Ok, so you’ve purchased a Styled Stock membership or an image bundle and now you’re ready to start using these gorgeous shots to elevate your brand!  You may feel to urge to just start posting them at hyper-speed, but you also want to get the max value from them, right?! You don’t want to use them up too quickly, or have them look the same over and over again! Well, here are 7 quick-and-easy ideas to help you make the most of your Styled Stock Images!

 

 

 

1. Add Text

Styled Stock Images make perfect backgrounds for your quote of the day, website update or latest sale or workshop announcement. And there are a ton of excellent apps and photo editing programs that allow to overlay text in whatever your brand font happens to be at the moment – right over those styled stock images. My favorite desktop applications for adding text are Adobe Photoshop and Canva, and my go-to phone app is Over.

 

 

2. Crop It Like It’s hot

It’s amazing how a portrait-oriented image looks TOTALLY different when cropped down to square or landscape-oriented!  Playing around with your crop tool is an easy way to see an image in a whole new way. Take the challenge of making the same image work for Instagram, as your FB timeline photo, as a shop header, a blog post graphic, or even as a website button.

 

 

3. Tweak the Colors

Say your fave brand color is coral, but all you see out there is pinky-pink.  Did you know that most photo editing programs give you the power to shift a particular color in an image? — changing that pink to a warmer toned coral that could match perfectly with your branding! And don’t forget the option of converting an image to black and white –  transforming it another way to increase your visual branding options! The hues of a particular image are not set in stone – especially with powerful editing programs like Photoshop or Canva – or with filters in your smart phone apps.  Color Story is my #1 app for adjusting color hues when I’m on the go, but still need to get a post up!

 

 

4. Zoom (WAY) In

If you are purchasing professional Styled Stock Images, you should be receiving HIGH-Resolution files – allowing you to zoom in and still avoid pixelation.  A image zoomed in to 200-300% takes on a completely new look and allows for more posts from a single image – all the while keeping the colors you’re using super consistent!

 

 

5. Add Your Designs

Whether you’re a graphic designer, caligrapher, stationery artist, or web developer, the huge variety of fantastic mockups out there allow you to show off your work in style.  Sometimes it takes knowing a couple simple secrets in Photoshop to make your designs look “just right” and super realistic on the Styled backgrounds, but once you have those editing tools under your belt, you’ll be able to produce GORGEOUS graphics that highlight your work just the way you want to!

 

 

6. Overlay Your Own Screenshots

New blog post published?  Rebranding just went live?  New products in the Shop? Bingeing on Netflix?  Take a quick screenshot of whatever you’re up to and use a Styled Stock screen mockup to share it with your people! Screenshots are a powerful way to get your website content instantly in front of your audience – without them even having to click over – especially when they’re just scrolling on social media!

 

7. Choose a Signature Image

Who said you couldn’t use the same image over and over?! A single image used repeatedly throughout your brand can actually become your “signature” image and can result in followers instantly recognizing the posts as yours. A signature image is a great branding tool when paired with whatever type of content you post regularly – i.e. try using the same image whenever you announce a new blog post, whenever you post a “Motivation Monday” quote, when your bi-weekly podcast goes up, every time you have a Shop sale, or as the main graphic for an on-going series. You’re followers will know it’s you speaking to them and pause to see what’s new!!

 

 

As time goes on, I’ll be posting more in-depth tutorials about all these quick tips – showing you how I like to work with my photos (because there are LOTS of options), sharing the know-how I have, and helping you make the MOST of all your KateMaxStock images!

 

xoxo – Kate