Adding Images to Your Website

Images are a great way to help your website stand out! When used properly, they can help emphasize a point, add to the overall feel of the website, or provide clarity over what you are talking about. 

Hiring a photographer and using original photos can be a great way to show who you are and what your company provides. However, we know you won't always have room in the budget for a photographer or maybe you only need an image or two to complete your site. This is when we would start to explore stock image options! 

The most important thing to keep an eye out for when looking at stock images is the licensing of the actual image. It would be so easy if you could just search Google Image for what you are looking for but this is also an easy way to get in trouble. What you are looking for are royalty-free images that can be used for commercial purposes. It is also a good idea to check to see if accreditation is required. 

We know, this can seem like a lot to remember, but don't worry! Here are three of our favorite websites we recommend checking out. These sites provide content that is both royalty-free and ready for commercial use: 

1. https://unsplash.com/ - Currently only provides images, but they tend to provide more stylish options! 
2. https://www.pexels.com/ - Not only does this site provide top-notch images, but they also provide video options as well! 
3. https://pixabay.com/ - Admittedly can be a little hit or miss. We included them here though because not only do they provide both images and videos, but they also provide Illustrations!

Having a hard time finding an image? With so many options, it feels like it should be easy to find the perfect image, but oftentimes this is not the case. Here are a few tips to help you find the perfect fit! 

1. Changing your wording. A picture is worth 1000 words, but maybe you are just using the wrong ones? For example, maybe you are looking for the perfect plate of food to display on your website. You are searching for a plate of food, fresh fish, healthy food, and didn't think to search the word Cooking. With the addition of cooking, you might find the perfect option!  
2. Finding similar content. Maybe you are looking for a picture of someone dribbling a basketball but all of the image options don't fit quite right. Maybe look for images of basketball hoops, basketballs on their own, or maybe basketballs on a rack. These can be better options that still fit your page's content! 
3. Out of focus or cropped. We had a client that was looking for images of older people exercising, to match her target audience. All of the images she found were of younger people exercising. We put on our thinking hats and found some amazing images where people's faces were just out of focus, the image was from behind, or the image was from the waist down. These allowed her to get images that fit her content and were age-neutral to better fit her audience. 
4. Abstract. When all else fails go for something more abstract! Images of plants, mountains, patterns/shapes, textures, locations, etc. can all make great additions to the webpage you are working on!

Lastly, for the adventurous people out there. We are all carrying around pretty high-powered cameras in our pockets, why not give that a try? If attempting this, the main things to keep in mind are: have good lighting, use flattering camera angles, make sure you have a clean background, and know what kind of space this image needs to fill so that we can crop it accordingly (portrait vs landscape).