Using/paying for stock photos for your business

[Blair]

Hey everyone,
I just looking for advice or opinions I guess. Do any of you or have any of you used or considered using or buying stock photos to put on your website/Facebook or in pamphlets/leaflets?
I am looking into stock photos and I just don't know if using stock photos will help. I think it looks more professional, but on the other hand does it look too fake.
I'm wondering if it's even worth getting stock photos for any of it. Any advice?

 

[BannerPenguin]

Stock photos are very good if used in the right way for both websites and price lists etc. We purchase them for our customers websites from 123rf.com. Every stock image site has different license restrictions so make sure you check.

 

[Glory Locks]

Hi Blair
I bought a licence for several to use on my own website, I've used them throughout my site in conjunction with photos I've taken myself. I think they can look great if used well and personally found they added an extra element and made it look a that bit more polished, but that's probably because I'm not the greatest at taking my own photos. I've seen many other sites where they haven't used them and they've managed to make theirs look great ....I think I paid approx' £50.00 for the licence for five stock photos, you can pay a lot less if you choose images in a lower quality resolution, but I decided to buy higher resolution to use them in print for brochures/leaflets without the image looking degraded....like BannerPenguin said check the small print for licence restrictions for where/how long you can use them for.

 

[Blair]

Hi Blair
I bought a licence for several to use on my own website, I've used them throughout my site in conjunction with photos I've taken myself. I think they can look great if used well and personally found they added an extra element and made it look a that bit more polished, but that's probably because I'm not the greatest at taking my own photos. I've seen many other sites where they haven't used them and they've managed to make theirs look great ....I think I paid approx' £50.00 for the licence for five stock photos, you can pay a lot less if you choose images in a lower quality resolution, but I decided to buy higher resolution to use them in print for brochures/leaflets without the image looking degraded....like BannerPenguin said check the small print for licence restrictions for where/how long you can use them for.

Thanks for your input! That's exactly my thoughts. I am awful at taking photos, they just look like I don't know how to use a camera.
I think I'm going to use some. And who knows maybe in a year my photography skills will have gotten better!