Easy Fix: Website Graphics Upgrade

Finding Images

Stock Imagery

“Stock Photos” and illustrations are widely-available, for a subscription fee that provides you with copyright and licensing protections.

Adobe Stock Images alone has over 60 million images and videos.

You might also check out Shutterstock and iStock which, like Adobe, require an annual commitment paid at (about) $29.99/month for 10 images a month (that rollover if not used).

Take advantage of free trials.  During the trial period, images you download provide the same licensing protections as if you had signed up for the whole year.  Just don’t forget to cancel before the trial  period ends.  It’s a good time to find a header for your website and perhaps a graphic or two to punch up your content.

Care About Copyright Protections

When you obtain a stock image from a legitimate stock image service, you are paying for the license to use it in any manner you desire, and do not infringe on an artist’s copyright.

You may be tempted to bypass a stock photo service and copy something off the internet with a screenshot and pop it into your website. You are now using artwork without the artist’s permission and the artist goes unpaid for their work. You wouldn’t walk into a gallery, take a photo and put it on your wall. Don’t use image without authorization.

You wouldn’t want someone else to plagiarize your reports.

Taking artwork off the internet without permission is piracy and is illegal unless the artist clearly states it is “open-source.” Be sure there is no limitation against commercial use. You are using it to promote your business–it is commercial use. In such cases, you would have to approach the artist for authorization.

This isn’t to say people don’t sometimes just “take” what they like online. It is rarely challenged but if you receive a letter demanding recompense you will be in the wrong. Also, bear in mind you are a player in the legal system as an expert witness, and should consider the consequences before making your own decision.

How to Choose an Image that Describes What you Do: for the Eye

There are few images that immediately say “Medical” and/or “Law.” The more generic your message, the fewer will be your options. An attorney can look at only so many images of an intertwined stethoscope and gavel….so let’s get creative.

Solutions

Dodging a cliche is easier than you might think.  For example, that stock image can be adapted in Photoshop to take on a different color, cast, or landscape/portrait orientation. Or one image can be paired with another. Also, videos are included in stock databases. They are short and conceptual, lending them to a website’s content.

I purchased a video from Adobe which was used on one client’s site: a rotating head and the gears inside. Using video editing software, I slowed down the speed and direction of the rotation, all within the parameters of the license. The result had an excellent impact on SEO (Google loves video) and website-user-retention (attorneys love a reason to keep reading), and the client’s bottom line.

Photoshop is Your Friend

However, a video can slow a site’s loading time. In a redesign of one site,  I Photoshopped the heck out of the really jazzy stock image, shifting the emphasis to forensic inquiry through design (www.forensicpsychiatrynow.com.)

After critiquing dozens of websites, here are a few red flagged for overuse.

If one truly speaks to you, make it unique in Photoshop (or hire someone to do it–ask me and I’ll explain.)

Don’t Do This

Ubiquitous images–seen repeatedly on the internet:

Gavels
Stethoscopes
Caduceus
Scales of Justice
Blind Lady Justice (yes, that’s her name)
Psychedelics
Court-like buildings (think Greek columns, marble, majesty: either a courthouse or the Federal Reserve)
Skylines. Is where you do business the most important thing about you? If so, go for it.
HUGE monitor-dominating images that force you to scroll to find out even your name.
Collages of any of the above.
And my personal least favorite: Business-suited professionals shaking hands and looking like models, because they are.

I did an image search on Google. Here are the images, among millions that come up under the search term “Expert Witness Physician.” They don’t wow me.