Photography is an important element of your marketing communications. Whether online or in print, it can help bring a message to life, draw in your audience and leave a lasting impression.
As a designer, I’ll always recommend commissioning a photographer. It’s the best way to ensure you get original, high-quality, authentic imagery that is on brand. But it’s not cheap. So it’s often not a realistic choice for many charities and smaller organisations. This is where stock imagery comes in and helps plug the gap.
And no matter what site you decide to visit to get your images from, the quality of images available will vary widely. Not just resolution and size, but in content too.
Here are 6 top tips when searching:
- Read your brand guidelines before you start. A good set of guidelines should include a page or two on imagery. It will help get you into the right mindset and ensure images feel on brand.
- Think about the context. How will the image/images be used? Are you looking for an image for a specific message or a number of images to bring a brochure or website to life? Writing a quick list of what you want the image to say can really help when looking through 100s of images and trying to identify those that are right for you.
- Studio vs natural shots. Whilst stock imagery isn’t as authentic as images you’ve commissioned yourself in the real world, try to find images that have more of a natural feel. These will depict people who feel believable and behave naturally. In other words, avoid images that have overposed models and were taken in a studio. Very rarely do people laugh wildly whilst sitting on their own, eating a salad. But my god, are stock image libraries full of these images!
- Another thing around context is to be aware that many stock images can often feel very Americanised. And if you are talking to a UK market, you need to be careful to ensure you avoid those images. Do the lampposts look right? Are the cars on the correct side of the road? Are the electric sockets right?
- Ensure the people in your images will resonate with your target audience or message. Ensuring you have diversity in race, gender, ability, and age is an important consideration.
- Think about the colour and tone of images, finding images that work tonally with your brand colours can really help to make the images feel ownable. Primary colour is a bright green, and your competitor has a bright yellow? Try to find someone in a green coloured top instead of a bright yellow jumper.
If you’d like help understanding your brand’s approach to photography or need image sourcing for your next project, we’ve got you. Drop us a line and see how we can help.
