by Roslyn Smith
Indeed, visuals are King – they grab the viewer’s attention much faster than text and keep it for a longer time regardless. Images are more engaging, perceived faster by our brain, and have a very little bounce rate compared to text. But on par with all that brilliance, a challenging question arises: how to get those perfect images that you lack so badly?
Obviously, there are only two interchangeable options: either by taking pictures by yourself (aka hiring a full-time/part-time photographer) or sourcing them from stock photo websites. The latter, though, is becoming more and more popular as photo stock repositories grow to hundreds of millions of items. Such photo banks as Depositphotos, Shutterstock, and Pixabay along with dozens of less known peers employ vast collections of handpicked photos for any purpose as well as flexible search tools.
Sounds like go-and-grab-what-you-like, but it occurs that choosing a few out of a few million photos is always a bigger challenge than you expect. Surprisingly to many and contrary to popular belief, there’s more to choosing stock photos than typing your keywords and pressing Enter. What does this ‘more’ encompass? No more than five crucial tips explained below.
#1 Find out what exactly you are looking for
First and foremost, do the preliminary research to identify what exactly you want to display in the image and how it should look. That’s the most complicated step since it assumes you come up with all the qualities of the photograph you are looking for. The best-case scenario is when you already have a developed corporate identity. If so, the task is reduced to fitting the photo into an already existing universe of corporate rules and guidelines (or at least you will have some hints and beacons).
If you have nothing to proceed from, it might be a bit more difficult for you, but still, you should end up having the following image search characteristics:
- General parameters – required format, size, weight, orientation.
- Colours – either from the brand colour palette or chosen independently based on colour theory.
The preliminary preparations are the most time-consuming, so feeling behind the schedule is okay at this stage – the rest won’t eat as much of your time. Actually, the more time you spend on preparations, the better (only if you have that time, though): you might succeed in finding something very specific like those two elephants below.
#2 Respect the copyright laws
Depending on the country, people pay more or less attention to copyright laws. However, stealing is stealing regardless of whence you steal, be it the United States where you are at serious risk of being caught and brought to court or an underdeveloped region where you aren’t likely to be prosecuted for this ‘little mischief.’
There are three types of images:
- Royalty-free – images sold by the lion’s share of stock photo websites. Generally, you are free to use royalty-free shots for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, though you should read the license agreement in the first place.
- Public domain – images that do not subject to any copyright laws since such laws never existed or expired.
- Public copyright licenses (GNU, CC) – images that can be used according to the permission granted by the licenser. There are six Creative Commons licenses with different rights granted by an image owner: Attribution, ShareAlike, NoDerivs, NonCommercial, NonCommercial-ShareAlike, and NonCommercial-NoDerivs. Most of the mentioned CC licenses allow you to use an image if you give credit to the author.
Last but not least, note that Google (which is the first place to search for images for many unsophisticated marketers and website owners) bears no responsibility for images that you can find using Google Image search. What does this mean? Well, pretty much the following: if you are searching for the image of your dreams in Google and want to stay on the legal side of the fence, you have no choice but to find and ask the image owner for permission to use his or her intellectual property. On the other hand, it’s much simpler with stock photo repositories where you can just download an image and use it according to the license agreement clearly represented on the website: no ambiguity and doubts.
#3 Optimize your search using advanced search settings
There’s no better way to find the photo you need than to be specific with the keywords. Start with a two or three-word phrase and add more words to your request if you see too many images popping up in return. Another way to optimize your search is to use advanced search settings: search by age, gender, colour, category, image orientation, contributor, location, price, and whatever the website offers to facilitate and alleviate the routine.
#4 Match images with the content
No matter the beauty of the image, it should also fit the overall visual ensemble that you create on a web page or wherever you use the photo. Here are a few tricks to this:
- Pick relevant images that support your vision. You might have an overall idea or a particular thought that you want to reinforce with an image – whatever it is, make sure that the chosen picture aligns well with the context and helps the reader to identify with your story, website, or brand.
- Evoke the right emotions using the combination of text and colour. Intertwine the image and the text wisely so that the visual element would complement the story. Colour theory is at your service.
- Choose real photos over staged ones. Staged photos don’t work. Period. Fake smiles and unnatural poses are the two big don’ts of building great relationships with your audience.
#5 Do not neglect paid stock photo websites
Free images are tempting, but sometimes it’s better to spend a few dollars on an exquisite picture from a paid stock photo repository than to skim through generic free-of-charge galleries for hours. Here are 3 best places to get a head start in your search for perfect images:
- Shutterstock. In addition to 314 million hi-resolution royalty-free photos and vector images, Shutterstock runs a convenient online editor allowing you to customise photos up to your needs and preferences. What’s even greater, there’s a free monthly trial that unlocks ten photos on the house. And if you love what you’ve got, you can subscribe for monthly plans starting as low as $29 per 10 images.
- Depositphotos. If you are seeking affordable yet high-quality collections of unique stock photos, consider the photo library of Depositphotos, employing almost 150 million images, vectors, and videos from thousands of accredited photographers from all over the world. Versatile thematic collections will quench your thirst for artistic, unusual, and original photos while the affordable subscription plans starting at $9.99 will allow you to get as many shots as you need to beautify your blog posts, website, marketing materials, etc. What’s even greater, you can customise your plan with the technical support of the repository.
- Pixabay. Exquisite photos are rarely distributed for free, but that’s not the case with Pixabay, a stock photo website employing the largest collection of free shots. More than 1.6 million high-resolution images and videos captured by photography enthusiasts can withhold your attention for hours – just skim through the categories of popular images and popular videos to feel what true beauty is. And one more thing: as with any other free photo stock website, make sure to dig deeper into the pages to avoid overused images.
Good luck in your endeavours!
