To live for the stock of it all

Stock images: they're so hot right now

In case you haven’t heard, stock images are all the rage right now. Like most of you, I spent my early bookstagram days sourcing images from Pinterest and living my best life. About a year ago, when I started creating for authors, I began my transition to exclusively using stock photography for edits. It’s been…a journey. Not easy, definitely time consuming, and something I didn’t realize would eventually become a source of joy. So today we’re talking stock images and what I’ve learned over the last year!

First, WHY stock?

I’m not a lawyer¹, but I know a bit about copyright. Pinterest consists of user-uploaded images - some may be free use, most are not (and some are AI…just sayin’). If you read Pinterest’s copyright page, it essentially says you need to get permission from the copyright holder to use their image (and that Pinterest does not always know who the copyright holder is.) If you use images that are not free-use or royalty-free, you run the risk of a lawsuit or a cease a desist. What are the chances of that happening? Small…but never zero.

So…what do the different usage rights MEAN?

When you’re looking at licenses, there are a few and they have unique attributes that you need to be aware of:

• Royalty-Free: you pay once for these and can use them in content or sell them commercially - i.e. include them in swag, your cover, etc.

  (note: you cannot resell these as they are…they need to have something changed)

• Public Domain (CC0): you can use these freely for creative or commercial purposes (you don’t have to credit the creator, but absolutely can!)

• Extended or Enhanced Licenses: gives you access to unlimited print runs, product resales, or merch use (basically, you can do anything with this…but it tends to be $$$).

Where do I get my stock images?

There are a billion² stock image sites - free, paid, and everything in between. I use a BUNCH of them. Remember, if you’re incorporated/self-employed and paying for stock image sites…

Free Sites:

Dupe Photos - creator-uploaded, public domain images. These tend to be more vibey, aesthetic, Pinterest-like.

Pexels - a massive treasure trove of stock images that you can use as you wish (as long as they are altered in some way)

Unsplash - there is both a free and a paid option here, and you can find images as well as browse user collections

Pixabay - similar to Pexels in terms of what’s available

Kaboompics

Paid (subscription for unlimited downloads):

Unsplash+ - most of my image gallery comes from Unsplash+…(imho, it’s worth the monthly fee!)

Vault Stock - the MOST vibey photos, beautiful editorial-like pictures that I tend to gravitate towards

Death to Stock - if you want to go a bit grittier, a bit more unique, a bit more AESTHETIC….this is the place. There are so many gorgeous photos and videos here, AND they tend to have a good range of diversity in their models.

Canva Plus subscriptions come with access to Pexels & Pixaby, so you can often find amazing photos there too

Paid (individual photos - you pay a fee and get a number of downloads included):

Shutterstock

Adobe Stock

Deposit Photos

How to find what you want…and make it your own

The key with stock imagery is time. Time spent searching, time spent saving/organizing, time spent editing. It can seem incredibly daunting at first, but as you get more involved in your stock site(s) of choice, you will quickly learn the tricks that work for you. To get you started, though…

• Play with synonyms: i.e. instead of “love”, try “amorous”, “skin”, “intimate”, “kiss”, “sensual” (or any of the ones we talked about here), or instead of “man”, try “guy”, “dude”, “bro”.

• Talk about the vibe you’re looking for: I love “35mm”, “analog”, “vintage”, “polaroid”

• Give some descriptions of what you’re interested in: i.e. “brunette woman”, “guy tattoos”, “hot man”, “curvy female”

• Follow your favorite creators: most of the free and subscription sites will have creators that upload their work…if you find a picture you really love, go to that creator’s page. Often, you will find a ton more that you can use for other projects! We’ve provided some suggested creators in the past here and here.

Take all of these, Frankenstein your search (“curvy female 35mm europe”, “couple dancing rain”) and scroll scroll scroll until you find what you love (pro tip: most of these sites will recommend similar photos when you click into one…don’t overlook this!)

Pexels “More Like This”

Next comes editing: stock photos nowadays are beautiful and can be super diverse. You just need to know where to look AND how to edit. Don’t look for perfection…look for general vibes. If you find a photo that’s 90% there for your couple, but the background isn’t right - no problem! Just remove the background in Canva! If the faces aren’t quite what you had in mind - easy! Crop it so that you’re just seeing the model from the neck down and maybe add some unique elements like old film strip edging. We did a post on this, too (and I’ll be going more in depth on Canva tips and tricks).

Finally, how do you organize your 5,237³ stock image library?

I organize in the most lo-fi way possible - my camera roll has all my stock images saved in folders (“Western”, “Families”, “Vibes”), and I have them saved in my Canva (my trick is revealed below). I tend to create on my tablet a lot, so having these handy works for me.

That being said, if you’re really big on organizing and need something a LITTLE more cohesive thann JUST your phone or random photos on your computer:

1. Airtable - a lot of content creators and author services companies will use Airtable for organization. The learning curve can be a bit steep (there are creators out there like @debrakelsey and @bookedwithrae that offer services to help you set it up for you), but once you learn it, it can be invaluable - and it’s cloud-based so you can access it anywhere

2. Canva - organizing photos in Canva is NOT the easiest thing. But there is a (simple and effective) hack for you to use: folders! In Canva, you can create "Folders” to help organize yourself. Select “Projects” and “Create New Folder”. You can always easily access these from the left-hand menu (just below “Uploads” and “Draw”), no matter what you are creating. You can set folders up by theme (ie. cowboy, women, men, etc) OR by individual books (highly recommend this because you can not only add your book-specific stock images for easy access, but you can add brand kits within this too - so your book colors, fonts, assets can all be included as a one-stop shop).

And that’s…it! Stock images can feel scary, but as long as you’re ok playing around in the sites and doing some light editing, you will quickly learn what works for you and your books and the world will be your oyster.

*And a final PSA: if you’re working with content creators and paying for services, I highly recommend requesting that they only use stock.

xo

Ada

1. Though I do yell “LAWYERED” whenever I win an argument with my husband.

2. Dozens.

3. That’s what I currently have saved on my phone & computer…I have more images of cowboys than I do my own kid at this point.