livebooks blog

Organizing and choosing which images to add to your portfolios can seem like daunting task. Whether you’re a photographer, an artists, or an art gallery with various artists, it may seem difficult to choose the amount of portfolio galleries necessary to showcase all of your best work. With some planning and organizing, your images and portfolio galleries will begin to take shape before you know it! Here are some steps that we have found helpful to get you started:

• Categorize your work before uploading to galleries

This first step is sometimes overlooked when starting off your website. If you’re able to categorize your artwork or images into categories, portfolios will soon develop. For example, if you are a wedding photographer, you may choose to organize your weddings based on the bride and groom’s last name. You may also choose to sort them by season, location, or year. Whatever means you choose to sort your images, ensure that you have a cohesive system in place on your site.

• Bulk uploading your images onto portfolios

Once you are able to organize your work on your computer, bulk uploading will become easier. This allows for a multitude of images to be uploaded to your website’s gallery/portfolio at a time.

1. Once you have added the “Portfolio” page, click to add a new block. Choose “Image Gallery”.

2. Once added, choose the “Select from computer” tab and select the images you’d like to upload to the portfolio.

3. Once ALL images have been uploaded, refresh your browser. Some pictures may not be in the same order as they were on your computer. You can click and drag the images to organize them as you’d like.

• Adding image details

Adding image details can help index your work in a more organized way. Attributing the correct information will also help search engines pick up on what your image is related to and will help explain what you’re trying to show the world. Ultimately, these simple steps will help boost your images’ SEO.

1. Select the eye icon next to your image

2. Add all image details needed

• Title – Name of your work
• Description – Short explanation of the work (viewers will see as a hover/pop-up on most browsers)
• Tags – Helps organize all of your images into a sort of filling system on your “Image Library”
• Photo Credit – Helps attribute credit to the photographer
• Photo Credit URL – Links viewers to the website of the photographer or rightful owner of the work (if you are the owner, you can leave blank)

• Adding hyperlinks and deleting images

If you would like to hyperlink your image to a specific website, you can do that through the “hyperlink” icon. In order to delete an image, you can select the “trash can” icon.

You can find all of the images you have uploaded to your liveBooks website builder through the “Image Library” tab in your “Content” section. You can use the “Filter images” tool to sort through image tags (i.e.: if you tagged “Smith Wedding” in the “Tags” section of the image, you would type this into the Filter images box to see all of your images with this specific tag).

Art Becker is a multi-faceted photographer based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He believes that photography is about sharing a moment and he uses his Nikon camera with Nikkor lenses to capture his subjects. To see more of his work, visit his liveBooks website now: www.artbeckerphoto.com.

Being a photographer is my job, but it’s also a part of my life. I’m passionate about what I do and I want those who see my work to be moved by it. It’s my hope they will experience what I’ve experienced and “get” what it is I’m trying to say. If I accomplish that, my career will have been worthwhile.

The bonus is, I get to create cool moments as I go along. In some mysterious way maybe it changes a life, an outlook, a mood or even just a few minutes in the day. That is enough for me.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

AB: Simply, Creative, Graphic. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

AB: Choosing the photos that I display on my homepage is simple. The choices I make are based on the visual impact of each image. It has to have a strong composition and light to attract the viewers. The first image – the little girl peeking over the edge, the story behind it is to take a look inside. The second  – there’s beauty in the clouds, just look up. Third – out of a plane window with natural light creating the composition. And last, the magic of twilight – my favorite time of day to photograph.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

AB: How often do I change the images? At very least once a week. It’s my belief in order to keep your existing audience coming back. To attract new ones, I create new imagery for them to view.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

AB: One of the best features of my new website is that it’s easy to navigate. You simply click on portfolios and view the images of your choice. My older clients love it and new clients are sending me requests. I couldn’t ask for better results than that.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

AB: The one piece of advice if you are creating a new site is to keep it simple, make it visually driven and easy for a client to, as I say, “Find Art”.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

Get inspired as our September Spotify playlist brings you to the countryside. Whether you’re editing photographs, shooting your next big project or simply want to unwind and relax, we hope there’s something in this month’s playlist for you.

Have a song stuck on replay? Share it with us now!

Kimerlee Curyl is a photographer dedicated to capturing the beauty of wild horses. She currently resides in Santa Ynez, California with her two horses – a paint mare named Sequoia and a newly-adopted wild mustang called El Regalo. She is represented by one of the country’s largest fine art publishers, prestigious galleries, along with national, international, and celebrity collectors. Her work has been used in numerous advertising campaigns and product branding. Most importantly, it has become a small voice for those who don’t have one…our remaining wild horses. To see more of her work, visit her liveBooks8 website: www.kimerleecuryl.com.

I love all things WILD, believe ‘Art has a voice’ and am ridiculously in love with horses. That is what fuels the core of my work. If I’m not working on a gallery project, editing or out in the wild photographing our iconic wild horses in their beautiful home wild territory, I’m riding and playing with the coolest wild horse you will ever meet. Lucky for me, I’m surrounded by wild horse, the teaching and art of the horse every day of my life. Photography has been a love most of my life, taking my first class in high school and still have the project that earned me probably the only A+ that entire school year. I spent my 20s and 30s studying the art of acting in Hollywood and upon a visit to an orphanage in Tijuana in 2003 with my last coach, a 35mm camera in hand, a shift was made. I feel like I “returned” to something I was very intrigued by in my youth. Once a stunning mare entered my life in 2004 and the plight of our wild horses was revealed to me, I was captured and never looked back. Art and advocacy became my passion, photography my medium, horses my heart.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

KC: Inspiring, Contemporarily Clean (I hope anyway).

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

KC: I have been with liveBooks since 2006, the initial site layout I used until this year! Colors, sizing, fonts (and images) have changed but I not only loved the simplistic look to my site, I received many accolades regarding it, so stuck with it. With the new platform and new available templates, I wanted to change it up a bit, so it’s been a work in progress this year.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

KC: I like that I can change the homepage. If I have an opening or event coming up, it’s great to have the option to rotate what is featured here.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

KC: I have always loved the fact that I can edit without having to hire someone for each change, can update or change something in a moments notice. And while the new platform had a minor learning curve (for me), it’s now easy to navigate around. I also loved that I could incorporate my blog onto this site versus navigating away to separate site for it. Over the years with liveBooks, I have also very much appreciated the customer service I have received.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

KC: While you might be inspired by others, be unique and share your voice. That should be the heart of every artist and shine through in your website.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.