Chicken stock, stockyards and stock photography. What do these three things have in common? Stock, standard and similar. We know that stock photography is usually the lowest priced option when it comes to marketing photography, but we also know that it doesn’t necessarily offer the most visually stimulating options for your brand like custom photography can.

So let’s explore stock and custom photography in a close up.

1. Don’t Get Too Matchy-Matchy
Finding the perfect image to go along with your messaging is one of the hardest things to do. But is perfection the goal? Advertising usually starts with a concept, a headline, body copy and then the quest for an image that perfectly portrays your headline, right? Any designer will tell you that’s not the way to look at it.

I like to think about these things in terms of fashion. Blue earrings, blue necklace, blue bag, blue shoes. The perfect match, right? Well…here’s where my unnecessary amount of TV watching comes in handy – specifically “What Not to Wear.” I’ve learned “It doesn’t have to match, as long as it goes.” Go ahead and wear a pair of blue shoes with an orange necklace because they “go” together. Similarly, you can use a quirky photo of a dog wearing glasses and boxing gloves with a headline “It’s a dog eat dog world.” The point is that it’s not literal. It depicts the headline with a twist, even if it simply goes together.

2. Tug at the Heartstring
On the other side, custom photography adds that special touch – an emotional connection with the viewer. Stock photography has its financial advantages, yes, but it can also bring along a bunch of future setbacks and long-term branding issues, and that’s the last thing you need in your marketing campaign.

One huge downfall with stock photography is that people usually look unnatural and posey. We like to feature people “caught in the action.” Take wedding photography for example: You have the standard family set ups – Bride, Groom, Moms, Dads, Aunts and Uncles all faced forward looking at the camera. These photos make for great, long-lasting memories but it’s usually the candids – those snapshots of a moment in time  – that you remember the most. That’s the kind of photography you want to use in advertising for the long-term.

3. Go for the Long Shot
Unfortunately, you tend to lose the realistic qualities of the scene when you use stock photography. Setting up a photo shoot with models using your products gives you much more bang for your buck. Let’s say you own a clothing store but use stock photographs featuring models wearing brands you don’t even sell in your store. It may work for the short-term, but what happens when your customers start to question it or, worse yet, if those same stock photos show up in another store’s marketing materials. Where’s your unique brand in that? A custom shoot showing your own clothing and products will benefit your brand better in the long run because it will have legs to stand on.

4. The Bigger, The Better
One major benefit to a custom photo shoot is that you not only get unique photographs featuring the look and branding style you desire, but your designer can also size them according to your needs. When using stock photography, you’ll need to purchase images per size, per project. Rule of thumb: Get the biggest size for your needs. The key to that statement is for your needs. For Web graphics, you’ll need to get the file that uploads the quickest. On the flip side, you’ll need to buy another option for print, as those photographs need to be bigger. The savings in the end would be in the photo shoot scenario, because your designers can simply change the photos according to their needs and have quick access to all the stored size options.

5. A Make or Break Situation
As mentioned earlier, you want to use photography that matches up with your message yet shakes it up a bit. But many times designers will get a group of photos and are asked to simply “make it work” for whatever medium comes their way. That’s easier said than done.

Convincing a client that their current array of photos may not be of the best quality or support what is being said in the copy is a hard task to do. From an artistic standpoint, it’s not a good idea to simply throw in a bunch of images and hope for the best. It’s of the utmost importance to listen to the professional designer’s opinion ahead of time for the best end product.

The major takeaway from all of this is to look through the lens of longevity and notice that in the long run you will save precious time, money and branding efforts by using custom photos. Adding your own personal touches and products, versus using tired stock photography will make for better branding and a higher market value to your images overall.