You don’t need to be an artist to understand how composition impacts your brand’s visuals—think of it like a well-balanced treatment plan. Just like you wouldn’t inject filler randomly, med spa photos follow a formula to create images that feel natural and high-end. One of the key principles? The Rule of Thirds.
What is the Rule of Thirds?
Imagine your photo divided into a 3×3 grid.
Placing the focal points (like a provider’s hands performing a treatment or a client’s glowing post-facial skin) along these grid lines creates a balanced, professional look.
Why is the Rule of Thirds important?
The human eye is naturally drawn to points of interest placed along these intersections, making the image feel dynamic and engaging rather than flat and centered.
If you want a website that looks polished and professional, your images need to be composed with this principle in mind. A well-shot treatment photo with proper framing can subtly guide a viewer’s eye toward a call-to-action button or a key message on your website.
Negative (empty) space on the grid allows room for placement of text or graphic overlays that are legible. This negative space is crucial for giving the image an elevated look.
If a logo is placed in the negative space, this also allows the branding to look high-end. When we lack negative space, the logo graphic starts to lose its inherent value and perception of trust. Without this negative space in graphic design, marketing starts to feel loud and cheap, reflecting poorly on the consumer perception and reducing the trust in the brand.
Understanding Photo Composition
Poor framing and lighting
While the patient’s face is somewhat aligned along the top horizontal grid line, she is cut-off, which is made worse by the poor use of negative space to the left of the injector.
The patient is also in an awkward angle facing away from the camera. There are distracting shadows due to harsh lighting. While the patient’s face is correctly aligned to one of the grid lines, her body is awkwardly cropped, and our eye wants to see her closer to the center to correct the improper cropping.
Red arrows indicate where their faces SHOULD align in this 1:1 crop.
The above image lowers the perceived value of the services at this medical spa practice. While the lighting is unfortunately too overblown to fix in Photoshop, cropping the image by increasing the negative space to the left of the nurse injector would create better framing and improve the photo composition.
Excellent framing and lighting
This image has storytelling oozing out of the framing, as we can see the loving and caring gaze of the injector towards the patient. While the lighting is above them, it is not harsh.
The injector’s eyes are perfectly intersecting two grid lines, creating interest and guiding the eye. Her hand also intersects two grid lines, as well as the patient’s cheek, creating perfect harmony and balance.
The colors from the artwork to the clothing also work together. A 10/10 image!
photo credit: socialbysinead.com
Website Background Image Guidelines
A common request in med spa web design is a large background image (or even a video) at the very top of a page. This area, also known as the “hero section,” is prime real estate for important SEO keywords, so we want to ensure we have this text here and that it is legible.
When your background imagery follows the Rule of Thirds (like the first example), we can accommodate text in a way that is legible and aesthetically pleasing. That empty space is crucial for proper web design.
However, when the subject is centered, like the second example, it becomes impossible to have legible text as an overlay. This requires a layout change where half of the hero section is a solid background (third example), or cropping the image but this doesn’t work well for all images.
Acceptable background
In this example, although we are very close to his face, copywriting can fit properly with plenty of negative space (breathing room).
Not ideal background
This photo is beautiful and adheres to the Rule of Thirds, but its subject is in the middle and should not be used at the top of the website (the hero section).
This creates issues for text overlays as there’s not enough negative space for legibility.
If you know you want a large image or video at the top, please keep this SEO requirement in mind when planning your brand imagery, and ensure they follow the Rule of Thirds.
Visual Guide for Well-Composed Med Spa Photos
Listen, as a brand strategist and web designer, I want you to have amazing med spa photos.
Brand photography is crucial for your website, and it can make the difference between a business that is perceived as luxurious or a bargain. Whether a brand photoshoot is in the budget or not, there are a few photography basics you should know about.
Using medical spa stock photography, I’m sharing some examples of common issues I see with photos I receive for website design projects. Almost all of these issues can be prevented with proper a brand strategy that outlines what your brand photography should look like.
Good Lighting vs. Poor Lighting
Proper Angles vs. Unflattering Angles
Clean Background vs. Cluttered Background
How do your med spa photos stack up?
If you’re feeling lost about where to even begin planning for a brand photoshoot, then brand strategy will help provide much needed clarity
Apply to work with me on brand strategy today.
Needing help with med spa shoot ideas?
The Med Spa Photography Planner & Shot List
The step-by-step guide to planning a high-end, strategic med spa photoshoot—so your visuals work just as hard as you do.
