5 ideas for sorting your images into albums

5 ideas for sorting your images into albums

All images from Philip Mowbray

Are you looking for helpful tips on how to sort your images into albums? Try these 5 ideas

Albums are an excellent idea for your photography website. Not only does placing your images into albums help you organise your work into neat sets of images, but it also makes the browsing (and buying) experience much easier and more user-friendly for your visitors. A finely-curated set of images is much more appealing to look at, rather than having to scroll through hundreds of unorganised photos.

If you’re unsure what to start with when sorting your images into albums, here are five suggestions to get you started. No doubt, once you start organising your pictures like this, you’ll find a way that works ideally for you.

1 By genre or theme

This is probably the simplest way to start thinking about your work in sets or albums, sorting them by genre or theme. For example, if you shoot different styles of photography, like portrait, architecture and landscape, sort your images into albums for each. This way visitors can navigate to what they are looking for quickly and easily, and it also tidies up your portfolio.

Themes can cover all kinds of topics and can be as broad, abstract or specialist as you like. For example you could arrange albums into themes colour, subject, genre, style, medium; you can really do anything - just make sure that the theme is easily recognisable throughout.

Example of theme-based album on Orange and Teal styling

2 By location

This is particularly relevant for outdoor and travel photographers, but for any photographer really, sorting your images into albums based on location is a great idea. For example, many times when customers are looking to purchase your images to put on their wall, it's going to be of a place that they know, for example an image of the local area or a favourite holiday destination. Location information is also essential for editorial and commercial buyers, so if you're looking to market your images based on where they were taken, then you ideally should be sorting your images into location-based sets.

Location-based album of images from a trip to Kyrgyzstan

3 By image story

If you've been working on a photo essay or an image story, it's worth putting this together in an album too (particularly if you sell your images directly from your album) - even if your image story or photo essay is displayed in another way on your website. From a commercial point of view, it makes it easier for your visitors to browse and buy images, and be that little touch to help you get a sale.

Album for a long-term photo project 'Coastal North'

Join over 500,000 photographers like you who call Picfair home. Sign up free now.

4 By new images

Regular visitors to your site, or any potential new clients are often very interested in your most recent work - so having a place to display your latest images is perfect for showing off what you've been up to, it also makes you look active and busy as a photographer which is more appealing to customers too, and can, in-turn, help you increase sales. Just remember to keep it regularly updated!

Album of new images recently added to the store

5 By most popular, or bestsellers

If you've got a selection of images that you know are your most-viewed, most-popular, or best-selling, then absolutely put these into a specific album (and preferably, make it a featured album, or your first album on the page). The idea behind this is that having a bestseller set gives visitors increased confidence and incentives to buy your work as it shows you're tried and tested with customers, which instantly helps you up your chances of selling images.

Mixed album of bestselling images