You've seen the photo. Four people in a bright office, laughing at a laptop. Somebody's pointing at a screen. Nobody in the history of work has ever laughed like that at a spreadsheet.
It's on a plumber's site. It's on a bookkeeper's site. I've seen that exact group on three different sites in one afternoon. Visitors can tell. They might not say "stock photo" out loud, but they feel it, and it quietly lowers how much they trust everything else on the page.
A stranger is looking for proof
Someone lands on your site and has one question: is this a real business run by real people? Words can say that. Photos prove it. A picture of your actual truck, your actual kitchen, or the actual deck you built last month answers the question before they've read a sentence.
Stock photos answer a different question: "does this person own a camera subscription?" Not helpful.
Your phone is good enough
Honestly, this is the part people get stuck on. They think they need a photographer. You don't, not to start. A phone from the last few years takes perfectly decent pictures. The difference between a bad phone photo and a good one is almost never the camera.
- Light. Shoot near a window or outside on an overcast day. Skip the flash. Harsh overhead light makes everything look like a police report.
- Wipe the lens. It lives in your pocket. It's smeared. Wipe it on your shirt first.
- Clear the clutter. Move the coffee cup, the tape measure, and the pile of mail out of the frame. Thirty seconds.
- Hold it level. Crooked horizons scream "quick snap." Most phones can show a grid, turn it on.
- Get close. A finished cake, a freshly tiled shower, a tidy haircut. Fill the frame with the thing you're proud of.
What to actually photograph
Start with the work itself. Before and afters are great if you have them. Then add one or two of you, working, not posing. A photo of you mid-job with your hands busy says more than a headshot against a gray wall.
If you're nervous about being on camera, that's fine. Shoot your hands, your tools, your workspace. People like seeing where the work happens. It makes you a person instead of a logo.
Where stock photos are okay
I'm not a purist about this. A stock photo is fine for a background texture, a skyline behind a heading, or something abstract that isn't pretending to be you. The problem is stock photos of people and your work. Don't fake those. Anyone who's hired a contractor knows what a real job site looks like.
And if you're brand new with nothing to show yet, use fewer photos. One honest picture beats six fake ones. Add more as you do more work.
One practical thing before you upload
Phone photos are big files. Resize them before you put them on your site, because a page full of 8 megabyte images loads slowly, especially on mobile. Most phones and any free photo tool can shrink an image in a few seconds.
Then swap out one stock photo this week. Just one. See how the page feels. I'd bet it looks more like you, which is the point.