Stock photos solve a short-term problem: a layout needs a picture and there is no material of your own yet. The choice is wide, the cost is manageable and an image can be used straight away. One drawback remains: the picture does not show the company, its employees or the way it actually works.
On a company website that quickly turns into a contradiction. The text talks about personal advice, an experienced team or distinctive rooms. What the reader sees are interchangeable meetings, somebody else’s offices and people who have never worked for the business.
Where stock material makes sense
Stock pictures are not bad in principle. They can illustrate an abstract subject, bridge a gap or add to content for which no situation of your own can be photographed. They become a problem when they are asked to stand in for trust.
With teams, locations, production, hotels, restaurants and personal services, customers want to see who and what they are actually dealing with. Here your own pictures are almost always stronger.
What a production of your own adds
A corporate production can be planned around the places the pictures will be used:
- home page and service pages,
- team and recruiting section,
- LinkedIn and other social networks,
- press releases,
- presentations and brochures,
- advertisements and events.
Color, light and perspective follow the brand
Colors, light, perspectives and framing follow the visual identity that already exists. For more than twelve years I have been building picture sets like these for companies, hotels and brands. The portfolio holds around 340 productions for more than 100 clients – from industry and hospitality to restaurants, retail and associations.
Recognizable, rather than looking like a picture library
A good corporate photograph does not have to be spectacular. It has to belong unmistakably to the company. That can be a characteristic room, a real working sequence, a product detail or a gesture between two colleagues.
So before a production I do not only settle a shot list. The color mood and the lighting are agreed and then hold for the whole set. The result is not a mixed folder of single pictures but a visual system you can work with.
Stock material can support that system. The pictures that carry trust, personality and a concrete service should come from inside the company wherever possible.
A selection of real corporate productions is in my project overview. If you want to replace existing stock material with your own pictures step by step, a production can be prioritized by the pages and channels that matter most.
