Photography and web design go hand in hand. When it comes to beautifying your online space, any web designer understands the power of images to promote a brand and quickly convey a message. So if you’ve been bitten by the shutterbug, you’ve got an indispensable resource in your web design arsenal that (if used smartly) can be used to push the beautification boundaries of your website.
In fact, some of the latest website design trends of the season are tailor-made for photo-enthusiasts. Here are some of our favorite web design trends that will work perfectly with your own photographs.
1. Super-Size Your Background
Pictures speak louder than words; that’s the principle behind this hot design trend. Many new sites feature homepages with a single large image serving as the website background and minimal text. This trend towards simplicity and sending a message with a single, powerful photograph is being used in virtually every field. So whether you’re a musician, a mechanic or the owner of a hotel, you can explain the essence of your brand quickly with a strong image on your homepage.
Moving images more your style, this trend is just as popular when featuring a full-screen video background.
Eager to get started with making your website? These beautiful free website templates all feature a big background photo or a video header.
2. Photo Focused Photography Blogs
Not all websites need to be heavy on wording. Showcase your snaps in a photography blog featuring your pictures as the central part of each post. While blog posts can focus primarily on pictures, don’t forget to add short descriptions and all too important image descriptions to your website’s images to keep your SEO strong.
Professional photographer? Blogs are a great way to showcase what you do and give potential clients insights about you, your products or services, what makes your business unique and what you stand for.
Wanna add a blog to your website? Browse through these free blog templates and take your pick!
3. Create Ambiance with Color
Colors send a powerful message. A red website can shout love, lust or anger. Blue is calming and green reminds us of nature. Many websites today create a certain mood with monochrome images, photographs made up of only one color in varying tones.
You can create this cool effect with any photograph on your Wix website directly from the Wix editor. Check out our post on how to use the Wix Image Editor and try adding a monochrome image to your site.
The monochromatic effect not your favorite look? Add any one of the image filters from your Wix Editor to give your site’s images an Instagram-like look.
Here are a few examples of Wix templates with monochromatic or filter-added images:
4. Insert Interactive Images
The hover effect is so hot right now. Even if you don’t know this web trend by name, odds are you’ve come across it in your recent site searching. This fun hot feature hits your site visitors with an element of surprise by displaying a totally different photo when (you guessed it) you hover over an image. Use this feature on a staff page to show the personality of your employees or to showcase a product and how to use it. Here’s how to add a hover effect to your Wix website.
5. Attract Attention with Grids and Galleries
While image galleries are nothing new, there are some popular trends to know about in terms of how designers are displaying large groups of images on the web. Grid galleries are being used widely because they enable you to showcase a large number of photos in a way that’s easy for the user to browse.
“Pinterest-style” or “card design” galleries are also very popular because they, too, let you present a large number of photos that users can scroll through with ease. This type of gallery also allows you to integrate a brief description about each image. Descriptions can help your site's SEO, improve its ranking on Google and let users know exactly what they are looking at.
Check out these free web templates with state-of-the-art image galleries:
With do-it-yourself website builders like Wix, you don’t need to hire a professional web designer to create a modern, stunning website that will impress your audience. Take advantage of these hot photography techniques and flaunt what you’ve got to the world!