I have worked for a few web and technology companies and when these companies are trying to reach the average person I will inevitably have to use a specific type of image, the “easy to use” product shot. Now of course if your creative requires showing a specific and tangible product you would shoot the product yourself. But if your products is more abstract like software that makes digital photography easier, or a web app that tracks statistics, then a stock photo can probably do the job and save time.

Below I have complied what I believe are the best stock photos that can help represent how easy a technology or web product is to use. What made these images the best IMO, are their atmosphere, depth and that the models weren’t looking at the bloody camera! (No I’m not British, though that would be cool). Shots where models are looking straight at the camera, are fast becoming a design pet peeve of mine. These “portrait” shots have the strength of quickly capturing the viewer and communicating loudly “Hey you looking at me, I am really happy here (or sad or whatever emotion), and you can be too”. Though this is an effective attraction tool, the weakness of these photos are after the the initial “Hey you…”, often times the viewer will be continually drawn to reestablish eye contact with the model, distracting them while reading the content. Not the best scenario if you want the user to focus on the stellar qualities of your tech product, not the stellar looks of the model.

The funny thing is that we as humans look for and focus on faces in whatever we look at, before almost anything else. We see this all over the web sub-culture in the form of emoticons. You may only type a colon and a parenthesis but what we see is a smiley face : ) Another example is if you cut two triangles and a moon into a pumpkin, and all of a sudden we see a creepy face (it’s looking into my soul, i know it is!) With this in mind why not ditch the “portraits” in favor of “profiles”, i.e. stock photos where the model is looking in a direction other than at the camera. This type of shot allows the viewer’s eyes to first catch the face of a model, and instead of locking eyes with the model, they are free to take in the rest of the content without feeling compelled to revisit the model. Better yet, if the model appears to be looking at a well placed headline or the content itself, where do you think the viewer will look? Yup, the viewer’s eyes will immediately flow to the dominant element the model is looking at. (For a little more analysis about this whole topic, read this Future Now Article.)

So you may be saying, “That info is nice and all, but I have a huge project due yesterday so just show me the images already!”. As requested here are the images. Note: I have included a minority of “portrait” and a faceless images, since sometimes your client is just dead set on using this style of stock as opposed to a more content friendly “profile” photo.