Website photos: your own or stock images

Photos on a website work like a shop window: they are how people decide whether to trust you, even before reading the text. And the choice here is not between attractive and unattractive, but between yours and someone else's.

How do stock photos hurt a website?

Stock is easy to recognise: a perfect office, smiling people in suits, a handshake on a white background. The problem is not the quality but the fact that it is not you. A client is looking for proof that a real business stands behind the site, and stock says the opposite. On top of that, the same image may appear on your competitors' sites - and then you blend in with them.

Where on a website do you need only your own photos?

Team and specialists - the people who will work with the client. Someone else's faces here look like deception.

Premises - office, salon, workshop, hall: the client wants to know where they will be going.

Work and results - before and after, finished projects, dishes, products. Here stock is a substitution.

Process - how you do the work: a craftsman's hands, equipment, packaging.

For a car service these are the service bays and mechanics, for a restaurant - the dishes and the dining hall. Examples are in the articles Website for an auto repair shop: what it takes for clients to book and Website for a restaurant or cafe: menu, delivery, bookings.

When are stock images appropriate?

Stock is not evil as long as it does not pretend to be you:

Backgrounds and textures - abstract backdrops with no people and no places.

Illustrations for articles - when the image explains the topic rather than showing your business.

A placeholder before the shoot - while you have no photos of your own yet, but with a plan to replace them.

Use images only where the rights to use them are clear and stated. Someone else's photo from a search is not stock, it is a risk.

Can you take photos for a website on a phone?

Yes, if you follow the basic rules:

Light - daylight, from a window or outdoors, without a flash.

A clean frame - clear the clutter off the table and out of the background.

A level horizon - crooked lines give away amateur shooting.

Several takes - choosing the best is easier than reshooting.

People at work - not posing, but doing their job.

A natural shot with honest light convinces better than a staged scene that looks like someone else's.

When do you need a professional photographer?

When the photo is the product: a restaurant, a salon, real estate, furniture, clothing. Where the client buys with their eyes, the difference in light and composition affects the decision. You also need a photographer for the main screen if it carries a large shot of your space or your team. The rest you can shoot yourself.

Are images from AI suitable for a website?

For illustrations and backgrounds - yes. For your team, premises and work - no: a generated photo shows something that does not exist, and it is the same stock, only more convincing. If a client comes in and sees a different place, trust is lost. The same logic applies to texts - see the article Can You Write Website Copy With AI.

How do photos affect the speed of a website?

Heavy photos slow a website down, especially on a phone over a mobile network. What to do:

Compression - a photo for a website should not weigh as much as the original from the camera.

A lightweight format - modern image formats give the same quality at a smaller file size.

Size to fit the screen - do not load a huge image where it is displayed small.

Lazy loading - photos below the screen load when scrolling reaches them.

More in the breakdown Why Your Website Loads Slowly and What to Do.

Which photo should go on the first screen?

The photo on the first screen answers the question "where have I landed". A shot that shows what you do works best: a specialist at work, your hall, a finished product. The photo should not compete with the text: the heading and the button read over it without effort. A breakdown of the whole block is in the article The hero section: what belongs on the first screen.