An image bank is a great way to showcase your school or district! An image bank is a centralized library of photos that can be used for a variety of different purposes: on your websites, on your social media, in a newsletter, and more!
Ensure you have Permission
Check with your district’s administration to learn what your district’s procedure is for obtaining photo permissions. It’s very important to ensure that photography is only used with consent of the subjects in the photos. Your district will have a procedure for how to obtain and document permissions properly.
Attend as Many Events as Possible
The key to a successful image bank is having a wide variety of images to use. Attend as many school and district events as you can. Events such as Welcome Back Barbecues or Track and Field Days are great opportunities to capture images of students having fun. Even everyday events, like classroom discussion and fun on the playground can create vivid and enticing photos.
Only Keep the Best Images
It’s always tempting to keep every image taken at an event, but less is more. An image bank is successful when it has a wide variety of high quality images. Five pictures of the same group of kids taken one after another doesn’t give you a lot of options to work with. Choose the best one to add to the image bank to ensure that you’re not diluting your bank with a bunch of similar photos. Remember, the goal is to build a large selection of different images that can complement different content.
Keep Images Organized
You want your photo bank to be organized, rather than putting all your images in one photo. You’ll want to be able to find images quickly. We recommend organizing your photos by date and by event or theme so they’re easy to find, and you know which images might be too old to use anymore. It’s always best to use recent images, instead of something from ten years ago.
Keep it a Habit
An image bank is something you’re constantly working on, and you’ll always want to add new photos. While it might seem like something you’ll only do once every few years, you’ll want to continue to add new photos as often as you can.
By curating a variety of different images over time, you can create an image bank for your school or district. These images can then be used to help promote your school and will reflect your school’s authenticity. Having great photography is an excellent way to elevate your school or district’s online presence. To build an image bank, first ensure you have permission to take photos. Attend as many events as you can, keep only the best images, and keep them organized by date and event or theme. Keep building your image bank, so you always have new, high quality, recent photos to give your school or district the best online presence possible.