Using your own photos instead of stock photos

For a small business website, your own photos almost always beat stock photos, even if yours are taken on a phone and the stock ones are perfect. Customers want to see your work, your place and your people, and they can tell a stock picture at a glance. Stock has a place, for backgrounds or for things you cannot photograph, but the main pictures should be yours. Taking good ones mostly comes down to light, a clean lens, a tidy scene and a steady hand.

Why real photos win

Stock photos are professionally lit, perfectly composed and completely anonymous. That last part is the problem:

They do not show your work. A stock kitchen tells a visitor nothing about the kitchens you build.
They are on other sites too. The smiling plumber with crossed arms on your home page may also be on three competitors' sites, and customers do notice.
They feel like a sales brochure. People looking for a local business want to see who will turn up, what the shop looks like and what the finished job looks like.
They can set false expectations. A model in a spotless salon sets up a different picture than your actual friendly, slightly busy one. Better that customers recognize the place when they walk in.

Real photos, even slightly imperfect ones, answer the questions visitors care about: is this a real business, and do they do good work?

When stock photos are fine

You do not have to ban stock entirely. It is reasonable for:

Background textures or abstract images behind text.
Things you cannot photograph easily, like an illustration of how a heat pump works.
A new business with nothing yet to show, for a short time, while you build up your own photos. See a website for a business with no photos yet.

Even then, avoid stock pictures of people pretending to be your team or your customers. And use only stock you have a license for; images found on Google are not free to use.

What your own photos should show

Before getting the camera out, think about what visitors want to see. For most local businesses:

The work: finished jobs, products, food, results.
The people: you and your team, ideally doing the work.
The place: your shop, studio, office or vehicles.
The process: hands at work, tools, the steps that show skill.

You will want a few horizontal photos for the wide spaces at the top of pages, and the rest can be either way.

How to shoot good photos with a phone

Modern phones take photos easily good enough for a website. What makes the difference is how you use them.

Light first

Use daylight whenever you can. Shoot near a window indoors, or outdoors in the morning or late afternoon.
Avoid harsh midday sun on people's faces; it makes deep shadows and squinting. Open shade, like the shady side of a building, is gentler.
Turn on the room lights indoors, and open the blinds.
Do not shoot into the light. If a window or the sun is behind your subject, they will be dark. Move so the light is behind you or to the side.
Skip the flash for most website photos; it flattens and yellows everything.

Clean the lens

Phone lenses pick up fingerprints from pockets and hands. A smudged lens makes everything look hazy. Wipe it with a soft cloth or a clean shirt before every shoot. This one habit fixes a surprising number of disappointing photos.

Tidy the scene

Look at the whole frame, not just the subject. Move trash cans, hoses, ladders, coffee cups, cables and paperwork out of shot. For a finished job, sweep up first. A clean background makes the work look better than any editing.

Hold it steady and get close

Hold the phone with both hands and keep your elbows in. Lean on a wall or a doorframe if you can.
Tap the screen on the subject to focus there before taking the shot.
Walk closer instead of zooming. Digital zoom on many phones makes photos grainy. Use the main camera and move your feet.
Keep it level. Most phones have a grid you can turn on in camera settings; line up the horizon or a countertop with it.

Take more than you need

Take several shots of each thing, from slightly different angles and distances. It costs nothing, and you can choose the best later on a bigger screen.

Photographing people

Ask first, and explain where the photo will be used.
Photograph them doing the work rather than posing; it looks more natural and they relax.
For a portrait, put them near a window or in open shade, and take several shots so you get one with eyes open and a natural smile.
Keep the background simple: a plain wall, the shop, the truck.

For more detailed tips by subject, our guide on how to take good photos for your website with a phone goes further.

Light editing only

A small amount of editing is fine: crop to remove clutter at the edges, straighten a tilted photo, and brighten slightly if it came out dark. Your phone's built-in editor does all of this. Avoid heavy filters, fake skies and anything that makes your work look different from how it really is. The point of your own photos is that they are true.

Getting them onto your site

Send the original files, not screenshots or copies saved from social media, which are smaller and blurrier. For each photo, write a short description of what it shows; it will become the photo's alt text, which screen readers read aloud and search engines use to understand the image. See writing alt text for your website photos.

What to do this week

Look at every stock photo on your current site and write down what real photo could replace it.
Pick a bright morning and photograph your place, your team and two finished jobs.
Wipe the lens, tidy the scene, and take several shots of each.
Choose the best and crop or straighten them lightly.
Replace the stock photo at the top of your home page first.

If you want to see your own photos used well on a new site, you can see your site rebuilt first and swap pictures yourself in the panel.