Using stock photo's of people

[zzyxxe]

I've visited several church websites and I see faces of smiling people of every age and race... but the pictures always look so fake. They are usually just stock clip-art pictures of generic people. I can't quite put my finger on why this annoys me so much, but I'm just not a fan.
I'm guessing the thought behind posting pictures of people is to make the church seem more welcoming and people friendly, but why not just use real people from your actual church? Cameras are mostly digital these days and Photoshop's magic wand tool makes it so easy to crop out a face or whole person for website graphics.

What is the opionion of those people here at the roundtable?

-Zzyxxe!

[mrbelfry]

I like to use pictures of people who come to my church as often as possible. I think it helps if someone comes to your church for the first time and sees people they'll recognise from the site - it makes it more 'homely' to a small degree I think.

However it is also a lot of work. What if someone leaves the church? We had someone who was on a lot of photos and then moved to get married so I should probably take them off. Also good stock photography like the stuff I get at www.sxc.hu is normally of better quality than the stuff I get through someone's consumer digital camera.

But having said that I always try and put real people on my site - unless I am really stuck.

[iamcam]

Definitely check-out iStockphoto.com (http://www.istockphoto.com). These images are royalty-free and cost from $1-$3 (yes, one to three!). You won't find as many killer images here as you will on some of the more pro/artistic stock image sites, but there are still many great images/photos. It's a really great site with many time-saving features and even articles about stock photography and design issues - I recommend checking it out.