livebooks blog

You might have noticed the images on your website display different colors depending on the browser you’re viewing them from, or whether you’re using a mobile device. The differences are subtle and they are more in the lines of saturation, but they’re there. And while you don’t know what device your clients are using or whether their screens are calibrated, you need to do your best when saving your images for the web to reach a satisfying compromise. The source of these slip-ups can be tracked down to how your images are converted and whether or not they contain an ICC profile.

sRGB and ICC Profile

In the pre-mobile times, all monitors and browsers were presented with pretty much the same color scheme – Standard Red Green Blue. If you saved your images in sRGB, it was likely your images looked the same on all browser desktop versions and on all monitors.

Now, with the introduction of tablets and smartphones, another layer of identifying and displaying color has become available, but only on desktop – the ICC Profile. You must enable the Color Profile in your image editor software when you save the image for web. This will enable all browsers to read your image settings as they truly are, and thus, display them correctly.

Alas, the mobile devices still use mainly sRGB, with the exception of Safari for iOS, which also reads ICC Profiles. So before you save the image, make sure to convert it to sRBG.

The Firefox singularity

While Firefox is designed to interpret ICC profiles, its default display values are as of this time inaccurate. Perhaps a future update will fix this value, but for now, here’s what you ca do to force the browser to read the proper ICC profiles.

Write about:config in the address bar and gfx in the search bar that appears below. Look for gfx.color_management.mode and click on it to change the value from 2 to 1.

This will activate a complete color management in Firefox and if your images contain ICC profiles they should be displayed correctly on your monitor.

Unfortunately, until there will be a unification of display settings for all monitors and all browsers and platforms, small differences are bound to appear. And since you cannot control what device your clients are using when viewing your images, you have to do your best to set them up in the most common format: saving them in sRGB and adding an ICC Profile to each of them.

Whether you have a team of hard-working employees supporting you or you’re just venturing into the business world on your own so far, your website’s About page matters.

Studies show that in nearly every industry, the About page is one of the most visited pages on any company’s website. Why? Because every type of customer almost always wants to connect with a business before purchasing something from them.

And since it’s so important to get it right, it’s also probably why so many of us often struggle to find the right balance of being both informational and engaging!

If you’re in the process of creating content for your website’s About page, here are a few tips to help you figure out what you’d like it to say — and how to do so in a way that will help generate more leads for your business.

Quality Over Quantity

This rule applies to every web page, but is especially important for your About page.

Many websites out there overdo it by providing far too much content in order to describe a company’s history, values, goals, leadership background information, and more.

Although we initially may think that providing the most information is the best step for having the greatest impact, too much content can actually have the opposite effect and turn away people from your business.

Instead of writing out all the details that may relate to the business, focus on the most important information your ideal customer’s would want to know. If this is hard for you to achieve with an unbiased perspective, consider drafting up information as best you can and then asking for a few “outsiders” (such as close friends or family) to give you their advice and opinions for revision.

Get Personal

One mistake companies tend to make in regards to their website content is that they avoid being too personal. In contrast, some of the most successful online businesses out there today are the ones that do a great job of making personal connections with their audiences.

This is especially vital to your website if you are a local business trying to reach members in your own community. Remember: people want to do business with those they know, like and trust. How can they learn to like (or love) your business if they can’t connect with you on at least a small personal level?

Don’t be afraid to talk about why your work matters to you personally, what type of impact your organization is hoping to have on the local community, or the values you want your company to uphold.

Introduce Yourselves

As human beings, we’re all very visual creatures, so it’s a smart idea to utilize photos to connect with your ideal customers on your About page.

Include photographs of the owner, leadership or managers, team members, and even behind-the-scenes photos if appropriate! This allows any potential customers visiting your website on the web to learn a little more about who makes up your organization, and allows them to put a face to a name should they ever call, email or communicate with people within your team.

Focus on Your Audience

A great About page also makes sure to bring attention to the questions and concerns of a company’s audience. Talk about why your customers may be searching for answers or address their current challenges.

When you start an About page with this in mind, you’ll be able to do more than talk about yourself: you’ll connect with your audience right from the start by acknowledging their needs, and not just yours.

Tell Your Story with an Impactful Website

liveBooks offers stunning, customizable website templates for wedding industry professionals and creatives.

Impress your potential clients with a visually stunning website that is ready for search engines and looks great on any mobile device!

We’ve also got a top-notch support team who’s here to help you every step of the way. Start for free today!

Despite how easy it is to add new galleries or new photographs to existing ones, some websites carry old content and updates get postponed. The major culprit is having no spare time to add new work online. While time may not be on your side, the liveBooks platform is – enter the multi user tool.

The multiple user feature is an excellent tool that enables you to give access to admins and contributors who can make changes to your website as per your requests. They will sign in with their own credentials and you choose what role they will have – some can have full access, while some can only make changes to your website without the ability to publish. This way you can have the last word and choose whether or not to publish those changes.

You can find this feature in your site settings, under Users & Roles. To add a new user, simply click Add User, fill in their email address and set a role for them. Here’s the break-down of the 5 types of users that can be linked to your website.

1. Owner: This is you – the one who pays for the site subscription and the first user who can establish other user roles. It has full access to the dashboard and has the ability to publish.
2. Admin: User has full access to the dashboard and the ability to publish.
3. Content Only: User can access and make changes to the content, but they cannot publish.
4. Design Only: User can access and make changes to the design, but they cannot publish.
5. Contributor – Content and Design: User can access and make changes both in content and design, but they cannot publish.

As you can see, there’s a wide array of roles you can entrust people with to ensure that while your business is prolific, it also shows on your website. Whether you need to keep your portfolios organized, or just need a little spring cleaning now and then, this tool allows you to delegate an assistant while you are out creating new stunning work.

One of the best feelings in the world as a photographer is capturing memories and emotions for your clients that they’ll be able to look back on for years to come.

And as the artist who created it, you’re bound to feel personally invested in every single image you’ve provided to your clients.

However, this doesn’t mean all of the photos are website-worthy.

When it comes to showcasing yourself and your work online, there are a few key things you should remember, including quality, efficiency and branding. If you aren’t sure how these factors play into choosing the right photos for your photography website, we have some tips to help you:

1. Place Yourself in a Client’s Shoes

When someone browses the web for the ideal photographer for their needs — whether it be wedding photography, newborn images, or their annual family photos — they should see photos that speak to your brand and niche.

This requires you to know your photography business well enough to know who your ideal customers are and what you want your company to be remembered by.

If your ideal customers are expecting mothers looking for a maternity and/or newborn photographer, and you aren’t all that interested in weddings, high school senior portraits or commercial photography, focus primarily (or only!) on the photography areas you want to do more of! Cut back or avoid placing photos on your website altogether that are from projects you aren’t interested in doing more of in the future.

2. Choose the best images out of your entire portfolio.

Just because you have thousands of images on file from dozens of sessions doesn’t mean they all belong on the web. Take some time to look through your past photography sessions to find the absolute best 2-3 images from each session.

You may love all the images you’ve ever taken, but challenge yourself to hone in on the ones that are sharp in focus, have great composition, beautiful colors, emotion, and/or the right amount of lighting — no matter how “long” it took to capture or edit them. Focus on quality of work, not amount of time spent to create the image.

Why? First, your potential clients want to see your best work and there’s no need to overwhelm them with hundreds of photos. Second, the more photos you have on your website, the more your site load speed will be slow. This ultimately hinders the user experience and will hurt your website’s search engine optimization as well.

3. Ask for a second opinion.

If you really struggle with attempting to be unbiased in your photograph selection for your portfolio, narrow down as much as you can and then ask a friend or family member to give you their thoughts. You may be surprised to see which ones they love most!

Optimizing Your Images

Have your top choices for your website portfolio, but want to make sure they don’t take up too much space and slow your site down? Head on over to our other post, SEO Best Practices for Website Images to learn how!

Showcase Your Work on a Beautiful Website

liveBooks offers stunning, customizable website templates for wedding industry professionals and creatives.

Impress your potential clients with a visually stunning website that is ready for search engines and looks great on any mobile device!

We’ve also got a top-notch support team who’s here to help you every step of the way. Start for free today!