{"id":69852,"date":"2016-07-27T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T19:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elements.blog-cms.envato.net\/?p=2624"},"modified":"2025-11-11T18:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T07:02:26","slug":"stock-photography-guide-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/stock-photography-guide-designers","title":{"rendered":"A Designer\u2019s Guide to Stock Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I say \u201cstock photography\u201d does it conjure up images in your mind of stark white corporate boardrooms, and women laughing while holding a bowl of salad? Perhaps that\u2019s what stock photography used to be, but these days it\u2019s a lot less cheesy and can be an incredibly useful tool in the design<\/a> process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Stock Photography<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For many projects it\u2019s often cheaper and easier to find photos on a stock website \u2013 such as Envato Elements<\/a> or Twenty20<\/a> \u2013 than it is to go through the process of hiring a photographer or even setting up a shot and taking the photos yourself<\/a>. And in the fast-moving tech world time is of the essence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re smart with how you use it, stock photography can speed up your process. It won\u2019t be the solution for every<\/em> project, because sometimes originality is key (and with a stock photo your competitor could quite rightly use the exact same image), but used in the right scenarios it can free up your time to focus more on those unique situations and tougher design problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stock photography is really useful for \u201cquick win\u201d tasks. Perhaps you need an image for a blog post, or to post on social media. As it\u2019s just a small task that needs to be done quickly, and if it isn\u2019t part of a wider campaign, there\u2019s no time or budget to arrange a special shoot. This is where stock photography sites become your go-to tool. Just search for a keyword that relates to your topic and you\u2019ll find hundreds of options to choose from, all without having to pick up a camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than being the focus of a piece though, stock photography should be used to supplement your design. Over on Tradecraft<\/a>, a monthly publication that I work on, I use my iPad and Apple pencil to draw over top of stock imagery to give it a more unique look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drawing<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While you don\u2019t have to get quite so artsy, it is a good idea to use graphics along with your stock photos to personalize them. It could be as simple as adding text, an icon or even a filter; something to make the image look like it fits with your brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my podcast, Design Life<\/a>, we use a stock photo as a texture behind our logo and brand color to get across the theme for the episode without having the image front-and-center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Design
A feature image for our episode on the pros and cons of “procrastiworking”. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stock imagery can get repetitive, so making it less of a focus means less chance your reader will be thinking \u201cI\u2019ve seen this image before on another site\u201d and more time spent consuming the actual content the image is supporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing The Right Images<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stock photography is only cheesy if you choose a cheesy image! While the classic \u201chandshake with a white background\u201d images do exist, that doesn\u2019t mean you have to use them. There are many beautiful photos available on stock image sites that wouldn\u2019t look out of place on an Instagram account. Those are the high-quality photos you should be looking for if you need an image to feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where stock imagery strays into cheesy territory is usual when we are being too literal with our choices. If you want to get across the concept of a romantic holiday for example, you don\u2019t have to use a photo of the word \u2018love\u2019 written on the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
love written on the beach at the sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Instead you could choose a nicely framed photo of a couple, or get even more abstract and use a gorgeous photo of a sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Couple<\/a>
Young couple in love sitting on the beach at the seaside enjoying romantic evening and watching sunset. Family have a rest on the beach in summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\n Unlimited creative assets. Access to AI tools. <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n Young couple in love sitting on the beach <\/h3>\n \n Determined <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n \"Young\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

This gives warm, happy feelings without being too obvious or cheesy. Remember that imagery is meant to invoke a mood, and I think the gorgeous purple tones of the sunset do this better than the cheesy writing in the sand, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beautiful sunset in Maspalomas in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\n Beautiful sunset in Maspalomas <\/h3>\n \n pawopa3336 <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n \"Beautiful\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Even though you haven\u2019t created them yourself, the stock imagery you decide to use becomes a part of your brand, so you should give it just as much consideration as you do when choosing the right font and color to use. And just like with fonts and colors, you want to have some sort of cohesion in the imagery you use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to get across the concept of a romantic holiday for example, you don\u2019t have to use a photo of the word \u2018love\u2019 written on the beach.<\/em> <\/p>Charli Marie<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I suggest putting together a mood board to figure out what kind of imagery you want to be associated with your brand, and use it as a guide for choosing stock photos. At ConvertKit<\/a> we aim for a outdoorsy, Instagram-chic, aesthetic with our images and I compare every new photo I choose to what we have used previously to make sure it looks like it could be part of the same set. And the great thing about many stock image sites is that when you find an image you like that suits the look you\u2019re going for, you can easily see others taken by that same photographer. Instant photo-set!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Make Images An Afterthought<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Knowing when and where to use stock imagery and how to choose the right photos will hopefully mean you can now be more purposeful with your images. Too often stock photo sites are used to quickly grab a generic image to accompany a blog post, but with more planning and careful selection stock photos can instead be an inspiration, and become an integral part of your brand. Be picky, be smart, and don\u2019t be cheesy!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow this guide to selecting the best stock photography for your design project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-photos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elements.envato.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}