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All these photo techniques are going to be useless if you don't know how to choose the right photos
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for your designs.
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In this lesson, I'm going to teach you how to pick photos like a pro. The photos that you'll be using
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for your projects are called stock photos. Which you download from free stock sites like Unsplash and
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paid ones like iStock.
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Now, the big chunk of stock photos are plain terrible.
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I'm sure you have visited websites that use photos like this.
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What exactly is the problem with this photo?
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Models are looking good.
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They are dressed well.
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They are smiling. The photo is good quality and taken in professional setting. Everything on paper seems
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correct.
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But the photo is still lame.
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Why is that?
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Because it's clearly fake.
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It is clear that these aren't actual business people. Its models doing a silly pose with fake smiles
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on them.
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Now all professional photos are made like this. A model that is acting a specific role in the photo, wearing
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clothes
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that's not theirs, portraying a specific emotion and getting paid for it. And that's fine.
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But if the photo is done well, we shouldn't be able to tell what's happening in reality.
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Think of it like movies.
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We know that these are actors.
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We know that they're not actually standing on a ship in 1912.
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They're wearing costumes and acting a scene.
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But when a movie is made well, we can't tell.
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We forget that it's actually fake and that these people are just pretending.
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The same is happening here.
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They are wearing costumes and pretending. But unlike good actors these guys suck at it.
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Do you know what happens when you use a photo that looks fake?
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You're sending a very bad message to your audience.
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If the photo is fake and pretending, then the website is going to feel fake and pretending. No real people
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behind this website.
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If I call them or email, I'm not gonna get a response from real people.
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Or worse.
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It might even be a scam website.
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It takes a little practice to tell good stock photos from bad ones.
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But here are 3 questions to ask yourself when you're looking at photos.
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Is the scene real?
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Would something like this happen in a real-life scenario? So, would people who work in the office stand
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in front of a camera and hold hands like this?
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If you have ever worked in the corporate office, you know that last thing you want to do is to hold hands
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with your co-workers and stand in front of a camera.
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So the answer is clearly no. Fake. Or this photo
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for example, what do you think?
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Is this scene real?
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Obviously not.
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For starters, the doodle on the glass is a complete gibberish.
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It's random charts and arrows. It makes no sense.
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And what's with that clipboard?
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It's such a cliché way to describe an office scene.
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This photo on the other hand is a different story.
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It looks like a realistic meeting. And people are wearing clothes that you'd actually see in modern offices
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today.
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They're talking with each other, which is what happens in meetings. Not holding hands and staring at a
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glass board with nonsense doodles on them. Fake.
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Second way to tell a bad stock photo is by cheesy, fake emotions.
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This doesn't look like a genuine human emotion of excitement.
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Neither is the scene anywhere close to real-world in this photo.
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Have you ever held fake money in one hand and a magnifying glass in another?
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Or this guy who is just so excited about some fake good news on his fake laptop.
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Nice try buddy.
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Acting out genuine human emotions in front of a camera, in a photo studio is a difficult thing.
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That's why so many of these models are doing a terrible job at it.
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Don't reward their poor work by using their photos in your project. And also don't ruin your designs
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with such photos.
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It's not difficult to tell if acting looks genuine.
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This is what a genuine excitement looks like.
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Not this. Even subtle emotions like a regular smile can look very unnatural and fake like this photo.
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And when it's done right, it looks genuine and inviting.
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Ask yourself, if the emotions feel real.
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You'll probably be able to tell quite easily. Besides what models are doing inside the photo,
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you can also easily tell a bad stock photo from a good one by paying attention to the set design. By
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set
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I mean everything besides the model. Where the photo is taken, objects in the shot, even clothing the model
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is wearing. A lot of stock photos are often quite old.
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They have been taken ages ago, but are still being sold and used on websites.
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You really don't want to use a decade old photo for a modern technology startup website.
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By paying attention to clothing you can easily identify dated photos.
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You don't have to be a fashionista for this.
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Use your common sense.
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It's not difficult to tell that no girl of her age would wear something like this today.
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This doesn't actually mean the photo was taken a long time ago.
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Sometimes photos are new but photographers reuse same wardrobe. Photo studio save their costumes from
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the shoots and they reuse them with other models and new scenarios
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years later. Clothes that don't fit are a clear indicator that the scene is fake. Even if it was modern.
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Like this poor girl here.
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Photo studios will also try to use neutral clothing, that can be reused years down the road, so they don't
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have to buy a new wardrobe every year.
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So you'll see this very bland clothing devoid of any personality. And that's another indicator too.
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But I think this photo has another clear tell. That computer screen. In well designed sets, like here,
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you'll see people wearing modern clothing. And a lot of times, quite suitable for their personalities.
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They look like real people. Not like a computer simulation.
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Pay attention to the objects in the set.
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Ask yourself, if they look realistic? Like this magnifying glass and fake money.
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Nothing says fake better than fake money. And stay away from everything abstract.
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For example light bulbs.
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God, I hate light bulbs.
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People love to use a frickin light bulb to represent things like idea, and creativity or thinking.
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It's so overused, makes me nauseous when I see it.
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Once I was working on a very premium website. And as a suggestion, my client sent me a light bulb to
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use as a background for a website. I nearly barfed on the computer screen.
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Abstract objects are generally a bad idea.
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Most of them look exactly that... abstract, confusing and often cliche as they are overused.
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Your designs should give an audience sense of understanding and authenticity.
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Anything abstract will do the opposite of this.
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Cliche puzzle pieces and clouds of our people's heads. Agh!