The Overuse of Stock Photography (and 3 Ways To Avoid It)
Apr 7, 2008 by Patrick Winfield | Design, Tutorial
OK, before I begin let me say that I use stock photography. Stock photos are a great convenience. I sometimes depend on it,
especially in a crunch or when I just need someone smiling and expressing happiness for a call center spot. That being said, there comes a time when stock photography is so obviously staged, politically correct fluff that screams “I am STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY!”
You all know the image, a group of happy employees who all are various ages, genders and races. Everyone is sitting around a desk pointing to a computer screen in some bland office interior.
Sometimes only the top few results are ever used in a stock library search and those photos are everywhere. How do we avoid these pitfalls of overused imagery and photography?
Don’t use the top results when searching. Everyone will use these. Dig a little deeper into the search and find something that is a bit different. There are tons of examples out there today showing the same photo on a cover of a book and than used for another companies homepage.
One famous example from several years ago is used on both a software design book and a feminine hygiene product. It is kind of like showing up to your friends party and someone else in the room has the same exact outfit on. Check out Presentation Zens list of some pretty good free sites to get photos from.
Shoot people (with your camera that is). Find your own co-workers or target audience and get a real world situation. This is a bit harder but it can be perceived as honest and surely unique, or if it is not done correctly it can look cheap. Models are models for a reason, they are either good looking or fit a certain type. Hiring models and shooting the photos in house will ensure your photos are unique, but this is what you are paying for.
I had a friend that found a stock photo of a skinny, middle aged, good looking white guy for his about page on his accountant for hirer site. Almost every client he met that came from his website noticed that he was overweight and balding and asked about the photo, “Is that you on your website?” Not cool. He realized the problem, we shot a simple portrait with basic lights from the office and nobody asked him again.
However if you shoot your own company workers it may be a good idea to make sure that they sign a model release, if they are no longer with the company in the future it may become an issue or you will just have to re-shoot.
Think creatively. If you need to find something from a stock library think outside the box. Maybe even go for the situational shot or metaphors. Do you have a yoga site or how to get better sleep article, use clouds or water, images that evoke a response subtly can be very effective. Also creatively edit the image, crop into it or combine two or more photos together to create a new photo.
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9 Responses to “The Overuse of Stock Photography (and 3 Ways To Avoid It)”
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It’s the guy with the white, capped teeth, sitting at a desk with a pen in his hand that puts me off everytime.
It amazes me how some so called design studios overuse such stuff.
I use it all the time in content, but have to work hard to find the right pic that does the job.
Good tips…definitely a problem.
Then there’s always Rights Managed – if you have to use stock photos. No one else can use the same photo for the time you license it for. Sort of a standard option in graphic design. (Before I was a WebGeek, I was a DesignGeek.) However, my first choice would be photo shoots…they usually are the most economical because for the price of two high-quality Rights Managed photos you can have 50 or 100 custom photos that are right on the money.
@ Lyndon- Yes, I have seen that guy, but never really saw him in the real world
I find that searching and spending a bit extra time to find the photo that isn’t a stock photo cliche is well worth it.
@ WebGeek- I always wondered why the example in #1 above never went the rights managed route? Seems like a no-brainer to me. I agree with you, photo shoots are the best if you have the time and a decent camera. Thanks for commenting
The multi-race-and-gender group sitting, smiling and pointing at the computer screen – that part made me laugh. There must be thousands of those floating around.
“The handshake” is another lousy one.
Or how about the guy with the chiseled jaw and glasses looking solemnly at the camera with his hand touching the tip of his chin?
Then you’ve got your run-of-the-mill line and bar graphs shooting upward. Or your hundreds upon hundreds of wooden blocks but one, oh that special one, is glowing red.
The random guy wearing a suit and jumping in excitement with the blue sky backdrop is another favorite.
It goes on and on…
@ MikeTek- Your in-depth list makes me think of doing a post on the top 10 best stock photo cliches…maybe for fun
Do it up! I’d definitely refer my share of traffic to that post.
Nice post and blog! Greets.
I Don?t Usually Reply to Posts But I Will in this Case! Awesome, What a Great Site and Informative Post, I Always Wanted to Write in My Site Something Like That. Thank You!
P.S: Please Take a Minute to Visit My Stock Market Website as Well: http://snurl.com/stockassault
your tip to us,,is very useful..i also want to write up n my own site like what you have done,,thnks