A photographer’s website is the portfolio, the shop window and the sales conversation in one. It is also, very often, painfully slow, because it is full of huge image files. This photographer website checklist covers what wedding, portrait, family, commercial and event photographers need on their sites, the legal points around contracts and image rights, and the mistakes that cost bookings.
The underlying principle is simple: the work is the product, so the work has to load quickly and be easy to judge, and the next step has to be obvious.
Speed: the problem most photography sites have
Photographers naturally want to show images at their best, which often means uploading full-resolution files straight from an editing program. On a phone connection, a gallery of 40 large images can take many seconds to appear, and a couple flicking between five photographers’ sites in different tabs will not wait.
Good photography sites serve each image at the size the screen needs, in modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, and load images further down the page only as the visitor scrolls. None of this reduces quality on screen. It just stops the site sending a 6,000-pixel file to a phone that can display a fraction of it. If you use a portfolio platform, check it does this; if you have a custom site, make sure it is built in.
Pages a photographer website needs
| Page | What it must do |
|---|---|
| Home | What you shoot, where, your style in a few images, and a clear next step. |
| Portfolio | Organised by type of work. Full shoots or weddings as well as highlights. |
| Prices or packages | Starting prices or package prices, what is included, and what costs extra. |
| About | Who you are, how you work, and what it is like to be photographed by you. |
| How it works | Booking, deposit, contract, the shoot, editing, delivery times and how images are delivered. |
| Venue or location pages | For wedding and event photographers: shoots at named venues with practical notes. |
| Enquire | A short form with date, location and type of shoot, or a booking calendar for a call. |
Show whole shoots, not just the highlights
A highlights reel of your best twenty images from five years shows what you can do on your best day. A complete wedding, family session or commercial project shows what you will do on theirs. Couples and clients want consistency: how you handle bad weather, dark churches, large groups, awkward relatives, reflective products.
For wedding photographers, a blog post or gallery page for each real wedding, named by venue (with the couple’s consent), is the best long-term search content in the trade. Couples search for photographers who know their venue. A page titled with the venue name, with a full set of images and a few practical notes on the light and the best spots, will be found for years.
Prices: give a starting point
Many photographers hide prices because every job differs. For wedding and portrait work, that usually means spending time on enquiries from people who were never in budget. A starting price, or two or three packages with what is included, filters those out and reassures those who can afford you.
For commercial photographers, a day rate or a starting price for common jobs (headshots, product photography per item) works the same way. Explain what affects the final price: usage, licensing, number of locations, retouching.
Contracts, cancellations and image rights
Wedding and event bookings are usually made at a distance, by email or online form, so consumer protection rules on distance contracts can apply. Whether the usual 14-day cancellation right applies to a booking for a specific date is not always straightforward, so take advice and make your contract and cancellation terms clear before a client pays a deposit. Terms must be fair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015; a deposit that is clearly not refundable in any circumstances may be challenged.
In UK law, the photographer generally owns the copyright in the images they create, unless a contract says otherwise. Explain on your site what clients are licensed to do with their images: personal use, printing, social media, commercial use. Commercial clients need to know exactly what usage they are buying.
Photos of people are personal data under UK GDPR. Get consent before using clients’ images on your website and social media, especially images of children, and have a privacy notice explaining how you store and use images. Remove images if a client asks you to.
Mistakes photography websites make
- Huge, unoptimised images that load slowly on phones.
- A homepage slideshow that auto-advances before people can look.
- Only highlight images, no complete shoots.
- No prices, or prices hidden in a PDF brochure sent on request.
- An enquiry form that asks for either too little (no date) or far too much.
- Galleries with right-click blocking that break on phones and annoy everyone.
- No mention of insurance, backup equipment or delivery times.
What good looks like
A good wedding photographer’s site opens fast with a few strong images and a single line: “Relaxed wedding photography in Devon and Cornwall, from a starting price”. A check-my-date form sits one tap away. The portfolio is organised by venue, each with a full wedding. The how-it-works page explains the booking, deposit, contract, day and delivery in a few short paragraphs, including insurance and how your files are backed up.
A good commercial photographer’s site leads with the kinds of client and work, shows projects with a short brief and result, lists day rates or starting prices, and makes licensing clear.
What a photographer website costs
For photographers, cost is driven mainly by the gallery system, the number of portfolio and venue pages, and whether you sell prints or take deposits online. Image optimisation should be part of any build, not an extra, because a slow gallery defeats the purpose of the site.
Portfolio platforms built for photographers typically cost around £10 to £40 a month and handle galleries well, though they can be generic in design and weak on search. Freelance designers usually charge £800 to £3,500 for a custom portfolio site. Client gallery and proofing software is often a separate subscription.
We design photography websites from scratch, with fast galleries, venue or project pages and copy written for you, on Monthly at £299 plus £99/month (12 months minimum), or Own It at £1,795 plus £49/month with up to 25 pages for a growing library of venue posts. Selling prints or taking booking deposits online can be added to any plan, quoted on your call, and comes as standard on Pro at £6,950 plus £299/month. Nerdsharks builds for solo photographers and larger studios alike.