social media. This can help you gain more exposure and drive more traffic to your site.
To do this, you can simply include social share buttons in your gallery. Our Social Icons Widget PRO includes 400+ customizable and easy-to-use icons. It also comes with a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface.
Conclusion
Creating a photography portfolio is an effective way to showcase your work. However, in order to attract clients and followers, you’ll need to make sure that your site offers a positive user experience.
To recap, here are five tips to help you improve your photography portfolio gallery:
- Select a clean layout and portray your best images.
- Use a lightbox so that users can take a closer look at your photos.
- Make your galleries responsive by adapting them to different screen sizes.
- Choose a suitable theme and plugins to complement your work.
- Encourage users to share your work with CTAs and social media buttons.
Do you have any questions about creating a photography portfolio gallery? Let us know in the comments section below!
