The same handshake.
The same meeting around a whiteboard.
The same smiling team in an office that could be located anywhere.
Stock photos can be attractive, professional, and easy to use.
But they can also make a company look just like any other.
So does that mean stock photos are always a bad idea?
No.
The question is rather what purpose the image is intended to serve.
Stock photos aren’t the problem in and of themselves
There are many situations where stock photos work just fine.
They can be useful if you need images for a specific topic, need to illustrate something abstract, or need visual material while your own images are being produced.
A good stock photo can easily be better than a dark, blurry cell phone photo that doesn’t fit the design.
The problem arises when the images become so generic that they don’t say anything about the company.
If the image could appear on the websites of ten competitors without anyone noticing the difference, it doesn’t really contribute much to your identity.
Your own photos show something that your competitor can’t copy
One of the greatest strengths of using your own photos is very simple:
They’ll show you.
Your employees.
Your products.
Your machines.
Your premises.
Your work process.
Your details.
It doesn’t always have to be large, staged photos.
Sometimes a good photo of an employee at work, a product being manufactured, or a detail from the workshop is far more interesting than yet another perfect stock photo of two people shaking hands.
This is information that only your company can provide.
Images help customers understand the company
Pictures aren’t just for decoration.
They can also explain.
If you run a manufacturing business, photos can show the size of the workpieces, the machinery, the materials, or the type of work.
If you’re selling a service, photos can show the people behind the business or the process the customer becomes a part of.
If you have a physical location, it can give customers an idea of where they’re going.
This makes the website more concrete.
And the more specific it is, the easier it will be for a new visitor to understand who the company is.
People want to see other people
On many company websites, the employee page is one of the places where user-generated photos add the most value.
If a customer needs to call Lars, Peter, or Mette, it’s nice to be able to see who they are.
In this case, I would almost always prefer real photos of employees over stock photos.
The same applies to images on an “About Us” page.
If the text describes a local business with 25 years of experience, but the image shows a picture-perfect stock photo team from an American open-plan office, the text and image begin to tell two different stories.
Poor-quality photos you’ve taken yourself aren’t automatically better
That doesn’t mean that every real photo has to be on the website.
A photo can be authentic and still be bad.
It could be:
- too dark
- out of focus
- taken in the wrong format
- poorly cropped
- visually cluttered
- too low a resolution
That’s why it’s better to give the pictures some thought beforehand.
For example, if employee photos are to be used in a 3:2 landscape format, it helps to know this before the photos are taken.
That way, the photographer or employee can capture a little more of the shoulders and the surroundings, and there will be room to crop the photo later.
You don’t have to choose one or the other
A website doesn’t have to consist of 100% of your own photos or 100% stock photos either.
A combination can work really well.
Use your own images in situations where your company’s identity and credibility are important:
- employees
- products
- production
- premises
- cases
- projects
- work processes
And use stock photos or illustrations when the image is meant to support a topic or an idea.
The most important thing is that the difference doesn’t become so great that the website feels like two different worlds.
Colors, cropping, lighting, and visual style should still be somewhat consistent.
Images and text should tell the same story
If the text says:
“We are a small business that maintains close contact with our customers.”
But the photo shows an anonymous call center with 40 employees wearing headsets; do these two elements work against each other?
The same applies the other way around.
Good web content is more effective when the images reinforce the message conveyed by the text.
See also: Website copy—how to avoid sounding like everyone else
If both the text and the images could belong to any company, it would be hard to remember which one you actually visited.
What if you don’t have any good photos yet?
That way, the website won’t crash.
Use the best photos you have.
If necessary, supplement with carefully selected stock photos or illustrations.
Then make a list of the images that are actually missing.
For example:
- Employee Profiles
- 5–10 photos from the production
- products in use
- the company’s building
- details from the work
- A great group photo
That way, “we need pictures” becomes a specific task instead of something that delays the entire website.
A good photo doesn’t have to be perfect
The most important thing isn’t necessarily that all the photos look like an ad campaign.
They must be a good fit for the company.
A genuine photo with a bit of personality can often convey more than a perfect stock photo that the visitor has already seen somewhere else.
So don’t just ask:
“Is the picture nice?”
Also ask:
“Does that say something about us?”
That’s often where the difference lies.
