Photo Guide
This is a quick guide to taking photos of your clinic for your website or even other marketing materials. It will include some hints and a list of subjects that you should consider photographing.
Consistency is key!
Make all of your images consistent. Try to use the same camera, set up, lighting, and outfit styles (if wearing practice logo shirts - wear them in all of the photos) for all of your images. This will create a consistent look for your website.
Equipment
- Camera: an iPhone is okay, however, you will get better quality images with an actual camera. If using an iPhone make sure to take landscape photos. This can be accomplished by turning your phone on its side to get a wider angle before taking the photo.
- Lighting: make sure to utilize all available lighting to prevent shadows. This can be done by utilizing windows and all overhead lights turned on. Try to avoid using flash, as flash photos can create strange shadows.
List of subjects
-Outside of the clinic, Wide Angle – try to include your sign
-Outside of the clinic, the front door
-Front Desk – with or without the front desk people
-Waiting Area – optional, but if you have a nicer than average area try to include this photo
-Gym – 2-3 photos
-Treatment photos – 4-5 is a good number. Some ideas:
- Neck work
- Stretches – Hamstring
- Knee Range of Motion
- Gait Training or Balance Training
- Stair Stepping
- Sport Specific – Golf, Throwing, etc.
-Staff Photos
- Head Shots of people that will be listed separately on the website, on the staff page
- Front Desk person or staff member on the phone
- Someone working at a computer
-Pool/Specialty Photos – if you offer aquatics or other specialty programs
Outside Pictures
Outside pictures quite often turn out the best in the late afternoon or mid-morning. It will depend on the direction that your clinic faces.
Inside Pictures
Pictures taken inside often turn out the best if you shot them from an elevated position and shot down into your space. Standing on a step stool or a solid chair is usually sufficient. It is important to consider how the picture is framed. Try not to have just a little bit of a door frame or wall at the side of a photo. You can take these with or without a flash. For all photos that you submit, we can help correct the exposure to make the picture look better. We also can crop out unwanted materials.
Treatment Pictures
Many clinics take treatment pictures of the therapist working on a staff member. This helps eliminate the need for a photographic release. If however, you want to take pictures of patients you should download a photo release from the Internet or make sure that they have approved the use of the photo on your website or in marketing materials.
Staff Pictures
The most important thing here is to make sure that people are smiling. For group shoots try to have a neutral background so that it does not distract from the photo. Outside the clinic is a good choice. For headshots, our recommendation is to have the subject point their nose over one shoulder but to have their eyes on the lenses of the camera. Do not go too close. We will crop and resize these photos for your website, so you do not need to worry about this. It works best to use a consistent and neutral background – a blank wall works well. Not using a flash will generally produce a better picture without red-eye. We will correct the exposure.
Aspirational Image or Outcomes Oriented Image
Happy, Smiling Faces. We want the website viewer to see themself as that person in the image: happy, and transformed by the story they read about how you will help them. Your pictures/video/slides should be aspirational images. Marketing research has concluded that using aspirational images results in narrative transformation. Meaning that the website viewer is more likely to picture themself as the patient at your clinic when you use these types of images. Best to have a picture of a patient with the staff member guiding them to recovery. If these are intended to be used in the hero area/slideshow on your home page it is important to remember that area is wide and not very tall, so it is important to have the focus of the photo (people's faces) near the vertical centerline. Again, do not zoom in on the subjects. Leave some space around them, and we will crop and resize as needed.
Letterbox Layout
Header images will be cut down to 16x9 or 20x12 when added to your website. This will create a short, wide banner for the image (kind of like a Facebook cover photo). So, make sure to have people's heads (or the focus of your image) in the center of the photo so they can appear properly on your website.
Picture/File Size
If you are able to resize the photo to less than 800 pixels wide or high you will greatly reduce the file size and the time it takes to send the file. This is not however mandatory, we will resize to them to fit your website.
Sending the photos
You can just email the photos to us. You can send multiple photos in one message. If you'd like, you can tell us what page you want the photo(s) used on. In this case, it works best to include the page you want it on in the subject and just attach the photo(s). Below is a list of the pages that we typically use pictures on if you do not designate a page for the photos.
- Home Page –Gym or Treatment Photo
- Location – Outside shot, we also add a map
- Staff – Group Shoot and/or Head Shoots
- Services – Treatment photos
- About Us – Group Shoot, Treatment, Front Door or Gym
- Insurance – Front Desk
- Contact Us – Person on phone or outside shoot
- Testimonials – Treatment photo
- Links – Treatment or someone at a computer
- FAQ – None
- Medical Library – None
- Patient Forms - Treatment
Stock Photos
Here is information for stock photos:
http://ptclinic.com/sp
Pick a Keyword on the left, photos will show up on the right - find a number (below a photo) and let us know where/how you want to use this photo. Also, keep in mind the photos should be in the proper orientation, wider than they are tall. When choosing photos for your slideshow, we advise that you choose pictures that are at least 1200px wide.
If there aren't photos there that you like, go to http://bigstock.com and give us the Stock/image Photo ID on the right-hand side of the photo.
