Choosing the right photos for your website is an essential element in your online marketing and web design.  Beautiful, high resolution photos can grab the attention of your site visitors and lure prospective clients to contact you.  How do the photos on your website measure up?  

Many of our clients come to us with truly amazing photos, photos that literally make all of us here in the office say, “Oh!  I want to go there!”, or “It makes me want to buy a terrarium!”.   If we are oohing and aahing, chances are, your target audience is, too.  The right images on your website can do a lot for you, just as the wrong images can work against you.  Bad photos can turn people off immediately.  Poorly-lit, out of focus images are worse than having no images at all.

But, what if you don’t have A+ photos of your product or offerings?  What then?  Unless you are a professional photographer, or have the budget to hire a photographer, many small to medium businesses face this question.  The answer – use stock photography.

Now, some people may stick up their noses at using stock photos on their site, and maybe for good reason.  If you’ve ever seen a site with overly happy business people staged against a white background, or an attractive sales rep wearing a headset and smile, or a businessman holding his head, looking anxiously at his computer – these are all examples of where stock photos go horribly wrong.  Cliche images like these come off as phony and insincere and ultimately decrease the credibility of your business.  Don’t use them! 

But, there are a lot of great stock photos out there and, if you don’t have the budget to hire a professional photographer to take original photos, stock images fill a void.  It takes knowing where to find good stock photos, having the patience to search for creative, non-cliche images, and choosing the right photos to convey your message. 

Where To Find Stock Photos

We’ve curated a list of our top stock photo sites we use and love.  Here it is:

iStock.  This site offers millions of stock photos, videos, and illustrations that are royalty-free.  Photos are not free, but are easily searchable.  Check pricing details on the site.

Depositphotos.  Another great resource for royalty-free stock images, vector images and videos.  These photos are also not free, but most are reasonably priced. 

Flickr.  This site is a great resource for photos, but the best thing about Flickr is the Creative Commons section of the site.  Photos categorized within Creative Commons are free, but may or may not be licensed for commercial use, so be sure to check the details of the license.  Also, many of the photos found in Creative Commons require attribution, or require that you credit the photographer on your site.

Pixabay.  This site has loads of free images and videos that you can download, modify, distribute and use in commercial applications, and attribution is not required. 

Public Domain Archive. You can search on free stock images by category on this public domain site.  Free, downloadable, high-resolution photos – YES!

Gratisography.  This site has one of the most beautiful collections of somewhat odd free, high-res photography on the web. Bizarre scenarios, shot beautifully, with some gorgeous normal photos thrown in for good measure. These photos can be use for personal or commercial use and do not have any copyright restrictions. 

Picjumbo.  A free stock photos site that specializes in modern and clean images. Picjumbo has a great collection of tech centered images (think girl on laptop or man with cell phone) and for business-focused photos, they are great. 

Morguefile.  This is a great collection of free, high resolution images for either commercial or public use.  The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.

Nothing is better than beautiful, original photos on your website.  If you’ve got them, use them.  But, if you’re like a lot of small businesses, and professional photography isn’t in the budget right now, consider using stock photos.  There are a lot of excellent stock photo resources, like what we’ve listed here, that can provide you with great photos that are affordable, or even free – just choose wisely!