Stock photos can help or hurt your brand. Learn how below, plus where to get some for free.

In a previous entry, I talked about using mood boards to establish a brand style. If possible, use photos with a neutral palette or one that’s similar to your branding.

With a little editing, you can also change the hue of the photo so it goes better with your scheme. I edited the dog photo below to be a little bluer and more muted.

Stock photos can help illustrate your points and ideas, and even make concepts more clear. But don’t use stock photos just for the sake of it - make sure they mean something and serve a purpose.

There’s a common style of stock photo that will instantly date your brand. I’m not sure how to describe this type of photo (faceless abomination is bewildered by cyberspace?), so I’ll show you what I mean.

I could look at these all day. I think they’re extremely funny. If a graphic or illustration looks like it was created in the faceless man era or before, don’t use it.

Many design platforms come with libraries of stock images and artwork. I also find myself using Pexels a lot for free photos. Their library isn’t the most robust, but most of the images are free and don’t require attribution.

Pixabay is another good source, along with sites geared towards academic presentations and projects. If you find one of these websites, make sure to check if the photos are fine to use for commercial purposes.

I found this on my bad stock photo hunt. Seems important.

❤ Bayley​​​​

Here are three apps that I use to make social media posts stand out. Try these out for yourself - they’re all free!

A while back, I posted an entry about tiling photos on Instagram. With this app, it’s so easy. Check out these tiles I created for Christine Marguerite Designs.

Almost everyone knows about Prisma by now, but it’s so cool! Make any picture look like a painting, poster, or sketch.

Palette comes in handy for me a lot. Create color schemes based on pictures and post cool palette photos.

That’s it! Good luck!

❤ Bayley​​​

A short one this week. I just wanted to share a trick or a “hack” (ugh) that I use on photos to make them look sophisticated and on-trend.

It seems like every trendy Instagram photographer loves to take pictures of their breakfast, or their day planners on top of their nice marble countertops. But what if you don’t have nice marble countertops?

Well, those Instagrammers might not have them either, because there’s a whole industry of realistic looking photo backdrops. Sleek marble, rustic wood - you can create almost any atmosphere you want.

Just a quick search on Etsy brings up tons of results for backdrops of all sizes and patterns, like these.

I haven’t tried any of these backdrops, but I use something even cheaper: a marble patterned white board from Target. It has the right shiny finish and I love the way my minimal flatlay photos look on top of it. It was less than $10!

So there you go. Anyone can achieve this sophisticated look, in product photos or just for fun.

Stay tuned for another entry about flatlay photos.

❤ Bayley​​