Why use stock photography?

High quality photos will make or break your website. Quality photography makes a huge difference to the overall impression of a website has the power to make your brand, tell your story and sell your product. In the competitive world of websites first impressions count and quickly creating consumer trust is essential.

As a web developer I often face the challenge of clients providing website photography which is low quality, an inaccurate representation of their product or brand or photography that is potentially in breach of copyright restrictions.

Simply put great photography will have a positive impact on your website. If you do not have professional photos of your business the use of stock photography will enable you to incorporate high quality imagery to your website either for free or for a fraction of the cost of a photo shoot. Stock photography is therefore a very cost effective option to ensuring your website boasts high quality images and positively portrays your brand.

What are the best stock photography websites?

I’ve been sourcing stock photography for my clients websites for over 10 years and to save you some time here are my favourite stock photography websites:

Adobe Stock

My #1 pick is Adobe Stock – it’s one of the largest stock image sites with over 100 million really beautiful images and videos housed in an easy to use interface. They offer a one month free trial where you can download 10 images for free with no commitment to continue.

Shutterstock

With over 190 million images and 10 million video clips, Shutterstock are my next go to stock image website due to their huge variety.  Images can be purchased in bundles of 5 images or a monthly subscription.