We’ve all seen the stock photos that look well, like stock photos ranging from the cheesy to the overused. The reality is many businesses from small to larger will at times need to use stock photos! Here are my best tips for finding the right, engaging imagery for your brand. This post is based on expanding out a recent Instagram post so if you would prefer to quickly scroll I’ve included it here too!
Remember your target audience and the imagery that appeals to them
The photos should reflect your target audience in terms of demographic in a broader sense but also their style and tastes. If your audience are into retro or vintage clothes try to find stock photos that reflect this back to them. If your audience are heavily tattooes and have piercings, yep, you’ve guessed it the people in your stock photos should look like this too. This builds that sense of this brand is for people like me.
The aesthetics of the imagery should appeal to them (even if it’s aspirationally) and fit your brand style. Do they like clean, white, bright photos or dark and moody, does luxury and editorial style imagery appeal to them and their tastes or would that be off putting.
In fact consider whether you audience might respond better to illustrations, diagrams or icons too. The right photos can be highly engaging but maybe if your audience are scientifically minded for example they might want to see charts and diagrams and infographics about the benefits of a product or the good a business is doing.
Your budget for the stock photo
Do you have a budget or do you wish to source free imagery?
In my experience the free sites can offer some quirky and creative photos, but they aren’t always as commercial as paid stock.
For social media free and low cost stock photography is likely to be perfect due to the quantity required and nature of the content. However for campaigns, brochures, leaflets, websites and more important aspects if there is a larger budget for the stock photos you’ll likely be able to source higher quality and niche stock photos.
Be sure to check the licensing terms of anything you download for commercial use.
Subject Matter
You may already know exactly what you need. Try thinking outside the usual too, for this post I could have picked someone looking on their computer but the quirky magnifying image is more interesting!
APPEALING IMAGERY
- faces
- people
- children and babies
- animals
- natural beauty
- photos with intrigue
- a sense of mood such as joy
Make sure it looks on brand
Download a preview. Check the colours in the photo work with your colour palette. Ensure it feels right for your brand (I’m not saying overanalyse every photo you use on social media!).
TOP TIP: Some sites allow you to look at images from the same photoshoot/collection which can be helpful to see if there is an image that is even better or if you want to use a few that look cohesive. You can also see similar suggestions.
Resolution
- For print you will need 300dpi and close to the artwork size, for large scale 1/4 size works.
- And for web, generally can be saved as 72dpi and at the right size, check that is doesn’t look pixelated at the size you need.
- Don’t stretch or distort!
Resources I use
- Adobe Stock paid/membership/free
- Pexels free
- Unsplash free
- Freepik free / paid
- Creative Market paid
- Canva – if you have a pro account their images can be very handy to use if you keep these principles in mind.
