Stock photography is just too convenient these days. There used to be just a handful of sites you could buy stock imagery from. Then Unsplash hit the scene, and with it came a flurry of free stock photography sites that flooded the market with so much choice.
With all this choice, we are starting to see repetition in usage across the web and social media. Some images are just so ubiquitous now that they kill the vibe of a website when you see them. You know it's a stock photo that's been shoehorned to fit a message, and it’s just not clicking.
The lack of connection between the message and the image can inadvertently put off people as it doesn't differentiate your brand from the rest.
| ** It's not lost on me that the main image of this blog post is a stock Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash |
What is Stock Photography?
Stock photography refers to a vast library of pre-shot images available for purchase or free use. These images are categorized by themes, subjects, and styles, making it easy to find a photo for nearly any topic or need. Despite their convenience, these images come with significant drawbacks that can negatively impact your brand.
How Stock Photography Can Hurt Your Brand
Authenticity and User Experience
When we engage with a brand, we want to feel like the brand is communicating to us from a place of authenticity and originality. The brand voice needs to have a connective element. Generic stock photos diminish that voice and communicate that the brand isn't investing in its own vision.
This is especially important on product and about pages, where generic images of people engaging and sterile backdrops of pristine office spaces feel disconnected. This disconnect can lead to higher bounce rates and lower dwell times on-site, and in the long run, can hurt your site's SEO performance.
Consumer Connection and Conversion Rates
Humans are very good at spotting fake emotions and unreal settings. We are very visual creatures that process imagery faster than we can read. So when customers feel disconnected from the imagery that's meant to sell them, they lose the emotional connection that drives them to convert.
Studies reveal that original photos outperform stock images in driving conversions. For instance, A/B testing on landing pages has shown significant increases in conversions when original photos replace stock images.
Originality and Value
Original photos can make your site stand out, even if they are composites or edited designs. By spending a little more time crafting a brand look with designed elements that draw from multiple sources, you are creating a whole new image and visual aesthetic that is unique to your brand.
Does Stock Photography Hurt Your SEO?
In a nutshell, no. Google's John Mueller has stated that stock images do not directly impact web search rankings.
However, they can influence your image search performance. If the same stock photos are used on numerous other websites, your images may struggle to rank well in image searches. Unique, high-quality images are more likely to appear in search results, drawing more traffic to your site.
Will AI Replace Stock Photography?
AI image generation has been a new avenue for marketers and designers that has interesting implications. AI-generated images are getting quite sophisticated and allow a designer to create something truly unique that doesn't exist.
I've actually had to use AI to generate an image of a middle-aged Black businessman because I couldn't find one on any stock image site that wasn't a stereotype. What I found on those sites was either a young musically oriented and "cool" nouveau-riche type, or an old angry and aggressive-looking suited Black man. So I had to create one myself with AI.
If you find an aesthetic and style that you can prompt consistently to get the brand visual identity consistently, AI might be a good avenue to keep things visually fresh.
Advantages of AI-Generated Images
- Speed and Scalability: You can create a wide array of images very quickly, of things that only your imagination can come up with, that are very hard to achieve with real photography.
- Customization: You can fine-tune your criteria and create all sorts of variations to use in different situations.
- Originality: Because all the images are generated with your unique prompt, you don't end up looking like everyone else, giving your brand a unique visual identity.
Limitations of AI-Generated Images
AI images do have disadvantages, and if you are trying to create photorealistic images of people, you will find that more often than not, they have no soul. Again, humans are visual creatures and we can tell real emotions very quickly. Images might feel disconnected or in an uncanny valley - too close to real but not real enough and weird.
Also, there are ongoing ethical and copyright discussions related to AI-generated imagery, and that's a whole other discussion for a different day.
The Future of Stock Photography
Photo editing tools like
Canva are getting easier and more accessible to use, with features that give designers the ability to edit and mash up images with graphics and AI-generated elements very easily. Websites like
RawPixel have libraries of images, graphics, icons, and elements to create your own brand feel and design. And AI features in Adobe Photoshop with generative fill can help augment images to exactly what you need.
Original photography is also not as expensive as it used to be. There are a lot more local photographers and professionals than ever before, and helping out the local economy by supporting local artists to bring a human touch to your visual identity should be part of your budget.
Final Thoughts
We've all used stock photography on our websites, pitch decks, social media, and pretty much everywhere. But it's become really saturated and inauthentic. It's time we made it part of the conversation that they are a last resort, be creative, and support the local economy by hiring local photographers.
Embracing original photography is a net positive for your brand’s connection with your audience. As AI technology evolves, it offers promising alternatives to traditional stock photos, but authenticity remains irreplaceable.