5 Easy Tips & Tricks for Finding & Using Stock Photos
There are plenty of articles and blogs that list amazing resources on where to find quality stock photos, but I want to talk about how to put those stock photos to best use on your next project. Here are some simple tips & tricks to keep in mind when using stock photos.
1. Use Stock Photos That Don’t Suck
Ok this may be an obvious tip, but what I mean by this is to use stock photos that don’t look like stock photos. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, so find something that’s worthy of attention.
Anything that looks staged either comes off as boring or corny and doesn’t tell a story. Stock photos like the one below often look outdated.

Here are two awesome Medium articles that list some great free un-stocky stock photo resources:
33 Epic Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos (by Tomas Laurinavicius)
Best Free Stock Photo Websites (by Bradley Nice)
These articles go more in-depth about licensing and the types of photos you can find on these websites.
2. Waste Less Time Searching
Just searching for the right photo sometimes can be half the struggle. To save time, be specific as possible in your photo search. If you have a clear idea of what you need, the easier it is to know what you don’t want.
For example, let’s say I need to promote a young professionals networking event. I want an image that shows a business event with people. When I search for the word “business” on Unsplash, here are the results:

The results are all over the place, ranging from photos of city crowds to quirky business signs, with a whole bunch of randomness in between.
Now when I type in “business meeting”, I get a little bit closer to what I’m looking for. Here are the results:

This is a fairly simple example, but it shows how much faster you can pull relevant results just by being more specific in your searches. Every stock photo website is different, so they may have more advanced filters you can use, but the idea is the same. However, sometimes targeted searches can also narrow down images too much, so you can also try alternate keywords if that doesn’t work. For instance, “office” or “collaboration” might show useful images as well.
3. If You Can’t Find The Right Photo, Make It Yourself
Ok so if you’re a graphic designer or a Photoshop whiz, this may be a piece of cake. But you don’t need to be a photo magician for this easy fix.
Crop the photo to tell another story. Just because you can’t use the whole photo, doesn’t mean you need to throw it out. You don’t need to think outside the box for this, just deep within it. Similar to narrowing down your photo search, you can also look for specific details when you are looking at a photo. Find a detail to focus on in the image and crop everything else out so that this detail becomes the focal point. You can then use this “new” photo to better frame your story.


4. Color Sets the Mood
When choosing a photo, remember this is reflection of your brand or message. A food blogger will often choose vibrant photos that are saturated with color, while a healthcare company may opt for more neutral and cooler-toned images. No matter the subject, being consistent with your image tone across the board creates a clear, professional appearance instantly.

5. Do an Image Search of the Stock Photo
You want to choose a stock photo that is as unique as it can possibly be. Though this is hard to do because stock photos can be used for almost anything, so I sometimes like to check where and how the photos are being used. It also can give you some insight into how others have used it in the past, and how you can use that knowledge to apply it to your own project if applicable.
Here are two simple ways you can do this:
- Use Google’s Image-Based Search
Just upload the image or paste in the image URL and you can see where and how the image has been used across the internet.
Here’s what showed up for the cloud guy pictured at the beginning of this post. Sometimes the results are interesting…

2. Use this Reverse Image Search Website — Tineye
It’s a free resource that allows you to see where a photo originated from.
Conclusion
Ideally, using real high-quality photos works best, but if you don’t have the time or equipment, the right stock photo can do the job.
Can you think of any other tips or tricks when using stock photos?
