#TypeAndPhotos
Your photos are part of your brand
A post can look off because of the photo alone. How to choose or shoot photos that sit with your palette, and what stock photo licenses allow.
A post can have the right logo, the right colors and the right font, and still look like it came from somewhere else. Most of the time it's the photo. The photo is usually the biggest thing in the post, so it's what people see first.
What makes a photo on-brand?
Mostly, things that have nothing to do with what's in it:
- Color. A brand of warm terracotta and cream looks odd next to a photo that's all cold blue. Photos with tones from the palette sit with it naturally.
- Light. Bright and airy, moody and low, flat and even. Pick one and stay with it.
- Distance and crop. Close details, or wide scenes with room around them. Mixing both randomly makes a feed look scattered.
- People. Posed and smiling at the camera, or caught mid-moment. Real clients, or no faces at all.
Subject comes after all that. Two photos of different things with the same light and color look like a set. Two photos of the same thing with different light don't.
How does a brand guide handle photos?
A good guide includes a photography page with a handful of example images and a few lines about why they fit. One guide I made includes a page on balancing brand colors against real photos. Another covers which logo goes on which background and how to shoot food photos that fit.
The examples aren't there to be used forever. They're a reference, so anyone searching for images later knows what "our kind of photo" means.
Can a brand use stock photos?
Yes. Plenty of brands run on stock, especially early on. It works when the photos are chosen to fit, not grabbed because they match a keyword. Some habits that help:
- Search by mood and color, not topic. "Warm morning light desk" beats "business meeting."
- Skip the obvious ones. The top results for "coaching" appear on hundreds of other businesses' posts.
- Pick from a few photographers. Their photos already share a style.
- Edit them the same way. A small, consistent adjustment to warmth or brightness ties different sources together.
- Frame them the same way. A brand band, a color overlay or a set crop makes different photos look like a series. One brand's posts cut every photo with a diagonal band of color.
What do stock photo licenses allow?
It varies by site, so read the license for each source. A few points hold for most of them:
- Free doesn't always mean no conditions. Some free sites require credit to the photographer, some don't.
- Recognizable people have limits. Stock photos of people usually can't be used in ways that suggest they endorse you or relate to a sensitive subject.
- Photos usually can't be part of a logo. Most stock licenses don't let an image be used in a trademark. A logo needs to be drawn for you.
- Keep a record of where each photo came from, in case anyone asks.
When is it worth hiring a photographer?
When your face is the business. For most coaches, therapists, consultants and tour guides, clients want to see who they'll be talking to. A single session with a photographer who has seen your palette can give you a year of headshots and working shots that match everything else. Stock can fill in around them: textures, places and details.
Brand colors and brand photos have to work together. For how the palette itself is built, see how many colors does a brand need.
Questions people also ask
Can I use stock photos for my brand?
Yes, if they're chosen to fit the palette and mood and the license covers your use. Avoid the most downloaded images in your category, and never use stock as part of a logo.
Are Unsplash photos free for commercial use?
The Unsplash license allows free commercial use without attribution, with some limits, such as not selling the photos unaltered or using them to build a competing service. Always check the current license terms for any source you use.
How do I make photos from different sources look consistent?
Choose photos with similar light and color, crop them the same way, and apply the same light edit to all of them. A brand color band or frame across every photo also ties different images together.
Should I hire a photographer?
If your face is part of your business, as it is for most coaches, therapists and consultants, a short session for a set of headshots and working photos goes a long way. Stock can fill in the rest.
