When you take a look at a company websites, brochure, or even some news websites these days you are more and more likely to find stock photos. It’s turning into the fastest growing market in the photography industry, with everyone from professional photographers to enthusiastic amateurs uploading their snaps to one of the various available stock photo libraries. These sites are often relatively cheap, have a huge range of images to choose from and save you the time and money needed to actually acquire the services of a photographer yourself.

So, under the circumstances, why should your business take on a professional photographer?

People Know What Stock Photos Look Like

Like I said, by now we’ve got used to seeing stock photos everywhere. When we see a photo of a guy in a suit grinning ecstatically while doing an overenthusiastic star jump again a white background, we can guess you got it from a stock photo website. If an ethnically diverse and photogenic group of people is gathered around a laptop with concerned expressions on their faces, we can guess you got it from a stock photo website. If a man has what looks like a bill in his hands and looks exasperated, well, you get the idea.

Frankly, stock photos feel fake, they’re image fluff that companies use because the Internet means we don’t trust readers with large bodies of text anymore. By getting in a commercial photographer, you can create some photos that actually tell your customers something about the company they are dealing with. Whether it’s documenting your workplace environment, how your staff interact with their clients and each other, or even just a good shot of the product you are trying to sell, a professional photographer can tell stories with your images, rather than simply providing filler pictures.

The Image is Completely Under Your Control

It’s completely possible you already have a good idea what images you need for your web content, brochure or set of promotional drinks coasters. Given the range of stock photos is practically infinite, you shouldn’t have that much trouble finding the image that you need. For instance, should you need it, stock photo libraries often contain an extremely wide range of images of a baby in a cooking pot with an assorted range of vegetables. The vegetables can be your standard root vegetables or slightly more exotic fair such as green peppers. The baby can come with a chef’s hat on, or without and they may, or may not be holding or chewing on a wooden spoon.

However, having scrolled through the library of one or more stock photo libraries to find the image that exactly fits your criteria, you will also have to check exactly which rights are available for that image. It’s possible the rights are available for brochures, but not advertisements or promotional items such as your tie-in drinks coasters.

Even if the rights are available for everything that you require, you’ve no way of knowing that your competitor won’t also have a “baby in a cooking pot with assorted range of vegetables” themed campaign that they’re planning to run, which could lead to both of you using exactly the same image.

By hiring your own photographer, you can ensure that the photos he takes have exactly the right baby, vegetables and cooking implements you require in the shot, you can discuss exactly what you need to use the photograph for, and most importantly, you can guarantee that nobody else will be using the same image.

You Don’t Just Get an Image, You Get the Photographer’s Expertise

Knowing how images work is a learned skill just like anything else and there’s a lot more to photography than pointing and clicking. By hiring a professional photographer you don’t just get unique images and complete control over how they are used. You also get that photographer’s years of experience learning about the best composition for an image, and which images work best for what purposes.

A good professional photographer will of course listen to your requirements and ideas and do everything they can to make those ideas a reality. However one of the advantages of hiring a professional photographer is that you can listen to their ideas as well, allowing you to select the best possible images to sell your business.