5 ways to give up boring stock illustrations for good

Pay attention to the details

Let's say you want to find an illustration for an article on the secrets of being productive from home. Most authors will use the banal query “work from home”. After spending a minute searching, you will find something like this:

Pictures for a website or social network

This is a good quality photo, and it looks quite suitable for the given theme. The bad thing is that the picture is too high-quality, simulated. It works well for an ad, but is unlikely to generate sympathy and really grab attention.

Why not, instead of the obvious phrase “work from home,” enter words that would describe the details of the photo in the search bar of the photo bank? We type “home, sleep, child, laptop” and get a touching picture of a mother who works while her daughter is sleeping.

This shot not only perfectly describes the topic of the publication, but also includes positive emotions associated with a comfortable and calm work from home.

Listen to other people's ideas

Instead of sifting through hundreds of stock photos, you can borrow a good illustration idea from other contributors who have written on similar topics (but don't steal the photo!). The result may even surpass the competitor's idea.

Find a picture that your colleague has already used. For example, like this bubble shot from TheNextWeb.

Then, using, upload the saved image and get hundreds of similar photos to choose from. We have tested this method many times and it has worked great, for example for posting recipes, health and travel articles.

Don't forget the Simpsons

When one of the designers on the Depositphotos team runs out of ideas to illustrate an article, he uses … a shot from The Simpsons. Because everyone knows and loves The Simpsons, the animated series has been on the air for a very long time - hundreds of episodes now have footage on almost any topic.

Of course, this isn't just about The Simpsons. You can use any freeze frame without fear of trial and investigation, or, but only if in your post you do not sell anything and it is exclusively about your personal blog or publication in the media.

Please do not use this method just for the sake of getting attention. The picture must fit the meaning of the content of the article, otherwise you will be ridiculed by the readers.

Take a photo yourself

Sometimes simple solutions are beneficial. Equip yourself with your smartphone and search for illustrations nearby. Many great posts and articles today are illustrated with photographs taken on a mobile. If the talent for finding a good angle has passed you by, then image search can be useful here too: upload your faulty photograph to the search engine of the photo bank and get pictures with the same subjects, which were made by professionals.

Here is a photo of the yacht we captured at sunset. This shot itself is, of course, a masterpiece. But we were looking for a better quality snapshot for a blog post.

We dragged this photo into the image search box, got 60 different shots of the yacht against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset, and selected this frame.

Create your GIF

5 ways to give up boring stock illustrations forever

Decide on the stock video you like and download it. Then just use one of the tools like or to create a-g.webp

Regardless of which method you prefer, remember that you should choose a photo of good quality and suitable size for publication. The picture should create the right mood and illustrate the main message of your text.

It is important to understand that a stock photo bank is not a dusty repository of photographs tainted by the hackneyed tricks of artisan photographers. This is just a gigantic field for the game and your imagination. Do not be afraid to use your imagination and do not be lazy to spend a little more time choosing a suitable picture. This will definitely help attract more readers to your story.