Read This Before Using Stock Images for Your Website

Mar 4, 2025 | Commercial Photography, Photography Education

When you look at a local business’s website and it’s full of stock images, what immediately comes to mind when you think about their brand?

Some thoughts might be:

• They lack personality and uniqueness
• They’re hiding behind someone else’s perfect photos to hide their flaws
• No initiative to create real, meaningful content
• They don’t care about quality and authenticity

Those 4 negative perceptions may not be the truth about that business. But a visitor to their website is likely to have those perceptions.

Stock photography is convenient, but it can miscommunicate a brand’s value.

The reason why stock photography conjures up those perceptions is because it presents a generic, glossy and unrealistic view of a brand.

And online consumers are smart.

They can quickly detect inauthentic content when photos look too polished and generic.

AUTHENTIC CONTENT MATTERS

You’ve seen the power of authentic content before. Take Jardin St-Léon for example:

They do an excellent job at building their brand through real, authentic photos of their staff, their store and their products. In fact, their entire branding is all about having “real produce” – so it’s only natural that they’re also applying this mindset to their online content creation and marketing efforts.

And they are crushing it!

This little family-owned business has grown tremendously in the last few years, and I would bet it has a lot to do with showcasing their authentic personality in all their marketing content.

They don’t just use professional photography for their branding, they also put out a lot of phone photography.

And their brand is not suffering for it at all!

Knowing that using real photos of your real business is so much better than using stock imagery, why would a business still choose stock photography over custom photography?

CONVENIENT AND LOW COST, BUT AT WHAT COST?

Stock photography is cheaper than hiring a professional photographer.

For a small fee (or sometimes even free), stock photography is plentiful, quick and easy to access.

Low effort, low cost. A business owner’s dream, right?

But we have to think again: just because something is cheaper on the out-set, doesn’t mean it won’t cost you money in the long term.

Small businesses that invest in custom photography invest a lot right at the beginning, but the return on investment can be significant.

CASE STUDY: FAIRMONT BANFF SPRINGS

Take Fairmont Banff Springs for example – they hire the best photographers to create their imagery, and the results: a brand that communicates strongly of their quality and their professionalism. That means that when a customer sees the price tag for accessing a day at their hotel or spa, they will have no issue paying the high fees because they know and trust their brand to be quality, valuable and worth every penny.

If Fairmont Banff Springs hired inexperienced photographers, or worse: used stock photography, customers may start thinking twice about dropping hundreds of dollars on a day at their spa.

If a customer sees the hotel using cheap, generic photos that don’t convey the exact truth, the brand’s reputation will decline.

Before long, a business that lowers their standards will start attracting customers that have a low spending threshold.

Although a business saves thousands of dollars with stock photography – it comes at a cost.

Customers will think twice before spending money on a business that communicates their value through generic, stale images.

But when Fairmont Banff Springs invests in custom, quality photography, their branding gets a major boost. That is worth more than the price tag on custom photography.

WHAT IF A SMALL BUSINESS DOESN’T HAVE A BUDGET FOR PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY?

Some small or startup businesses simply can’t afford hiring a professional photographer to create all their images.

While going with stock photography could be tempting, I would recommend going a different route:

The 20/80 Rule: Create Most of Your Content With Your Phone…

…and for the few, key photos that are important, hire a professional photographer.

20% pro photos, 80% DIY photos.

iPhone cameras have come a long way, and oftentimes you’ll find that your existing staff is quite capable in photography. People are taking more photos now than they did 20 years ago, and with that comes an increase in photography skills in the general population.

Small businesses should capture that talent and use it to supplement their photography needs.

I would still recommend hiring a professional photographer at least once a year to capture your most important images – because as high quality as the iPhone camera is, custom, pro photos will always be the better option.

Budget about $2000-$3000 per year for professional photography. If that only gets you one or two photo shoots, then with the rest of the year, train your staff to take photos with their iPhones to fill in the content gaps.

Keiki Krate is a good example of this. They hired me to take professional photos of kids playing with their products, and for their product photos, they used their iPhone:

It’s important to note: Just because someone has an iPhone, it doesn’t mean they’ll take awesome photos right away.

Good phone photography has a lot to do with the person’s skills, creativity and training.

Invest in group phone photography training workshops. Make time for your staff to learn photography online and practice in real life.

Start using phone photos to create content for your social media platforms, newsletters and your blog. Mobile phone photos can do extremely well for that specific usage.

But when it comes to your product packaging, online ads, print marketing and your website, hiring a professional photographer is a must.

WHEN TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL AND WHEN TO TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTOS?

With this simple planning strategy:

Make a list of all the visual content you need to create for your business.

It could look something like this:

• Website
• Online Shop
• Blog
• Newsletter
• Store signage, brochures, pamphlets
• Product packaging, gift cards, coupons
• Social Media
• Staff Headshots
• Anything else you might think of…

Once you have a list of the photos you need for your business, categorize them under iPhone Photography or Professional Photography.

For example, this is what I would suggest:

Now that you know what content you have to create, and who can create that content, start by making a photography plan.

PLAN FOR PRO PHOTOS, PLAN FOR DIY PHOTOS

Schedule your professional photography shoot with a trusted, experienced photographer. Communicate what photos you need taken, what they will be used for, and what you are hoping to convey through those photos. A good photographer will then build a custom project to accommodate the creation of these photos with quality, on time and within your budget.

Once your must-have pro photos are accounted for, you can focus on creating the rest of your content with your phone camera.

First, make a list of the photos you’d like to have your staff (or yourself) take with their phone cameras.

Before sending them off to create the content with their phones, make sure to follow this checklist:

• Make sure your employees’ phones are newer. Anything older than an iPhone 13 could have quality issues.

• Make sure they are editing their phone photos using Lightroom Mobile. It’s one of the best photo editing apps out there, trusted by millions of photographers for over a decade. There is a free version that is extremely powerful, but the paid version is pretty awesome (and affordable).

• Make sure they have some basic photography training and knowledge about how to take good photos with their phone. Photography is 90% knowledge, skills and creativity. Ten percent is gear. Consider hiring a photographer to teach a group workshop on the basics of phone photography for your staff.

• Find online content or a phone photography education newsletter for your staff to subscribe to. This will keep them in the loop and constantly learning as photographers. Most of this content is free – it’s just a matter of finding good ones. I offer one for free here:

• Foster a creative environment for your staff. Being creative and valuing that skill in your company culture is crucial. The more creative your staff is, the better results you will get from them across the board. Especially if they are your in-house content creators, encouraging growth as creatives is essential. This can be done by doing creativity-building workshops, finding online content that teaches this, or again, finding a newsletter that provides creativity growth skills and practices.

Now that you have allocated a reasonable annual budget for professional photography and that you have trained your staff to create decent phone photos for the rest of your content creation, you can rest assured that you are doing the most with your small budget.

As you stay consistent with showcasing your photography, promoting your business through visual content and posting regularly on your social media and your blog, you should start seeing a growth in business.

And growth in earnings means you can reinvest it into your business. This should include investing in more professional photography shoots, but also in social media marketing (which will always include phone photography, which your staff can continue to do).

Looking to learn how to take better photos with your phone? Subscribe to my phone photography newsletter here:

I send out regular e-mails to help you overcome common mistakes and create stunning photos with just your phone.

Looking for a free iPhone photo editing app? Download Lightroom Mobile and start transforming your phone photos into pro-looking images. Learn more here ->

Disclosure: I only endorse photography products I’ve personally used. If you purchase any products using my referral links, I may get a small commission. However, there is no extra cost to you.