In the era of smartphones, it's never been easier to obtain excellent photos of your congregation for use on your website. Remember the old saying: "A photo is worth a thousand words" — the same is true for the people visiting your website to learn about you for the first time.
How to get good photos
Send someone with a decent eye for framing and composition to stand at the back of your sanctuary on Sunday morning. Even with an iPhone, you should be able to get decent quality pictures for your website. A couple during worship, a couple during the sermon, and a couple before or after the service as people mingle — that's a great start.
If you want bonus points, capture a couple of pictures during special church events (like picnics and baptisms), or pictures of ministries unique to your church (kids' ministry, community outreaches, youth group, etc.).
Here are a couple of Photography 101 videos — Part 1: Lighting and Part 2: Composition — if you want to go a little deeper into lighting and composition. But overall, remember this: any photo is better than no photo. Don't get bogged down in technical details, or worry that you need a professional photographer to capture your congregation properly.
Do's and don'ts
Don't: Include stock photography
If you only take away one truth from this article, let it be this one: stock photos do nothing to communicate the life of your church to visitors. They're only useful in very basic situations where a photo might serve as decoration, and even then, plan to include real photography of your church if you possibly can. In many cases, no photo is better than a stock photo.
A stock photo communicates to visitors that your church is generic, didn't put much effort into a website, or doesn't have a vibrant community to photograph at all.
Don't be fooled: while our theme demos include stock photography, that's just because they're demo sites, not real church websites. We always recommend using real photos of real people at your actual church.
Do: Include lots of shots of people
Visitors want to know what your church is like. A single shot of your congregation can answer a lot of questions: What are the demographics of this church? How formally do people dress? Will I be able to get inside if I have special accommodations (like ADA accessibility)? All of these and more can be answered with a quick glance at the photography on your website.
Don't: Lead with shots of your building
All your building does is house your church — which is the people and the congregation who are your lifeblood. A picture or two of your building may be appropriate in places (perhaps on a Plan Your Visit page to orient visitors to parking and layout), but it should never be the main point of emphasis. Avoid leading with hero images that are just bricks and stones: keep the focus on people.
Do: Keep your photos up to date
Make sure your photos of your congregation are recent — at most, two or three years old. The people in the photos should be attendees a visitor would expect to meet if they came and visited. Don't include photos with a lot of people who are no longer at your church.
Do: Include photos of your leadership team and staff
Taking an hour at a staff meeting to get some "decent and recent" photos of your leadership will go a long way. Having faces to put to names — your lead pastor, your worship minister — makes visitors feel welcome before they ever walk in. Having all of your staff photos look similar also communicates professionalism.
Professional headshots aren't necessary or required, but many churches do have a photographer or a volunteer in the church photograph their entire staff yearly or every other year.
Tip: For tips on filenames and alt text that help search engines find your photos, see SEO & Images.