Choosing images for your farm website and emails
Whether you’re working with Grapevine or on your own to set up a website or email marketing for your farm, you may be wondering which photos to select and how large they should be. Will your existing photos work? What should be in your photos? Read on to learn our tips!
On our waitlist? Pics take time to gather, so you can get started on this and a few other items while you wait for your spot. Learn more about preparing for a successful website kickoff and download our handy checklist!
What kinds of photos should I share across my farm website and emails?
Daily farm life
Show your customers what a day on the farm is like! Include shots of your farm’s:
Animals & farm practices: Use photos to show customers which livestock you raise and how they are raised.
Landscapes: Showing customers what your farm looks like can help bring it to life and differentiate you from other places they could be shopping.
Team & action shots: Photos of your operation, including team members and chores, can help build a personal connection.
And more! Share any photos with us that you believe represent your farm, values, and offerings. Authenticity is more important than a perfectly staged photo. One of our farms was concerned about using a team photo from the middle of the work day where everyone looked a bit grubby, but that photo turned out to be the most-clicked in our ad campaign! It captured a moment where you could see the joy of the subjects, and it really connected with the audience because it was genuine.
Friendly faces
Including pictures of the farmers and team behind your business will be critical to the success of your farm website. People photos let customers know who they’ll be supporting through their purchases and help them feel good about becoming your customer. Include a group photo and/or individual team member photos, with some taken outdoors if possible. If you’re a family-run farm, sharing a photo of the entire family is fantastic.
Candid photos can be nice, but we recommend including at least a few shots where the subjects are smiling and looking directly into the camera. Photos with eye contact have been shown to stop viewers creating a pause in scrolling and creating a stronger opportunity for them to engage with the content.
When designing a newsletter template for your farm, we like to include a custom email signature that features a photo of the 1 or 2 people who will most commonly be signing newsletters. For this, we’ll ask for an individual headshot of each person OR one photo with both people, if two will be signing. Ideally, we’ll want the subjects in these photos smiling and looking directly at the camera, to build and help solidify a relationship with your email subscribers.
Food & Ingredients
Having your own photos of the food you raise, whether that’s produce, raw cuts of meat, or cooked food, will help build the connection with potential customers. Again, authenticity is more important than a perfectly staged photo, although you want to make sure it looks appetizing. Natural lighting can make a big difference, and you can check out more farm photography tips.
What size should my photos be?
If you’re working on your own farm website or email project, you’ll want to optimize your photo sizes for fast load time. You might also want to crop them. Check out our post about how to crop and re-size your photos, which includes our suggested sizes.
If you’re working with Grapevine, you’ll send us the largest files you have, and then we will resize and optimize the file sizes and load time for the website. The larger the starting image, the better!
The best practice is to use the original photo — not a copy that has been pulled off a social media account or from an email, as uploading or sending a file multiple times affects its quality and resolution.
As a general rule of thumb, look for photo files that are at least 600 KB — many will be 1 or 2 MB. We'll be happy to confirm photos are the right size and resolution once we've received all content.
If there’s an image you really like and aren’t sure if it’s too small, feel free to share it with us and we can take a closer look. We might have some ideas on how we can incorporate it, even if it’s too small for typical uses.
What orientation should my photos be?
For websites and email, there are more options for using horizontal images than vertical ones, so share as many horizontal photos as possible – these are best suited for both your website and emails across all screen sizes. We can typically find ways to incorporate a few vertical or square photos, as well. (If we’ll be working together on ads after your website is done, we can use a mix of square, vertical, and horizontal photos.)
What if I don’t have enough photos?
If you find yourself short on large-enough images of your farm, you might want to consider:
Venturing out and taking more photos – check out DIY photography resources.
Licensing stock photography – we can help!
Hiring a professional photographer — explore our directory of farm photographers for options in your area.
More free resources for farm marketing
