Photography

The right imagery can help convey a sense of place and the personality of Whitman College. When using photography either online or in print, make sure that the photos do more than just add visual interest—they should work hand-in-hand with your text to convey your message.

Follow these guidelines when selecting photos:

In general, preference candid shots over photographs that look overly staged.
Avoid passive shots, such as people sitting at a table in a meeting.
Crop and resize the photos as necessary to make sure they fit well in the intended space.
Avoid stock photos. Instead, see our public gallery of downloadable photos. Don't see what you need? Use the photo request form to ask for something specific.
Never assume that you can reuse a photo you find on the internet. Only use photos that are college property, that you have a license for or that you have permission to use.

Photos in Print Materials

Select a photo that's large enough to fill the intended space, and use the highest resolution of an image that you can find. Do not stretch photos beyond their actual width as this will give the piece a fuzzy or pixelated look.

Photos on Websites

Before you use a photo in a website, use an editing tool to resize it to the appropriate width. For example, if you want to use a photo a space that is only 200 pixels wide, make sure you resize or crop the photo so that it's no wider than that.

Web pages containing images that are too large can take a long time to display, especially for people using slow internet connections or mobile devices. Viewing web pages with large images can also eat through a cellular data plan very quickly.

If your website is hosted on Whitman’s content management system (as it should be!) you’ll find recommended photo sizes in the page editing interface as well as in the Editor’s Guide tab in the content management system.

For low-cost image editing options, see our recommended tools page.