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Stock photography offers undeniable advantages in price and convenience — but in the long run, custom photography is often a better investment for businesses.
Stock photography vs. custom photography has been an ongoing battle for ages, so today we are going to review some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
First, some definitions: stock photography is professionally-shot photography that anyone can purchase for commercial use. There are a wide variety of stock photography providers, and it’s easy to browse them online using keywords in order to find photos that might serve your purpose. You buy a one-time license to use a relevant photograph, so you can have professionally-shot photography available to you in just moments. Like all other marketing agencies, we use stock photography for a wide variety of clients and purposes when custom photography isn’t available, or doesn’t make sense. It’s an invaluable marketing tool for many purposes.
Custom photography is shot on-site at your business, specifically to serve the purposes of the project at hand. It requires an actual photo shoot, which can sometimes be challenging depending on what your business is, where it’s located, or even the time of year (if your business is seasonal or operates outside). Obviously, initial costs of obtaining custom photography are much higher than stock, but you’re not purchasing a one-time license to use one shot—instead, you can use all the photography from a custom shoot (which generally results in dozens of shots) over and over in many different projects.
Creating a connection with your potential and existing customers is one of the most important goals you should have to expand your brand awareness. Brands thrive off of relationships they build with their customers, and prioritizing your brand’s visuals through custom photography allows you to build connections that just aren’t possible using stock.
Building that connection is important for your brand and customer base, helping your brand to stay relevant and memorable in customers’ minds. Custom photography for organization helps captivate your audience, and can even give you an opportunity to connect your brand to the community around it. Even if some of your audience doesn’t realize it, showing your brand as a part of the community—showing your neighborhood, and recognizable landmarks—will resonate in their memory.
Employing custom photography that tells the story of your brand and region is a great way to increase engagement with your audience.
One of the biggest negative consequences of using stock photography is the inability to present a relevant, engaging, and identifiable message that’s specific to your business. Stock photography has these disadvantages:
Especially when your primary audience is in the neighborhood you serve, it is imperative to use photography in your branding that highlights the product or services you offer, your facility or workspace, and your neighborhood. Ultimately, employing custom photography that tells the story of your brand and region is a great way to make a connection with the surrounding community.
People choose stock photography over hiring a professional photographer for two main reasons: price and convenience. Since many businesses don’t think about photos until they’re needed, the convenience alone often steals the spotlight. For some purposes, purchasing stock is a reasonable course of action. However, while using stock photography is cost-effective and convenient in the short term, you may pay for it through all the disadvantages outlined above. There are a few more angles that most people may not consider when thinking about if custom photography is a good fit for their business.
Some businesses try to get inexpensive custom shots by taking snapshots of their own, sometimes using a cell phone or other simple camera. Unless you are a trained photographer, this is very unlikely to provide good results, and the quality of your finished project is directly dependent on the quality of your photography. When faced with the choice of professional stock photography vs. poor custom shots for a project, we almost always choose professional stock photography.
Hiring a professional photographer to capture images that are specific to your business, the area you serve, and the products or services you offer provides a multitude of benefits. You will have invested in a large pool of relevant, high-quality photos tailored directly to your needs, and you can use these for years to come.
Whether you need product shots, portraits or other custom images for your project, our photographer will work with you to capture a look that ideally fits your campaign. We can set, stage, light and capture scenes within your workplace, aerial photography of your business, products in motion and so much more.
View our online photography portfolio. By Jacob Law. Read about Jacob on our Meet Our Staff page.Check out INNOVATIVE TOMATO, our sister company that specializes in digital advertising, mobile app development, and video & motion graphics.