Firm photos for your website and Google profile: portraits, rights, technology

Why your own photos achieve more than stock images

Anyone looking for a firm is looking for a person they can trust with a divorce, a tax audit or the sale of a house. On the home page, the team page and the Google profile, people look at faces first. The smiling model with a headset or the scales of Justice against a blue sky are familiar to visitors from dozens of other sites. Such images say nothing about your firm, and some even seem dishonest when completely different people sit at the table at the first appointment.

Then there is professional law: all chamber professions may only provide factual and truthful information. A stock photo showing a large team in a glass office, when you actually work alone in a period apartment, creates a false impression. Your own photos are therefore not only more likeable but also safer.

Which motifs you need

Half a day with a photographer is enough for most firms. Plan the motifs in advance so that you don't end up with twenty almost identical portraits and not a single picture of the entrance on the memory card.

• Individual portraits of all professionals and of employees with client contact, each in portrait and landscape format, with a calm, consistent background.
• One or two group photos, and for small firms also a picture of two people in conversation.
• Work situations, such as a meeting at the table, staged with colleagues rather than with real clients.
• Entrance and facade, so that clients can find the door at their first appointment. This picture also belongs in the Google profile.
• Meeting room and reception, tidy and in daylight.
• Details that suit the firm: the door plate, a bookshelf, the view. They break up pages without seeming generic.

Briefing the photographer properly

Usage rights: what the contract must say

Paying for a photo does not give you all the rights to it. The copyright stays with the photographer; you receive usage rights, in Germany under § 31 UrhG, in Austria as a licence (Werknutzungsbewilligung) or exclusive right of use (Werknutzungsrecht) under § 24 UrhG. Anything not expressly agreed is, in case of doubt, not granted. So clarify in writing:

Consent of employees

A portrait is personal data, and a picture of a person may not simply be published. In Germany, § 22 KUG requires the consent of the person depicted; in Austria, § 78 UrhG protects their legitimate interests. On top of that comes the GDPR. So obtain written consent from everyone who is photographed, naming the specific uses: website, Google profile, social media, print.

In an employment relationship, voluntariness is a delicate point. Make it clear that no one has to take part and that saying no has no consequences. Consent under the GDPR can be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR). Whoever withdraws disappears from the website; you don't have to pulp brochures that have already been printed.

No files, no screens

The duty of confidentiality applies to pictures too. A file spine with a client's name on the shelf, a readable tax assessment on the table or a screen showing an open client account is a breach, even if it is only visible when strongly enlarged. High-resolution photos can be zoomed into a long way, and Google profile pictures are visible to everyone.

For notaries, the presentation should additionally remain factual. Photos of the notary, the team and the premises are unproblematic; staged advertising pictures with slogans are not. More on this in the articles on advertising for notaries in Austria and in Germany.

Image size, format and alt texts

Photos are usually the largest part of a web page. A portrait straight from the camera at 8 MB makes the team page load slowly on a phone, and Google rates slow pages worse. Ask the photographer for a web version alongside the originals, or reduce the images yourself.

Every image with content needs an alt text: screen readers read it aloud, it appears when an image does not load, and it helps Google understand the image. Describe what can be seen, for example “Lawyer Mag. Eva Huber at the meeting table”, instead of piling up keywords such as “lawyer divorce Vienna best firm”. Purely decorative images get an empty alt attribute so that screen readers skip them. Why this also matters legally is explained in the article on accessibility; how images affect loading time is covered in the guide on page speed.

A consistent look

A team of seven portraits taken over five years by three photographers looks like a patchwork. So decide once how your pictures should look, and write the guidelines down so that new colleagues can be photographed to match later.

Use the same portraits in your email signature, on LinkedIn and at talks, so that people recognise you everywhere. What should appear next to the photo on the team page is described in the article The firm's team page; which photos belong in the Google profile is covered in the guide to the Google Business Profile.