Stock photography has never been more affordable or accessible. Image options which in the past costs hundreds of dollars can now be found for a fraction of the cost. This has allowed designers in all forms of marketing to create beautiful, lively designs without blowing the budget.

When using stock photography in your website design, there are a few things you should try to avoid.

1. Settling on a photo which isn't perfect

For the most part, I like to start with a clear mental picture of what the ideal photo would be before I even visit a stock site. That way I’m not as easily swayed by the first decent picture I find. A word of warning — looking through pages and pages of photos in search of the perfect image can be a mind numbing and time consuming experience. It’s not uncommon for designers to look through hundreds of images or even a thousand images in search of the right photo.

2. Buying a size which is too small in order to save a couple dollars

It might be tempting to buy the smallest resolution available, but use caution. A photo that has been scaled up will look grainy, cheap, and washed out. Another problem when using a photo that is too small is not filling the space appropriately and have your website looking like its pants are too short. Know the exact dimensions and resolution you need and purchase accordingly.

Note: Buying for HiDPI and Retina displays

At Clutch, we’re developing more and more Retina-ready or HiDPI websites. For graphics to look sharp on Retina display devices, images are required to be produced at twice the size. If your banner image is 960 x 300 pixels, you’ll need to purchase a stock image which is at least 1920 x 600 for it to look sharp on a Retina display.

3. Using the photo as-is

I like to think of a stock photo as a starting point. Rarely is an image ready to drop into a website as is. Typically, a freshly acquired stock image will need some retouching to fit with the style of your website, or to to be used with other stock images. The basics can include:

• cropping
• colour balance adjustment
• levels and contrast adjustment
• blurring
• burning or dodging (darkening or brightening specific areas)

4. Using a cliché or overused image

Designers can spot stock photos everywhere. It’s a bit of a curse. And more often than not, we see a handful of images over and over and over. Whether it’s the businessman handshake or the group of gender and ethnically diverse business people from the 90's, these types of images have no place in a modern and fresh website. Look for modern, natural, well-lit, and interesting photos.

In the end, if the right amount of effort and care is put into using stock photography, your website will come alive with energy and flavour without looking dated, typical, and cheap.

Stock Photo Sites (at various price points)

www.istockphoto.com, www.bigstockphoto.com, www.dollarphotoclub.com, www.gettyimages.com, www.fotolia.com, www.shutterstock.com, www.123rf.com