This is part 5 of 19 in the Storefront Photography Series. Click/tap here to see the Series Index.
Welcome back.
This week is about how we shoot and cut storefront photos so they will be perfectly framed every time they are shown on Google Maps.
On the left is the photo straight from my phone. On the right is how this image can show on Google Maps if you follow the tips below. Notice how the storefront really fills the frame and makes the Sushi place look more attractive and eye-catching. The right image is also made brighter as explained in week 3.
You may not have given much thought to the fact that Google Maps uses our photos in a variety of formats. Sometimes a photo is shown in a square format where the height is the same as the width. And often our photos are shown in a wider format where the width is longer than the height. Google does this automatically by removing some of your images to make them fit in the needed format. We should have this in mind when shooting and when editing our photos before uploading them.
The process of changing the format of a photo is called Cropping. Cropping can be done in any photo editing software including Google Photos. I strongly recommend that you learn how to crop your photos to eliminate unnecessary elements and help the viewers see what you want them to focus on in your shots. Well-cropped images can really stand out as amazing photos compared to the rest.
Cropping is not difficult, and if done specifically for Google Maps your photos are much more likely to be featured and therefore earn you thousands of views.
Shooting tips
During your photo walks, I recommend these tips when shooting storefronts for Google Maps to ensure you will be able to crop them perfectly after returning home.
- Always use landscape orientation (wide format) Never use portrait orientation (tall format) except when shooting videos for Google Maps.
- Zoom out or walk backward until the width of the storefront fits inside the frame. Then continue to zoom out or walk back until you have plenty of margin on each side of the storefront!
- Keep the name of the store centered in your shot.
Right before you take the shot, check that the vertical lines are plumb and there are no recognizable faces in the frame.
Cropping Tips
You need to upload photos that are a lot wider than tall to Google Maps. This will ensure that your image will also look great when cropped further by Google to fit into a square format.
- Crop the height of the image to the height of the storefront. Take away from both the bottom and top of the image.
- If the storefront is not completely centered then crop the longest side margin until the storefront is perfectly centered.
This is not very complicated. But if you are unfamiliar with cropping, it takes only a short time to get the hang of it.
Always use landscape orientation and have plenty of margin to the left and right of the storefront
First, let me demonstrate what can happen if you share photos in portrait (tall) format on Google Maps.
Let us say you took the photo below. It is not in landscape orientation but in portrait orientation. Notice, how the margins to the left and right of the storefront are missing.
If this photo were to be selected as the cover photo, the shop would look like this on Google Maps:
OHH NO! See how the name of the store is missing from the frame. It got cut out by Google’s computers to fit the image to this wider format.
For the business, this is a disaster. All marketing experts will recommend you make sure to always show your name when communicating with customers. And the image is not exactly helpful to a Maps user trying to find the place for the first time.
So please, 1: Always shot in landscape orientation. Never portrait orientation. Uploading square photos can have equally awful results.
Another reason for taking landscape photos only is the fact that the AI rarely selects portrait photos as featured photos and as cover photos. So landscape orientation will almost always get you more views. They are just more versatile and helpful on Maps.
The next image is the original photo I took.
Notice how the photo is wider than it is tall = I used landscape mode.
Notice the width of the margin on each side of the store. Both margins are approximately as wide as the store itself. In addition, the store is almost centered in the frame. The vertical lines are plumb and there are no people in the shot.
This storefront is pretty much a square. Height = Width. Some stores are a lot wider than their height. In such cases, I recommend you leave a margin on both sides equal to the height of the storefront.
Finally, please make sure that the store name (the name board) is nicely centered in your shots if this is possible.
If you should choose to upload this image to Google Maps and it got selected as the cover photo it would look like this:
Notice how the storefront is small in the frame. If you want the shop to look its best it needs to be zoomed in further. This is what we can achieve by cropping it further as explained next.
How to crop your image for use on Google Maps
Below you will find the detailed steps needed to crop the image using Google Photos.
First, open the image in Google Photos, and tap Edit. Then tap the Crop button. And you will see this:
Above is the photo opened in Google Photos ready to be cropped. First, touch the horizontal line between the two bottom white dots and slide upwards to right below the storefront. This will remove the no so interesting lower post of the image showing the street and sidewalk.
Notice how the street asphalt is now gone. Then touch the top line and pull down til right above the storefront.
See how the unnecessary top part of the image is now also gone. Please leave a little bit of margin both below and above the storefront to make it look nice as shown in this image.
If you look carefully, the storefront is slightly off to the right. To better see this you can use the 2 vertical helplines being shown when the cropping tool is active.
Therefore we pull in the left side a tiny bit to the right to get the storefront perfectly centered in the frame.
This is the centered version. You can see that the width of the wall to the left in the image is now about half as wide compared to the previous image. It is now almost ready to be uploaded to Google Maps.
Before uploading, I adjust the brightness, contrast, and warmth to make it look more realistic, pleasant, and inviting. This was explained here. So now the photo is ready to be uploaded to Google Maps from Google Photos.
This is the final version which is ready to be uploaded to Google Maps.
The image below shows how the image will represent the Sushi joint on Google Maps. Notice how much better, attractive, and eye-catching it looks compared to the version shown earlier in this post.
Which presentation do you think looks the best?
The first image is if you upload photos in portrait orientation. Second is if you don’t crop away uninteresting parts from the top and bottom. The third is the optimal crop + the image was made brighter.
Works also when a square photo is needed
Before ending this tutorial, I would like to share one last reason why you should follow my cropping tips.
In many places, Google Maps will show our cover photos in an almost square format. This is the case on lists of search results and as seen below from a mobile device.
When a square version is needed Google will automatically remove the margins on each side, so if you made sure to center the storefront and the business name properly and remove uninteresting parts from the top and bottom then your images will always look great. No matter what format Google Maps chooses to use. In turn, this will help your images get selected as cover photos and hence ensure you many more views and your images will remain the cover photo for longer.
Don’t you think this image looks fabulous? The entire storefront fits in the frame with no unnecessary information along the edges. Maps users are likely to be able to read “Zen Sushi” even when a small version is shown on a mobile device.
See you next week
Morten
