Low, High or Stock Images!

by | Mar 14, 2018 | Under 500 words, Website Inclusions, Websites

One of the regular discussions I have with clients is in relation to the images they want to use on their site. This is an area I have a few definitive opinions on, and so, I decided to cover them below.

Personal photos trump stock photos except when low quality

I love using personal photos in designs. I prefer using them in my designs, except… when I don’t.

 

What I mean by that, is that while personal photos allow you to convey a more personal touch with your site, the images need to be relevant and of a good resolution.

Good resolution?

If a photo is blurry, saved as particular types of files or small to begin with; there is only so much you can do with the image to increase the size and only so much size can be increased. If the image is of a high quality, you can resize it countless times without it becoming apparently blurry or pixelated.

Stock images

This is why I will sometimes rely on stock images to fill in the gaps on websites or when building sites recommend the use of stock images if the qualities of others are low.

Stock images are usually created in a way that they can be resized without issue, retaining their resolution and not becoming blurry, pixelated or otherwise distorted.

The Best Option

When building and designing sites, we ask for high resolution photos. Photos of you and your business are always best, but only if the end product allows you to see what they are about. Stock can fill in the gaps, but can’t capture you or your business as well as your own can.