When thinking about Functional Medicine Practice Photography for websites, the focus should be all about being natural and clean, so your photography should reflect that. I look functional medicine practice website all the time and the one thing that is lacking in 99% of cases is good photography.

First and foremost, let’s hope we have a decent day for the photoshoot. I think we can all agree that if 3 days out from the shoot, the weather is forecast to be miserable then you should reschedule. Here are three major things to consider before you even start taking photographs for your website.

Firstly, create a shot-list that you will require from your photographer (or even if you are doing it yourself). This will give the photographer a good idea of what is required from them before they arrive. This should include office shots, personal shots, group shots, outdoor shots, nature shots and even immersive panoramic  shots.

Secondly, you need to make it clear to the photographer that you want the majority of photos taken in landscape mode. This is because any good landscape photo can easily be made into a portrait, but never the other way around. Landscape photos can also be used in a variety of ways and they also provide better depth in any photo, particularly outdoor photos in a natural environment. So that means 90+% of all photos should be landscape and preference for widescreen views with the subjects rarely in the center of the picture.

Finally, you want to make it clear in writing that you will own all rights to the photography. You should of course give some kind of credit somewhere on your website to the photographer, just as a matter of respect for their profession, but not on every picture. I cannot stress how important this is.

Functional Medicine Practice Photography

You are in the business of a natural approach to medicine, so your website should reflect this. Clean copy, use of easy to read fonts, white backgrounds and great photography should be what you are all about. You do not need to hire a professional photographer for every photo, but for your main photos (unless you are experienced) you should seriously consider a professional. Functional Medicine practitioners are different, you have a different approach to medicine, so think differently when it comes to your practices photography!

Discard the old ideas about just the subject with a white coat and stethoscope against a beige wall. Although internal professional shots are important, get outside, into the community, an art district, local farms, local parks, and farmers markets. Yes get the white coat and stethoscope shots, but the majority of them should be about being outside and in the community.

Also, consider a lot of photos where you or your team are in the photos, but not the main subject. Remember, you have photos you need for static pages on your website, but any great Functional Medicine Practice website has fresh blog posts going up regularly, and it will be great to have photos you can use for those posts as well. Unique photos also score higher in SEO than clipart or stock photos used a million times. Search engines love unique content, be unique in all your content, not just your text!

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Portrait Photos

Great portrait photos are not always just about the subject. The subject may be against a wall, but that would should never be beige and should never have subject shadows. Portrait photography doesn’t have to be indoors either, contrast the subject with a great background, whether it be in a park, at the market, or at a farm, think differently.

Think about color, if your subject is in a white coat, then put them against a contrasting color (say sea blue) wall. Get at least 10 photos of each subject in different positions, left, right, center etc.

Some ideas for portrait photos.

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Group Photos

There is nothing worse than having a great group photo where a staff member leaves your employ – all of the sudden. As I manage many Functional Medicine Practice websites, I find the biggest problem with group photos, is that from time to time, someone departs and you have to start over again.

I find the best way (and there is no real way out of it) is to have a few total group photos and then break them up into divisions, practitioners, nutrition staff, administrative etc. Even for total group, take one person out of each shot – that way in the short term you will have a variety of group photos.

Some ideas for group photos

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Individual Photos

Now lets think about individual photos. Yes, we have the portraits taken care of, so we are now into some more individual style photos for each of your staff members. We, of course want office photos, at the desk with a patient (back of) , reviewing documents, but think about on laptop at local cafe, walking through a local farms market, talking to a local farmer, in a park or reading a book.

The idea is to set your subject in as many natural environments as possible. Get a little edgy (not corny) with your photos and get them smiling when they need to be smiling and concentrating when they need to be concentrating.

Some ideas for individual photos

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Office Photos

Office photos do not need to be boring photos. Yes, you need the basics, desk, phone, laptop, book etc. But get the photographer to follow them around taking shots, talking to staff, walking into front door, reading on a chair, looking out a window and researching documents.

Some ideas for office photos

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Immersive Panoramic Photos

If your website is having/has a featured slider with links to various areas of your website, you want to have what I call ‘immersive panoramic photos’, these maybe group shots, location shots, drone shots or even just nature shots. If you are having a featured slider you need to make sure photographer takes a few true widescreen photos.

If you have subjects in photo, their heads need to be nearly all level. if the photos are not in a true panorama style it will be difficult to fit it all in the slider.

Some Panorama ideas

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Natural Photos

Finally, lets think about natural photos. These are ones we will want to use in blog posts. Your photographer can take a bunch of these, but it is up to you, or someone on your team that you should be assigned to the task of taking photography on a regular basis. Natural photos should be about the environment, not the subject. I like it when one of your team is in the photo, but not obvious, make them a only a part of the scene. Whether they be at the market, a coffee shop, have a compact camera handy to shoot at a whim. Get them to catalog photos online into albums (or as Google Photos calls them, ‘collections’) and then always have them shared with you and your team for use at anytime on the website.

I have around 60,000 photos/videos of my travels over the years, all stored securely online with Google Photos (more on this shortly). Your blog posts photos never need to be about the subject (although sometimes it does help), they should be about complementing the article and making your website fresh and professional.

Functional Medicine Practice Photography – Google Photos

First things first, it is free with any Google Account. Google Photos allows you to back up and store thousands of photos for free. You can upload photos (hundreds at a time) and then create an album for each upload. Then you can create a link to each album to share them with your webmaster or team. Google automatically enhances photos and from time to time creates a variety of additional photos from the ones you have already uploaded. This may take the form of an animation, collage, or even movies. Add Google Photos to any phone, be it your Android or Apple. Google Photos bests Apple’s somewhat primitive photo storage system considerably.

There you have it, be prepared, own your content and reap the rewards.