How to Take Good Photos for the Web The Office of Marketing and Communications recommends that you schedule the university photographer when you need high-quality photographs for your web pages. However, sometimes that's not an option. The photographer might already be booked on the day of an event you'd like to have photographed, or a spontaneous UAH moment in a classroom, study room, or another gathering place may happen and you have no choice but to capture it yourself before the opportunity is gone. It happens! In those situations, feel free to use your own camera. If you don't feel confident about your photography skills, follow these basic principles to help you take a good photograph: Camera A good cell phone is all you need. Newer-model (made within the last few years) iPhones, Androids, or Google Pixels take sufficient-quality photos for the web, even in lower-light environments. iPhone models 12 and after are especially good. Orientation If you want it to be published on the website, hold your phone horizontally. Web photos must be in a landscape orientation in order to resize properly for web pages viewed on both desktop and mobile screens. Light Source Avoid backlit settings where the light source is behind the subject. Lighting should be bright and in front of the subjects, but indirect and diffuse for the best effects. Powerful light sources, such as a spotlight or direct sunlight at midday, make for harsh contrast with very dark shadows and too-bright highlights. A notable exception is what photographers call the golden hours—early morning or late afternoon—when the sun's rays aren't as intense. For example, this photo of the Alumni Board of Directors was taken in the late afternoon: The sun was low in the sky, casting a warm light on the subjects. The effect is dramatic and pleasing to the eye. Subject Human subjects shouldn’t be wearing any other college's or university’s apparel. Also, if the setting is in a laboratory or medical environment, please make sure that your subject is following all safety rules, such as wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for the context of the photo. We cannot publish any photos taken in laboratories or other potentially hazardous environments in which people are not wearing PPE. Background If possible, try to exclude anything from the background that may clash or compete with your subject, such as people not involved in the context of the photo, parked cars, trash cans, random clutter, busy art, wordy signs, etc. Make sure you give some room around the subject (especially overhead and/or underneath) in case we need to crop the photo to a smaller size with a narrower aspect ratio. Our web photos almost always get cropped. Special Filters and Modes Don't use them. Just use the camera's default settings. Make sure the camera's "Live" or "Motion" setting is turned off. Optimization for Web Publication Before uploading any photos to your webpage, make sure they are cropped to a 16:9 aspect ratio and they are compressed to be 1440x810 pixels. This will ensure that web browsers can load the photo quickly with no lag time. If you are unsure about how to process your photo files for web optimization, or you don't have the proper tool, such as Photoshop, we are here to help. Just send them to us at webmaster@uah.edu with a written request and we will process, upload, and place them on your page for you.
