New Era of Stock Photography

What does come to your mind when someone mentions “stock photography”?

Improbable scenarios, lousy acting, heavy editing? Where else, if not on stock photo websites you can find that many results for “people laughing next to the cooler”? 

Companies that use stock photos for the websites labeled being lazy and dull though this is far from reality. 

But the stock photos are not that bad. Of course, there are a few concepts no one can grasp. Sometimes, you even wonder “why would anyone ever want to use a photo like that?” yet now the time has changed. The world of stock photography evolves like everything else and has to adapt to current tendencies. 

In this article, we’ll talk about the main differences between stock photo and photography. We’ll take a closer look at a few recent photoshoots we’ve done here at Freepik Company and see how our photographers give stock photos a new twist. 

The difference between stock photo and photography

Companies use stock photos a lot. Often different companies use the same or very alike photos that picture vague concepts such as “happy employees,” “trust,” “reliability.” Users can spot staged images, and instead of desired emotional connection and trustability from the customer, companies have a different result.

The photographer can help you capture the true essence of your brand. If you show pictures of real employees on the website, your customers are most likely to feel more assured that they are not being lied to.  

You may ask, then why do companies use stock photos? Not all of the businesses have time and resources to create unique content. Plus, stock photos are very accessible and usually available in high-quality.

However, in recent years, stock photography has changed. Don’t get us wrong, good old “employee making a presentation, and the rest of the team is listening attentively” still there. But with the new types of companies and with the latest trends stock photos have grown and improved their presence. 

Why do companies use stock photos?

Firstly, producing own photos for the business (mainly marketing) can be expensive for some companies. So it is cheaper to get stock photos (or a subscription and have unlimited access) than to pay the entire cost of a photo shoot.
Secondly, some companies use stock photos to save time: it is way faster to find on stock websites the photo that you can use.
Finally, Stock photos are of high quality, so companies can quickly adapt them to every platform: for the web, social media, or even printing. There are many other ways to use stock photos: in branding strategy, as content-fillers, etc. Stock photos do not mean bad photos, especially these days.

Recently some of our photographers have prepared a few exciting conceptual photoshoots. They have worked on the story, tried to use their photos to send the message and get emotions. They look like art photos, and they are. Art photos you can download on Freepik and use for your projects. 

Light

Concept developed by Valeria Schettino & Antonio Libert

Photo: Valeria Schettino

Retouch: Antonio Libert

Models: Samah El Mernissi & Antonio Daniel Barrera Santana

This project is telling us about the searching for identity and difficulties that it implies. 

The idea of this project was to work with two different models but try to represent them as parts of one. 

Two parts of the same self that look like never are going to find each other. Each time they have an opportunity to see each other, they feel like ghosts, without recognizing themselves. Confused and uncomfortable, these eyes look at the viewer to shout without words, in silence with the only use of lights and colors. 

Colores camouflage reality and make you feel in an alternative universe where everything is ever-changing, and nothing is safe. That is why photos alternated with antagonistic expressions. One moment it is full of energy, fearless, and in the next one, everything changes and despair takes over.

These photos make us look deeply into ourselves, find different emotions within us. We thought of some independent or art projects, or even associations who can use these photos as help for defining their identity and transmit their message to the audience. 

Nature

Concept : Luis Cabeza y Tadeo del Río

Photography: Luis Cabeza

Retouch: Tadeo del Río

Models: Rosa Ortega y Rosana Sánchez

This project was born out of necessity to explore the current tendencies in photo editing and to compare the new digital world with the oldest analog photography techniques.

These days we can clearly see some tendencies in photo editing, and it revolves around emulating analog-digital photography. We have hundreds of apps that imitate analogical filters and film-like photos like Kodak or Fujifilm. These filters make photos more vibrant, sharp, and timeless.

It’s widespread to give photos that “imperfect” and natural look so with this session we wanted to test both photography formats. To achieve the natural look we were going for, we chose to shoot in a natural environment where green and earthy colors dominate.

The session is done with Canon EOS 5D MKV 2019 and Yashica Mat 124g 1976. After that, we started to work on getting the digital file to be as close as possible to the analog photo. For that, we spend some time correcting the white balance, contrast, light, and color depth. All of that editing led to the result you can see.

World Photography Day

With this article, we want to show that there is a place for creativity and art in stock photos. They can be used by any company or for any projects, the trick is to find the images that speak to you.

 At Freepik, we have more than 500 000 photos, and we have daily content uploads. Whatever you’re looking for a businesswoman giving “thumbs up” to the employees or an internal search of identity captured with photos, you can count on us.

Today we’d like to give a shout out to all photographers of Freepik Company. They give the maximum every day creating the content you see on our web.