How to collect photos for your website redesign

Most owners have more usable photos for a website redesign than they think. They are spread across a phone, a Facebook page, the old site, a Google Business Profile and an employee's camera roll. Collecting them is mostly a sorting job: gather what you have, pick the best, fill a few gaps with new pictures, and make sure everyone in them is fine with being online.

Start with the photos you already have

Before you take a single new picture, go through these places. Put everything you find into one folder on your computer, or one album on your phone, so nothing gets lost.

Your phone's camera roll. Search it by place or by words like "kitchen" or "roof"; most phones can find photos by what is in them. Scroll back through a few busy months.
Your old website. The designer may have the original files. If not, your new site builder can often take the photos straight from the current site, so you may not need to download them yourself.
Facebook and Instagram. Photos you posted there are yours, but social sites shrink them. If you still have the originals on your phone, use those instead.
Your Google Business Profile. Check which photos you uploaded. Photos customers uploaded are theirs; do not reuse those without asking.
Staff and family. Employees often photograph finished jobs for their own pride. Ask them to send their best. A spouse who helped at the shop opening may have the only good picture of the storefront.
Old print material. Brochures, ads and signs sometimes used a professional photo you paid for. Ask the printer or designer if they kept the file.

If your site will be rebuilt by someone else, tell them where the photos live before you start downloading. Saving them for a builder who already has them is wasted evening.

What to pick: a simple sort

Once the folder is full, sort into three piles. You can do this on a phone with albums, or on a computer with folders.

Use. Sharp, well lit, shows your work, your place or your people. Nothing embarrassing in the background.
Maybe. Good subject, weak photo. Keep these in case there is nothing better.
No. Blurry, dark, a customer's face you cannot ask about, a car's license plate in clear view, a competitor's truck in the shot.

A small business site usually needs fewer photos than people expect: one strong picture for the top of the home page, one or two per service, a picture of you or your team, and some examples of finished work. Twenty good photos beat two hundred average ones.

Fill the gaps with a short shot list

After sorting, you will see what is missing. Here is the list most local businesses end up needing. Tick off what you already have and shoot only the rest.

You. A friendly, clear photo of the owner, ideally at work. This goes on the About page and builds more trust than any logo.
The team, if you have one. Together, in uniform or at the shop.
Your place, from the outside, as a customer sees it arriving. For a shop or studio, also the inside on a good day.
Your vehicle or equipment, if customers will see it at their door. A clean truck with the name on the side tells them who to expect.
Work in progress. Hands doing the job: a stylist cutting, a mechanic under the hood, a baker shaping dough.
Finished work, one photo per service you list. For trades that transform something, consider pairs; our guide on before-and-after photos covers how to show them.

For how to take these well on a phone, with light, angles and framing, see how to take good photos for your website with a phone. If you have almost no photos at all, read a website for a business with no photos yet before you worry.

Who needs to agree before a photo goes online

This is the step owners skip, and the one that causes awkward phone calls later. A few plain rules most businesses follow:

Employees. Ask before putting a staff member's face on the website, and take them off if they leave and ask you to. A quick text saying "OK to use this on our website?" with their reply is a simple record.
Customers and their homes. A photo of a finished kitchen is a photo of someone's house. Ask the homeowner. Many say yes happily; some will ask you not to show the house number or the outside. Crop or skip accordingly.
Children. Do not use photos of other people's children without a parent's clear permission. Many businesses simply leave children out.
Photos you did not take. A photographer usually owns the copyright to a picture even when you paid for the shoot, unless the contract says otherwise. Check you are allowed to use it on a website. Pictures found on Google or another business's site are not yours to use. Our guide on photo permission and pictures you find online goes further.

If a photo raises any doubt, leave it out. There will be another one. For anything formal, like model releases for an advertising campaign, ask your attorney what your situation needs.

How to send photos to whoever builds the site

Send originals, not screenshots or social media copies. Originals are larger and sharper. From an iPhone or Android phone, sharing through email may shrink them; a shared album or a cloud folder link keeps full size.
Use one shared folder or album. Google Photos, iCloud shared albums, Dropbox or OneDrive all work. One link is easier than thirty emails.
Name or caption the important ones. "Bathroom remodel, Maple Street, finished 2025" helps the builder put the right photo on the right page.
Mark the favorites. If one picture must be on the home page, say so.
Say which ones need care. "Do not show the house number" or "crop out the customer" saves a correction round.

What to do this week

Make one folder or album called "Website photos".
Spend an hour pulling in photos from your phone, social pages, old site and staff.
Sort into Use, Maybe and No.
Write your gap list from the shot list above, and take the missing photos on the next clear day.
Text anyone who appears in a "Use" photo and ask if it is fine to put it online.

If your current site already has photos and you want to see them used well before collecting more, you can see your site rebuilt first and then decide which gaps are worth filling.