In a perfect world, we would all own a digital SLR camera, have the ideal flat-lay worthy white backdrop always on hand, not to mention all the lighting equipment needed in the absence of natural light being available.
Ain’t nobody got time for that! Unless you’re;
A) A professional photographer or –
B) A photography enthusiast who loves spending weekends taking your own photos as hobby.
I don’t mind doing a little of column B however time constraints do not always make this a viable option.
When you’re running your own business, the reality is that you will likely not have the time to invest in thousands of custom made images. But don’t be fooled, because custom images ARE important to some extent, especially if you’re a product based brand.
In this case I would suggest hiring a professional photographer to take a bunch of images for you so you can have an archive to use on your socials and website.
However for fill in images, you don’t require much time, effort or money to source some quality content! Here are my top tips.
Pinterest is your best friend: Sure, this may sound like a cliché but if you know how to use Pinterest to its full potential, you will have a bank of hundreds of images to use for yourself. Most will not require credits but in the event that you find some that you do, just disclose the source and you’re good to go! I currently have over a thousand images saved for CS which will last me a very long time! Not to mention, I keep adding to it when I find appealing images.
Utilise Instagram’s ‘save’ feature: If you follow likeminded accounts on Instagram, and think reposting some of their images will work well with your own account, then use this feature to save images into a folder that you can then revisit later. When you’re ready to use one, take a screen shot and be sure to credit the original Instagram account which posted the images when you use it!
Free stock image websites: Sites such as these have many hidden gems. Like Pinterest, make you use relent key words to search for images and scroll through to your hearts content. Hundreds of images are available and they won’t require copyright dedication and can be used for blog posts, marketing collateral, social media and your website!
Check out:
Photographer EDM subscriptions: consider subscribing to some photography EDMs as they offer free photos per month to their subscribers. I’m currently loving TwiggyPosts.
Need help sourcing and scheduling images for your social media? Get in touch with me today, I’d be happy to assist!
X Cat.
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