By the end of this post you will be able to look at every photo on your website, decide whether it is helping or hurting, and fix the worst offenders in an afternoon. You do not need fancy gear or a photographer for most of it. We will work through real photos vs stock photos, where each one belongs, and a simple audit that takes about 20 minutes.
Real photos vs stock photos: what you are really choosing between
Stock photos are images licensed from a library, shot for anyone to buy. Real photos are taken by you or someone you hire, and they show your actual people, premises and work.
The question is not which one looks prettier. The question is whether the image helps a stranger believe you are a real business that will turn up, answer the phone and do the job properly.
Stock photos often look polished, which is exactly the problem. Visitors may not be able to say why, but they pick up on the generic. Picture a plumber in Burleigh whose homepage shows a model in a spotless uniform holding a wrench. Nobody in Burleigh has ever met that person, and the customer knows it.
Where real photos earn their keep
Some parts of your website are about proof, and proof needs to be real. These are the places to prioritise:
- Your about page. People want to know who is coming to their home or who they will be dealing with. A plain, friendly photo of the actual team beats any polished group shot.
- Your work. Finished jobs, plated dishes, completed treatments, before and after shots. This is the closest thing to a free sales pitch you have.
- Your premises. A clear shot of your shopfront, studio or van helps people find you and trust that you exist.
- Your products. If you sell things, show your own stock as customers will actually receive it.
- Your contact page. A photo of the front door or the car park answers the question of where to go before anyone has to ask.
Here is a before and after line to make it concrete. Before: a stock image of a smiling group in a boardroom sitting above the heading 'Meet the team'. After: a phone photo of the three of you leaning on the ute, one person slightly squinting. The second one wins every time.
Where stock photos are perfectly fine
Stock is not the enemy. It does a decent job when the image is decoration or illustration rather than evidence. Good uses include:
Abstract backgrounds and textures, blog post header images, and concept images such as a calendar, a tax form or a set of keys. Illustrations and icons also sit in this group.
If you use stock, follow a few rules:
Check the licence. Make sure it allows commercial use and tell yourself whether attribution is required. A free library does not always mean free for business.
Skip the overused images. If the first page of search results for a stock library shows the same photo, your competitor has probably found it too.
Never use stock to stand in for your team or your work. It is misleading, and it is easy to spot with a reverse image search.
Do not grab images from Google search. Most are protected by copyright, and a claim can cost far more than a morning with a photographer.
The 20 minute photo audit
Set a timer and work through this on your laptop. You only need your website and a notepad.
- Open your home, about, services and contact pages, and list every image on each one.
- Label each image as real, stock or unsure.
- For any stock photo showing people, ask whether a customer would assume it shows you. If yes, it needs to go. If no, it can stay for now.
- Flag anything blurry, stretched, dark or dated, such as an old logo, a previous shopfront or a staff member who has since left.
- Rank your replacements: homepage first, then about, then services, then everything else.
Finish by writing a shot list of five images you can take this week. Keep it specific, like 'front of the shop', 'me at work on a job' and 'finished result from three jobs'.
How to take real photos that look decent on a phone
A modern phone is good enough for most website photos. What matters is how you use it.
- Wipe the lens with a soft cloth or your shirt. A smudged lens is the most common reason for hazy photos.
- Shoot in daylight, near a window or outside. Early morning and late afternoon are kinder than midday sun.
- Clear the clutter from the frame. Bins, cables and half-finished coffees all show up.
- Shoot landscape for banner-style images and leave some empty space in the shot.
- Take plenty. Thirty shots to get five good ones is normal.
- Show hands at work, tools in use and finished results rather than people staring into the lens.
If you want a more polished look for your team and premises, a local photographer is worth it once. Costs vary a lot depending on the length of the shoot and the number of final images, so get two or three quotes and ask what is included. A shoot every couple of years is usually enough.
Before you upload
Resize and compress each photo, because huge phone images slow your pages down, especially for people on patchy mobile data. Give each file a descriptive name, and add alt text that says what is in the picture. Also ask permission before showing a customer's face or home, and make sure your staff are happy to appear.
Common mistakes to avoid
Mixing styles. One bright, warm image next to a dark, filtered one makes the whole site feel patched together. Pick a consistent look and stick to it.
Burying your best photos. Many owners keep strong real photos in a gallery nobody opens, while the homepage runs on stock. Move the good ones to the front.
Over-editing. Heavy filters and extreme brightness make your work look different from what customers will actually get.
Leaving old photos up. If your van, uniform or shopfront has changed, your photos should too.
Using one image everywhere. Repeating the same photo across several pages makes a small site feel even smaller.
Four things to do this week
- Run the 20 minute audit on your four main pages.
- Replace the homepage hero image with a real photo of your work, premises or team.
- Write your five-shot list and take those photos in one session.
- Compress and rename every new image before it goes live, and add alt text.
If you would rather have a site built around photos that genuinely show your business, have a look at how we approach website design for small business. Or just send us your link and we will tell you honestly which images are working for you and which are not.