Tips on Using Stock Photos
- You can take your own photos, but most of us are not professional photographers and amateur efforts never look as good. Plus, you might want something that you can't easily photograph: a photo of an island in the ocean, for example, when you live 1,000 miles from the beach.
- Another option is commissioned photography, but the cost can be prohibitive for SMBs. It also requires a lot of time and effort: selecting locations, hiring models, etc.
- The third—and easiest—alternative is stock photography. One of the advantages is that you have millions of photos to choose from and it's easy to purchase and download from websites.
One big downside of stock photography is that the images you choose might also be used by other subscribers to the service. But if you're willing to risk not having a one-of-a-kind image, this is a cheap and easy option. To use stock photos effectively, here are some things to consider. {C}
Appropriate images
Take time to look for appropriate images that relate to your content. If a photo is amazing but it doesn't connect to the message, your communication is not effective.
Sometimes, you can combine two stock photos in order to come up with what you have in mind.
In this example, I used an image of the Chicago skyline and a vector illustration. Once I knew the look I wanted to achieve, I developed this design and made adjustments to both stock images by adjusting colors, lighting and depth of field.
Proper resolution
Some sites vary their prices by resolution size. Don't settle for low-resolution images because it is cheaper. Look for something that is a perfect fit for the project. If you can't afford a particular resolution of a photo, what you can do is look for a similar image that is cheaper with the same resolution.
