People Are Sharing The Most ‘WTF’ Stock Images They Find To This Online Group And Here Are 30 Of The Most Bizarre Ones (2024)

FAQs

Why are there so many weird stock photos? ›

That's because most people who purchase stock images tend to go for that look, often without even realizing it. Photographers (and stock photo agencies) are merely catering to that demand. You've made a huge first step by recognizing that these photographs look staged and “off-the-shelf”.

For advertisem*nts. Advertising campaigns often use stock photos as the visuals for their ads. These photos can convey the message of the ad and make it more visually appealing to viewers.

They don't always fit your brand

It's important to maintain your brand's aesthetic—it's what builds your audience's familiarity and trust with you. Instead of wasting your time trying to make images fit within your brand, find unique ones that work or create them. Solution: Always use custom imagery when you can.

Stock photography, the practice of capturing images that anyone can license for a fee, can be a lucrative side hustle or even a full-time job. For photographers, it can be a steady source of income using both previous works and new shoots in which they call the shots from the subject to the post-processing treatment.

Stock photos exist so you can easily select a professional image that's already out there for your material. They offer universal convenience and can save time. But they can also be impersonal. Real photos—or photos produced specifically for your product/brand—can be time consuming and require more planning.

Stock photos for commercial use can be placed on websites and in marketing materials and editorial work ― some stock photos can only be used for editorial purposes. The one caveat is that they cannot be used in materials related to illegal or morally sensitive areas, nor can they be resold or distributed.

The title belongs to Rebecca Givens, a Canadian woman whose face you're probably already familiar with. You've seen it in ads, on websites and in publications across the world. Givens shows up in so many weird and wonderful places that spotting her has become something of an Internet meme.

Pixabay. Pixabay is a free stock website with more than 4.2 million stock images, videos, and music clips available for download from the Pixabay community. It offers royalty-free photos from contributors, which anyone can edit and use without permission or any attribution to the artist.

How do stock photos make money? ›

Images on stock photography platforms can be bought an unlimited number of times by many different clients. This means that clients pay to use the copyrighted image, but you remain the owner of the image and reap the profits every time someone purchases your photo.

People who are buying photos have highly specific needs and will often opt for something that stands out from the crowd over one that is high quality, but otherwise standard. In a world that's increasingly flooded with content, people and brands are seeking unique over uniform, bizarre over banal.

Stock imagery is meant to be a baseline, simple, literal interpretation of something you search for. It's meant to be as broad and general as possible, which oftentimes makes it look fake or staged — and that's usually because it is.

If you don't have the copyright or know who does (and it isn't public domain or a stock photo you paid for) you could be asking for trouble. It's potentially something you could get sued over if you make money or even just publish it without permission.

In an effort to save the cost of hiring photographers for commission-based photo shoots, publishers and advertisers began to consider stock photos as a less risky alternative.

Yes. Stock photos are copyrighted, meaning someone owns them. In order to use them legally, you need permission. Such permission is known as a license, a contract that authorizes you to use the image in certain ways.