Where To Find The Best Stock Photos for Your Brand

Aug 18

plus, the one stock photo membership I cancelled right away.

You probably won’t believe me if I told you that I tried so hard to begin this blog post WITHOUT saying a picture tells a thousand words, but sometimes if the metaphor fits, you gotta embrace it.

But in all seriousness, there’s a reason that adage is so popular. Images can convey emotions, feelings, and narratives that might take a considerable amount of words to express, shaping perception lonnnng before your messaging does. When it comes to branding your visuals are what draws saves, clicks, shares (and ultimately sales).

My goal today is to share my favourite free (and paid) stock photo options so that your brand visually communicates professionally, exactly what you want it to.

How do stock photos work?

Stock agencies receive collections of photos from photographers, who then license them to us, so we can use them in our businesses. These licenses can be free, or paid and can be for personal use or commercial (business) use.

You must follow the correct license agreement, and choosing not to is stealing (and that sucks, we don’t want to steal).

✨Scary Disclaimer: Pinterest and Google are NOT stock image libraries, and 99.99% of the time, taking photos off Pinterest is stealing (yes, even if you write that the photos off Pinterest, if it’s just for a IG moodboard, or if it’s the ooonly place that you can find your aesthetic. It’s stealing).✨

Okay, now that the Scary Disclaimer is out of the way. If you want high-quality photos for your business, you basically have two choices.

Work with a photographer on a custom photoshoot (best option)
Stock photography (still very good)

Stock photos are great because they’re accessible and affordable.There’s tons of great free options, and paid memberships that offer more specific, curated photos. The downside is that certain photos can become overused, and you need to get a bit creative when finding photos that avoid cliches (rolling up our business man sleeves to start solving a problem? Yeah, let’s avoid those).

Where to find cool, non-stock looking photos

Pexels / Unsplash/Kaboom

Pexels, Kaboom and Unsplash are the holy grail for designers. They have a beautiful selection of open source images and videos that would work for tons of industries if you can get creative. They’re pretty generous with their terms of use, which allow you to use their images for:

your blog or app
your website
product mockups
print and marketing collateral
social media

Basically, as long as you don’t do anything weird and nefarious with their photos or try to make money reselling them, you’re good to go. That being said, you’ll want to double check the licensing for each photo as some websites (Unsplash) do have individual images that require a license.

Hautestock

I had a Hautestock membership for my first year in business and it served me very well. Their high quality images are quite professional, feminine and would be best for female owned businesses, especially service providers.

Their terms of use are generous, allowing their videos and images to be used for your website, social media, ads, print design and blogging. I also appreciate how they allow you to use your membership for any business or blog you’re the owner of.

Best For: business professionals, service providers, creatives, bloggers, wellness, consultants, coaches, therapists

Editorial Stock Images

As the same suggests, these photos are more editorial and might not work for as many industries. Their galleries tend to be more dark and moody with an influencer/model vibe. While these photos might not be perfect for everyone, they’d be beautiful in printed collateral and brochures.

I love how they clearly outline in their FAQ that you can use their images on your website and social media, even after cancelling your membership. As a designer, I also love how you can also download photos a la carte on a per project basis.

Best For: travel and hospitality, fitness, wellness, wedding, interior designers.

Elevae Visuals

Similar to Hautestock, Elevae Visuals offers premium stock photos for a membership fee.Their photo library is on-trend and female focused with new galleries added weekly. Your subscription fee also includes some cool features like digital marketing training, Canva templates and caption banks.

Terms of use are similar to other sites, however they do allow you to use your membership for a maximum of 4 social media accounts, as long as the photos are transformed in a way that can’t be extracted (like a social media post saved as a JPEG).

Best For: social media managers, wellness, influencers, educators, service providers

Dupe

I admit, I didn’t even want to add this to the list (gatekeeping is my worst personality trait). Dupe’s photos give UGC vibes that are less polished and curated than the above recos. They’re perfect for social media or any brand that has GenZ on their radar.

Best of all? Totally free, with an extremely generous license that allows you to do basically anything other than use their photos to create a competitor service. I will say that you do have to do a bit more searching to find something that works for business applications, but what you do find will be a hyper-specific gem.

Best for: User generated content, social media, influencer marketing, lifestyle, travel

The Stock Photo Membership I Immediately Cancelled

Death to Stock

I feel bad anytime I share something I don’t recommend, but my opinion is honest and fair.

I personally found that their style of stock photos, while beautifully artistic and gritty, just didn’t work for any of my clients' brands or projects. Their licensing is extremely strict and once a membership is cancelled, you need to buy a license for every image used on your socials, marketing and website or remove them. That’s completely valid and everyone deserves compensation, it just felt like it might end up a hassle (or even worse, a legal battle) later down the road.

For clients, each image would need a license (similar to iStock or Getty) and at that point, I think a bespoke photoshoot might be a better brand investment. Again this was just my experience with my specific clients and their budgets/price points.

Feeling lost on what kind of photos feel aligned to your brand? Download my free build your brand workbook, full of guided prompts to gain valuable insight on your brand's personality and values, making it so much easier to consistently curate brand visuals, expertly craft your brand voice and pinpoint what makes you the obvious choice for your ideal clients.

If you don’t know me yet, my name is Shaylyn and I’m a designer focusing on high-end, strategic branding and websites that turn businesses into beloved brands. 👋🏻

Through clever brand strategy (not trends) and the perfect combination of beautiful, yet meaningful design, I’ll make your ideal clients and customers instantly feel like you’re a match made in heaven.

If you want to stay connected you can:

Download my build your brand freebie and I’ll guide you through developing your own brand strategy so your brand doesn’t just look good, but it works.

Read more of my blog for free weekly branding insights and tips

Check out my services for all the awesome ways we can work together on your brand or website (I promise to be the most fun expense you submit to your accountant)

Download my pricing guide for more of an in-depth look at my process, get a feel for what working together looks like, and love letters from my past clients.

Or you can always just send me an email, hello@kinddesign.studio or schedule in a free (no awkward, no strings attached) discovery call to see how I can help you with your brand.