A photography portfolio website should include a tightly edited selection of your best work, grouped by the kind of job you want to be hired for, plus four things many photographers leave out: one clear line about what you shoot and where, an honest signal of what you cost, proof from past clients, and an inquiry button that is never more than a thumb away. Fewer, better images and more practical information will win you more work than a bigger gallery.
The short version
- An opening image and one sentence: what you shoot, for whom, and where.
- Galleries organized by genre or client type, 15 to 30 images each.
- A page for each significant project or series, with a few lines of context.
- An about page with a photo of you and a description of how you work.
- Services with prices, starting prices, or a clear explanation of how quotes work.
- Proof: attributed testimonials, publication credits, client names you're allowed to share.
- An inquiry page that asks the right questions.
- Images exported at web sizes, so pages load quickly on a phone.
- Page titles and gallery text that match what clients actually search for.
If you're putting together a photography portfolio website from scratch, work through that list in order. It's also roughly the order in which a client meets your site.
Edit harder than feels comfortable
The edit is the portfolio. A client can't tell that a weaker frame is old, or was a favor for a friend; they assume any image on your site is something you might deliver to them. So your portfolio is judged by its weakest picture, not its best.
A practical way to edit:
- Pull every image you'd consider showing into one folder. Be generous at this stage.
- Remove near-duplicates. If two frames show the same moment, keep one.
- Remove anything that needs an explanation to work, such as "the light was impossible that day".
- Remove work in a style you no longer shoot or no longer want to be booked for.
- Sequence what's left, then leave it alone for a day and cut again.
- Show the result to another working photographer or a photo editor, not to a friend who will say it's all great.
For most genres, 15 to 30 images per gallery is enough to show consistency and range without repeating yourself. A commercial gallery can be shorter if every image is for a different client. A wedding or event story can be longer, because there the length itself is the proof.
Sequence like a printed book, not a social feed: alternate wide, medium and detail frames, pair vertical images side by side, keep the grade consistent, and open and close each gallery with images strong enough to stand alone.
Organize galleries by the work you sell
Galleries named "Favorites", "2025" or "Misc" tell a client nothing. Name them after what a client would hire you for, and make sure each one proves the specific thing that client worries about.
| Genre | What the gallery has to prove | What to add |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding | You deliver the whole day, including dark receptions and harsh noon light | Complete wedding stories, not only highlights |
| Portrait | You can direct people who aren't models | A range of ages, skin tones and session types |
| Product | Consistent lighting across a whole product line | Full sets shot for one client, not scattered singles |
| Food | Food looks appetizing and the color is accurate | Credits for the stylist and the restaurant or brand |
| Real estate | Straight verticals, balanced windows, every room covered | A complete property set and your turnaround time |
| Event | Coverage, timing and speed under pressure | The type and size of each event, and your delivery time |
If you shoot two genres with different buyers, such as weddings and commercial product work, give each its own clear entry point from the home page, or even its own site. A brand manager looking for product shots doesn't want to scroll past a first dance.
Write an about page that sounds like a person
People hire photographers they think they'll get along with, especially for portraits, weddings and family sessions, where you're in the room for hours. The about page is often where they decide.
Include:
- A photo of you, ideally at work.
- One or two sentences on how you shoot: directed or documentary, natural light or flash, quick or unhurried.
- Where you're based and where you travel.
- Who you usually work with, in specific terms: "independent restaurants and food brands", or "couples marrying in the Alentejo".
- Something true about you that isn't photography, kept short.
Skip the story about your first camera. Every photographer has one, and it doesn't help a client decide.
Say something concrete about price
Hiding your prices brings inquiries from people who could never afford you, while the people who could are left guessing. A price signal is a filter that saves both sides time.
Pick the level of detail that fits your genre:
- A full price list suits standardized services: headshot sessions, mini sessions, real estate shoots priced by property size.
- Starting prices, such as "collections from [amount]", suit weddings, portraits and family work, where the final number depends on hours and extras.
- An explanation of how quotes work suits commercial jobs. Say what drives the price (number of images, shoot days, usage and licensing, retouching, production) and give a typical range if you can.
Whatever you choose, list what's included: hours of coverage, a rough number of edited images, delivery time, retouching level and travel. Clients compare photographers line by line, and the one who explains most clearly often wins even when they aren't the cheapest.
Show proof a client can believe
Proof is anything that lowers the risk of hiring you. Roughly from strongest to weakest:
- Named clients and publications, if you're allowed to name them.
- Testimonials attributed to a real person (a first name and some context, with permission) that describe what it was like to work with you. One that mentions how you handled a rained-out ceremony is worth more than ten that say the photos were amazing.
- Links to reviews on third-party sites, such as your Google Business Profile or a wedding directory.
Put a short testimonial next to the gallery it relates to, not only on a separate page few people open.
Make inquiring the easiest thing on the site
Put a button in the navigation with a specific label: "Check your date", "Book a session" or "Request a quote". "Contact" works, but it leaves the client to work out what happens next.
On the inquiry page, ask only for what you need to send a useful first reply: the type of shoot, the date or timeframe, the location, a rough budget, and how they found you. Show your email address as plain text too, since some commercial clients would rather write a normal email, and say when to expect a reply.
Keep images sharp and pages fast
A photography site is mostly image weight, and a slow opening image loses people before they've seen your work. The web.dev guide to Largest Contentful Paint treats 2.5 seconds or less as good, and on a portfolio page the largest element is almost always your first photograph.
- Export at display size. A full-width image rarely needs more than about 2,500 pixels on the long edge. Your full-resolution original is for print.
- Export in sRGB. It's the color space the web assumes, and wide-gamut files can look dull or oversaturated depending on the screen and app.
- Compress sensibly. JPEG or WebP at a medium-high quality setting is usually indistinguishable from the original at screen size.
- Lazy-load images below the first screen, but never the opening image.
- Skip right-click blockers and big watermarks. They don't stop a determined copier, and they make your work look worse to everyone else. A small credit in a corner is enough if you want one.
Then open the site on your own phone, on mobile data, and scroll through a full gallery. That one test catches more problems than any tool.
Help clients find you on Google
Clients looking for a photographer usually search for a genre plus a place: "wedding photographer Porto", "headshots Manchester", "food photographer Austin". Your site should use those words plainly, where they belong:
- The home page title and main heading name your genre and location, and the title includes your name for people who search for you directly.
- Each gallery or project page has its own title, such as "Vineyard wedding in the Douro Valley" rather than "Gallery 3".
- Every gallery has a short paragraph of real text: where it was, what kind of shoot, what the client needed. A page that's only images gives search engines very little to work with.
- File names and alt text describe the photo in plain words ("couple walking through an olive grove at sunset"), not a list of keywords. Google's image SEO best practices cover both.
- If you work locally, keep a Google Business Profile whose name, area and contact details match your site.
Building yours
If you'd rather not assemble all this from a template, the photography portfolio builder opens FNJ's AI builder with a starter prompt for photographers: add a reference site whose pacing you like, describe your genre and city, and it designs each page at desktop, tablet and phone widths with spaces for your own photos. It has no store, booking calendar or client galleries, so link those from a button to the tools you already use, then export the code and host it wherever you like.
Frequently asked questions
How many photos should a photography portfolio have?
Aim for 15 to 30 images per gallery and three to six galleries in total. A smaller set where every frame is strong is more convincing than a large one with weak images, because clients judge you by the weakest picture they see.
Should photographers put prices on their website?
Some signal of price helps: a full price list for standardized sessions, starting prices for weddings and portraits, or an explanation of how quotes work for commercial jobs. It filters out inquiries that won't fit and gives serious clients the confidence to write.
Should I watermark my portfolio images?
Usually not. Large watermarks distract from the work and don't stop determined copying; exporting at web size and adding a small credit, if you want one, is a better balance.
Do I need a separate website for each type of photography?
Not always. If your genres share buyers, such as portraits and family sessions, one site with separate galleries works well; if the buyers are very different, such as couples and product brands, separate entry points or separate sites help each audience feel the site is for them.