Why You Should Invest in Professional Photos for Your Church Website

Last weekend I decided to finally clean the garage. It was dirtier than I thought - filthy, actually. That’s why I was amazed when I finished the whole project in under 3 hours. When it comes to your church branding and design, there are probably some things that you’ve thought about cleaning up but have been wary of starting. What if it takes longer than you thought it would? What if it’s going to cost you money to fix? It can be easy to ignore these minor issues until they turn into bigger ones. The problem is that we often underestimate how bad things really are. If you looked into it, you might find that your website actually doesn’t work on certain browsers, or that there are 7 different versions of your logo floating around. This spring-summer season is a great time to clean up those divergent designs and maybe even do a light branding refresh. Tending your brand means addressing problems before they accumulate for too long, or it will quickly get out of control.

Designers use color ratios to help us create aesthetically pleasing designs. After nearly a decade of graphic design, I can go with my gut when balancing colors. But when all is said and done, it almost always works out to some version of the 70-20-10 ratio. 70 If you have a brand color palette, pick a more neutral color that is either very light or very dark. If you don’t have a color like that in the palette, just use white or black. This is your 70% color, and it should be the background color on the whole site. 20 Your 20% color should be a contrasting color to the 70%. So if your 70% color is white, your 20% color should be black or dark grey. Use this color for body text and some section backgrounds. 10 Finally, the 10% left should be a “pop” color. This is usually your main brand color. Use the 10% color on buttons, or smaller elements that need some attention.

Got a website for your church but it’s missing that extra-clean, professional look? I’ve got four tips for you today that are guaranteed to make it better. If you do these things, your web visitors will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for and you’ll have more people walking through your church’s digital front door. 1. Be Selective with Content The more different pieces of content there are on your site, the less likely visitors are to read any of it. Reduce the amount of information you’re presenting and cut any text that isn’t absolutely necessary. Pro tip: write as if you’re explaining your church to a total stranger at a 4th grade reading level. Here are a few practical ways to slice and dice: Headings should be between 1-10 words Paragraphs should be less than 50 words Use bulleted lists instead of sentences with commas 2. Increase Font Sizes If your content has been distilled to follow the word counts above, you’ll be able to bump up the size of your headings and body copy. This makes the site easier to skim, and helps older readers who might struggle with small text. I recommend 20-25px for body text, and 48-72px for your largest heading. 3. Provide a Clear Call to Action If someone happens to land on your website, you want to give them a clear next step, just like you would for a visitor who to your church on Sunday morning. Whether that’s filling out a digital connection card or watching your service livestream, make sure that there is a stand-out action someone can take, and that each button says exactly what it does. Pro tip: Avoid links and buttons that say like “Learn More” or “Click Here.” Instead, use labels that are specific and tell the user what to expect when they click that particular button. 4. Prioritize Menu Items Just like cutting down text, you also want to reduce the number of options you’re presenting to visitors. I’m working on a website refresh right now with an organization whose old website had FIFTY FIVE different links in the main menu. The decision paralysis and brainpower it takes to find what you’re looking for can get overwhelming very fast. Try to limit your main menu to 5 options or less. You can always link to additional pages from one of those main pages, but this approach keeps everything organized and easy to navigate.

So you want to put professional-looking photos on your church website. That’s great, but where do you start? Who do you hire? What shots do you need? The main thing to remember is that you want to show the benefits of your church. Why do people attend? What makes your church uniquely valuable as a local congregation? Website photos and videos should show the benefits you’re known for and set realistic expectations. Church website imagery is especially important because it’s giving potential visitors a taste of what it’s like to attend, while also reminding existing members of the reason they come. That said, how can you get the most out of your time and resources? Here are my recommendations. Book a local photographer for a Sunday morning and ask them for a list of shots that looks something like this: Parking Lot / Building Greeters Bulletins / Merch Worship Preaching Fellowship Baptisms or other significant moments Bonus tip: If you can find a little more budget, use a videographer instead and ask for stills from the footage they capture. Now you have professional video and photos. Much like a rebrand, if you do this right, you won’t have to do it again for a very long time. Put your new photos and video on the most visited pages of your website, and let them go to work. While you’re off focusing on ministry, they’ll be consistently connecting with people who are looking for a church home, and tending that part of your brand for you.

So you want to put professional-looking photos on your church website. That’s great, but where do you start? Who do you hire? What shots do you need? The main thing to remember is that you want to show the benefits of your church. Why do people attend? What makes your church uniquely valuable as a local congregation? Website photos and videos should show the benefits you’re known for and set realistic expectations. Church website imagery is especially important because it’s giving potential visitors a taste of what it’s like to attend, while also reminding existing members of the reason they come. That said, how can you get the most out of your time and resources? Here are my recommendations. Book a local photographer for a Sunday morning and ask them for a list of shots that looks something like this: Parking Lot / Building Greeters Bulletins / Merch Worship Preaching Fellowship Baptisms or other significant moments Bonus tip: If you can find a little more budget, use a videographer instead and ask for stills from the footage they capture. Now you have professional video and photos. Much like a rebrand, if you do this right, you won’t have to do it again for a very long time. Put your new photos and video on the most visited pages of your website, and let them go to work. While you’re off focusing on ministry, they’ll be consistently connecting with people who are looking for a church home, and tending that part of your brand for you.

No matter how interesting and engaging your church “About” page is, nothing connects with people and builds trust like real photos of the church’s staff and leaders. Any picture is worth a thousand words, but a carefully chosen picture can say much more than that. If you are lucky enough to be in the minority of churches with a staff photographer, that part of your brand is probably going to be shaped by their personal style. For the rest of us, there are a few tricks we can use to get the most mileage out of our limited resources. Get a dedicated volunteer. This one speaks for itself, but if you can find a willing individual with a nice phone, they can focus on just doing the photography, which will probably have more uniform results. Shoot outside. Unless you have a studio set up, natural light is always going to look better than indoor light. Dress accordingly. If your church brand is more formal and traditional, wear a suit. If your brand is younger and more informal, dress casually. A good rule of thumb is to wear what the majority of your members would typically wear on a Sunday morning. Use consistent settings. If you’re shooting on an iPhone, use portrait mode with the same settings each time. If you have a digital camera, use a tripod for consistent framing and watch a video to help you dial in your settings. Curate. Shoot several photos of each person, and pick ones that are the most flattering and in focus. Staff headshots are just one way to use “on brand” church photography, but they can make a huge difference.

I’m generally off social media, but when I use it for my business, I can’t open up a single app without seeing video content. Twitter? Videos. Instagram? Videos. Facebook? Videos. For many churches, video content is a critical part of their outreach and communication efforts. It’s easier than ever to take a sermon livestream and turn it into 30-second digestible clips for people to scroll through on the toilet. An animated logo “sting” is perfect for integrating your church brand into those clips. If your church is doing video content, you want to maximize your brand recognition. A key part of boosting that recognition is going to come from putting your logo at the beginning or end of video content. Church livestream? Logo sting Instagram Reels sermon clip? Logo sting Facebook video announcement? Logo sting Over time, the brand recognition and familiarity starts to build up in people’s minds: “This is a church I can trust.” Help people associate your church with the hope of the gospel and with the unique mission you preach.

So you want to put professional-looking photos on your church website. That’s great, but where do you start? Who do you hire? What shots do you need? The main thing to remember is that you want to show the benefits of your church. Why do people attend? What makes your church uniquely valuable as a local congregation? Website photos and videos should show the benefits you’re known for and set realistic expectations. Church website imagery is especially important because it’s giving potential visitors a taste of what it’s like to attend, while also reminding existing members of the reason they come. That said, how can you get the most out of your time and resources? Here are my recommendations. Book a local photographer for a Sunday morning and ask them for a list of shots that looks something like this: Parking Lot / Building Greeters Bulletins / Merch Worship Preaching Fellowship Baptisms or other significant moments Bonus tip: If you can find a little more budget, use a videographer instead and ask for stills from the footage they capture. Now you have professional video and photos. Much like a rebrand, if you do this right, you won’t have to do it again for a very long time. Put your new photos and video on the most visited pages of your website, and let them go to work. While you’re off focusing on ministry, they’ll be consistently connecting with people who are looking for a church home, and tending that part of your brand for you.