Photography should never be decoration: it can radically improve how well you communicate online.
Most web browsers still have a setting to turn off images. This is a legacy 'feature' from the days when the internet was so slow that images took an age to appear, and people had to wait for the text to appear as a result. So much for a picture being worth a thousand words.
Photography, like all graphic media, should play an active role in communication, not be peripheral decoration. Yet all-too-often websites use it to 'jazz-up' pages that would otherwise be filled with text alone. Pictures are chosen for their decorative impact, not their communicative value.
Not every site should use photographs. They are not the visual solve-all they are made out to be. But when they are used well, as an inherent part of the brand personality, their effect can be dramatic. A single photograph can have a greater influence on how a brand is perceived than almost any other on-screen element.
Even a casual glance around the internet will demonstrate the photograph-as-decoration approach in use widely. Countless pages are decorated with endless photographs that communicate absolutely nothing at all. 'Turn off images' suddenly feels like a blessing.
Photography should be used to communicate. It is one of the most powerful visual tools available to us, as it can be effective on many levels, from emotional to instructional.
Using photography well is not the same as using good photography. Even the best photographs need to be bought or commissioned to a clear brief, with a clear role to play in the visual language scheme.
Determining the role you want photography to play is crucial, as small changes in its use can dramatically alter the effect it has on customers. It is highly flexible, and as a result needs to be used carefully.
For example, cropping a photograph in different ways will significantly alter its role. Take a very people-focused business: using tightly-cropped images of people looking directly to camera might create the impression of a confident business. Use the wrong people and it slips into arrogant. Use the same people shown sitting at a desk and the business feels more relaxed and approachable, but less cutting-edge.
Most images used online are used quite small (compared to their printed equivalents), so highly detailed scenes tend not to work as well as simpler, tighter crops. However, stretch an image across an entire page header and a visual of a crowd of thousands could work well.
Black and white imagery still conveys stature and integrity in a way that is hard to achieve with colour, and is regularly used for shooting 'the members of the board'. Use it with more edgy content and it becomes cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute modern.
Never underestimate the value and impact of a high-quality static image on its viewer. When used as part of a recurring theme throughout a site, customers will gradually absorb the message behind the images and will leave with a much stronger perception of what that brand stands for.
Photography is still an art form, but it is the closest to being a tangible, measurable one. It can deliver an influential message to your customers that no other form of content can: nothing can replace a powerful image, shot with intelligence and sensitivity to its ultimate context.
In a redesign project, it would be easy to see photography as a stand-alone saviour: add in some great new images and the site will be immediately transformed. Clearly, photography can have a major role to play in many sites, but not all, and its use should be focused on achieving a clear goal. This can be practical, 'showing off our products', or influential, 'we're a young, dynamic business', or both.
There are almost endless possibilities, and few of the old internet rules apply any more. Today, thanks to improving bandwidth and better compression technologies, photography can be used as a major part of the user experience and can deliver powerful visual messages to every customer.
The days when people turned off images for speed reasons are coming to an end: the challenge now is keep them switched on to valuable, influential parts of your brand personality.