We chose these outstanding photography website examples not just for the incredible imagery they feature, but also for their carefully considered designs and layouts. Whether these photographers specialize in lifestyle shoots or fine art photography, the curation of their photography sites makes them stand above the rest.
The best photography websites tend to strike a perfect balance of showcasing the work while ensuring the site itself is easy to navigate, well designed, and conveys all the relevant information visitors need to see. Whether you specialize in fine art, commercial, portrait, or wedding photography, curation is the key to a great photography portfolio. Professional photographers often have huge collections of incredible images stored on their hard drives, but building a memorable photography website means selecting only your best work.
As all these photographers know, a professional photography website tells prospective clients who you are and what you do. Something as simple as the layout of your portfolio site or the images you choose can determine whether or not someone becomes drawn in by your work and decides to keep browsing.
A professional logo, easy-to-navigate photography website, and beautifully curated photos can really make your work shine online.
Before you create—or re-design—your own photography website, looking at examples of top photography websites is one of the best ways to find inspiration. Once you have a solid idea of what you like and don’t like, you can apply that to customize your own site exactly the way you want.
Designing your photography website
Some of the best photography websites match the design to the type of photography they showcase.
- For example, creating a travel photography portfolio presents a unique challenge because travel photographers tend to have large portfolios with many photos from different locations. How can you make sure that your best images stand out, but still demonstrate your versatility and get a chance to share all the different places you've documented?
- The best travel photography websites find the sweet spot between too many photo galleries and too few—they include just enough images to keep viewers wanting to see more. Simple menu navigation and basic layouts tend to be the preferred choice of travel photographers, who know that their eye-catching photo work is more than enough to give personality to their photography site.
- Fashion photography websites, on the other hand, are best when kept minimal. Take a peek at a recent edition of your favorite art or fashion mag—you're likely to notice lots of white space with few design elements and simple text. Picking up on this aesthetic trend, the best fashion photography website examples tend towards extreme simplicity, letting their work take center stage.
- For food photography websites, photographers can play a bit more and create sites that add flavor to their food shots, emphasizing their style with playful fonts or contrasting bold photos with lots of white space.
- The best portrait photography portfolios are usually simple, utilizing lots of white space, leaving the focus on the work and the faces of the people in it. The top portrait photography sites also tend to display a well-balanced combination of composed and candid images, demonstrating the photographer's versatility. Many portrait photographers also choose themes and layouts that work best with portrait orientation galleries.
