Anyone that knows me is aware that I’m a little bit keen on photography. I also have a passing interest in web development so combining the two is like a double rainbow of design goodness.
After scouring a few web galleries I’ve found a few recent examples of where it has really worked.
The first is an example is catering website, catercater.co.uk. A fantastic example of mouthwatering pictures of gorgeous food, nice and large on the home page. This is followed up with more images throughout the site, the white backgrounds and bright colours complementing the design perfectly.
The next site has some fantastic photography used to great effect. The gritty effect with vingnetting and high contrast gives a consistent rugged atmosphere suitable for hiking gear. Especially like the resizing fading background images on the home page. Lovely.
http://www.devold.com/outdoor/
The Mid Century Modernist site is a great example of how simple design elements (the header font, the strong coloured sections) mix well with great photography. The high quality images portray the products well, and thegallery (once loaded) is a treat.
http://midcenturymodernist.com/
The reason these sites work well is due to the quality of images and a consistent theme. When sites start grabbing generic stock images that are poor quality, don’t hang together and don’t make any sense, that’s when it starts to go wrong.
The following article is an interesting look at how subtle changes in photos can make a huge difference to a design actually working. By simply changing the image to look towards the content, the effectiveness of the design is improved.
http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/04/how-a-pretty-face-can-push-visitors-away/
And just to remind you how bad stock photography can get…
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bad+stock+photography