In the past few years, I’ve heard increasing amounts of clients/colleagues discuss and ask for my opinion on the usage of stock photography on their websites. The various points of views and debates regarding stock photography usage can be all over the place. Some professionals think stock photography only dilutes your brand, and lowers the value of your content. Others will swear by its usage because of the many benefits like the costs or availability. It can sometimes be a tough sell to executives who have only heard the bad press buzz that stock photography has received. And in fact, when I was working at Angie’s List as a UX/UI designer, there was a big movement from executives for never using stock photography for the website user interface (UI), but there was never a clear understanding regarding why we were told this. So lets take a step back and look at the real problem of stock photography – the poor usage of stock photos that are seen in the wild and the true basic understanding of what stock photography is and isn’t.
Imagine you are talking to someone who has only ever tasted pizza once (impossible, I’m sure, but bear with me). They tell you about how much they hated it and how they will never try it again because the first time they ate pizza, it was just so horrible. So naturally, you query about their pizza, asking them where they got it, what toppings they ate and what of style it was made. You then try to explain to them that the gas station slice of pizza they had was nothing compared to the amazingness of Chicago deep dish pizza (let’s be honest – it’s the best). But there they are, unwilling to try it again because they assume all pizza is just as shitty as the single lukewarm slice they got at a local BP gas station. If you are anything like me, you would also be pretty upset that they had built up this misconception of pizza all because of the one bad experience they had. That is my (tasty) analogy about how stock photography is viewed by many people.
Using stock photography is constantly mistaken for being bad, a dying practice or is frowned upon all because people see poor stock photography usage and assume the worst. They see companies using cliché’ stock photos, or being lazy by not finding photos to match the brands marketing message. Or they can even sometimes see what is actually good usage of stock photography and don’t even realize that it’s stock. Good usage of stock photography sparks an emotionally connection with the user base to the brand. The role photography, in general, can play in marketing your brand is invaluable.
“Good usage of stock photography sparks an emotionally connection with the user base to the brand.”
What Stock Photography Is and Isn’t
A lot like Internet Explorer, stock photography has been given this bad rap for how it’s been used in the past years and not how it could or should be used nowadays. People have this idea that stock photography is automatically an image of two business people shaking hands in front of a pure white background or that it’s most likely a picture of an overly beautiful person in a call center with a headset on from the 90’s. That isn’t what stock photography is. I’m here to tell you that you have been living a horrible lie if you also think that it is. It seems that people have forgotten what stock photography is by definition. At it’s simplest, stock photography is just photographs that are licensed to you for specific uses. Examples of the most common uses are website graphics, Internet advertisements, reprints, copyright updates and marketing materials. By general definition, it has nothing to do with what the photo subject is or how good the quality might be. It gives you the benefit of saving hundreds of dollars from hiring a professional photographer to do custom photo shoots.
Stock Photography Done Right
Now that we are clearer on the misconceptions of stock photos, let’s focus on some key points regarding how you can pick stock photos like a pro. Using stock photography properly is no perfect science because it really varies on the image, style and culture of your brand. However, it’s safe to assume there are a few key components to using stock photography in a way that allows your customers or users experience your brand without leaving a bad taste in their mouth. These are also great general tips on using any type of photography for your brand’s website or marketing.
Find photos that match your brand’s lifestyle.
Your brand’s lifestyle is the way your users or customers live with your product or application. The ride sharing service Uber is known for being able to reserve rides such as Lincoln Town Cars, Cadillac Escalades, and Mercedes–Benz sedans on the fly via their mobile app. Uber has a user base with a high–end lifestyle to match their high–end service, and their photos reflect that very well. The images they use fit the Uber lifestyle to a T. They use pictures that capture how their typical customers would use the application, where they would be using it, how they would be dressed, etc. This type of photography wouldn’t match the lifestyle of a brand like Amazon.com, for example. Uber has done a great job with using photography that paints a picture of their ideal/typical customer. And to be clear, I’m not sure if Uber uses stock photography or not, but that’s the point. Users should feel like the photos you use with your brand are genuine. They want to feel a connection with your brand. How can they do that if you use photos that portray a lifestyle that doesn’t even match your brand?
Use photos that represent your users.
Using photography that captures the look of your users is an absolute must. Using photos with overly retouched, perfect faces of people is a prime example of bad stock photo usage. However, there is nothing wrong with using people that are “easy on the eyes” in your photos as long as that personality or look represents the majority of your users. Looking for photos that accomplish this can sometimes feel a bit like you’re stereotyping your users, but the benefits are there. For example, if your brand was the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and you wanted to use photos to represent your bus drivers, you probably shouldn’t be using photos of runway models. While that might sound mean, it’s realistic to the brand. You have to be honest and true to what your brand is. Every company should know who their typical user personality is. E–commerce giant Etsy is known for being the homemade/vintage marketplace of the web, and their site photos show that off perfectly. Some of their homepage photos showcase artisans working on their projects in shops. For example, a younger adult male who is working with his hands and an old ink press to make his stores products. This depicts very well the crafty hands on user base of sellers that Etsy has. Who cares if the photos are stock or not (they aren’t) because when I see them, I can easily make the connection between the photo and what the typical Etsy user looks like, and that’s what matters.
Make the photo style match the users’ “idea” of photography.
This point is more to focus on your brand’s targeted age group. Simple, a company that takes a spin on traditional banking probably has a main user base of people aged 20 to early 30’s. I like to refer to this age group of users as the “Instagrammers” (haha). They use Instagram or other similar photo apps consistently. They are continually making this connection between photography and “hip” photo filters. This is their “idea” of photography. The type of photography they see on a daily basis, by their friends, has this style so to these users, photos with this trendy style have a stronger sense of authenticity. The photo effect makes the connection of their friends taking a photo for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and adding a stylistic filter. Simple does a great job by capturing this style with their photos on their website. The photos are very professional looking, but they add just a slight “hipness” to the style of the photos in order to connect with their user base. While they are a banking company, they know their audience, and you don’t see them using photos of sterile businessmen because that isn’t their users.
Avoid overly symbolic imagery simply for the sake of having an image.
There are probably few brands out there that can really pull off the very abstract imagery you find on stock image sites. This is probably the biggest cause for the bad reputation that stock photography receives. Using generic symbolic images like the “sky rocketing graph arrow” or the “we are partners now handshake” are what cause your brand to have that stale look. Often, these types of photos are also used because there is this notion that you have to have an image on every page. That is definitely not the case. There are plenty of other ways to make very text–heavy pages more balanced, including everything from illustrations, graphs, icons, etc. For example, if you have a customer service portion of your website, avoid using a generic support center photo. Instead, try using a photo of your actual support team or maybe a photo of a user just happily using your service or product, implying they are happy with the customer service they might receive. E–commerce platform Shopify has a great example of this on their Point of Sale (POS) system app. They show just a picture of a tablet with the app open, instead of using something like an overly symbolic photo of a man yelling in frustration in a random field. (Yes, stupid photos like that are actually commonly used by companies!)
Great Stock Photo Resources
Finding stock photography that accomplishes the above points or doesn’t look bland and fake isn’t as hard to find as you may think. Here are some great sites that are not as well–known that you can dig in to help your stock photo search. Also, there is nothing wrong with stock photo giants like iStock or Shutterstock. However, you just have to dig a bit harder when using those sites because it’s easy to just pick the most popular pictures and fall into the traditional trap of using stock photos that look like generic garbage.
- Stocksy – http://www.stocksy.com (my personal favorite)
- Little Visuals – http://littlevisuals.co
- Picjumbo – http://picjumbo.com
- The Pattern Library – http://thepatternlibrary.com
- New Old Stock – http://nos.twnsnd.co
- ImageBrief – http://www.imagebrief.com
- Compfight – http://compfight.com
- Unsplash – http://unsplash.com
- Veer – http://www.veer.com
- Filter & Format – http://www.filterandformat.com – (NOTE: This was mentioned via a comment on Designer News & is a fantastic idea for buying stock photos)
Feel free to leave a comment with any other tips, comments or 2 cents about the usage of stock photography. Do you have a different take on it? I would love to hear what you think!
Oh, and just so we don’t give Internet Explorer the same fate as stock photography, be sure to check out why the newer versions of IE are not that bad (http://www.rethinkie.com/hello-again/).
