As the founder of a branding studio that works with businesses around the world, the thing I always stress to my clients is how important having strong, intentional imagery is to crafting a powerful brand.

Your photos and videos can truly make or break your website. They’re what set the tone, tell your story, and shape how your audience connects with your brand, before they’ve even read a word.

Because I believe so strongly in the power (and importance!) of good photography, the images included in your template have been thoughtfully and painstakingly selected and edited to align with the overall style and flow of the design so that you can:

• Use everything as is.

• Mix in your own brand photography or personal touches to make it feel even more aligned with your vision.

• Or switch things up completely, personalize your brand visuals, or explore a new aesthetic.
  

Whatever direction you’d like to take, I’ve included a walkthrough of all my favorite resources for sourcing beautiful, high-quality imagery:

Free Image Resources:

Perfect if you’re just getting started or working with a smaller budget. These sites offer thousands of royalty-free images that are easy to search and use:

• Unsplash: A well-loved library with a modern, editorial feel. Great for lifestyle, travel, and minimalistic shots.

• Pexels: Known for its broad selection and polished, professional-looking imagery across many categories.

• Kaboom Pics: Beautiful, styled imagery with a feminine, lifestyle-focused aesthetic. Especially great for flat lays and soft, natural palettes.
  

Curated Image Collections for You:

I know how overwhelming it can feel to sift through thousands of stock photos trying to find “the right ones.” To make your life a little easier, I’ve curated several collections of stock images that you can browse on Unsplash and Pexels.

Pexels Collections

Unsplash Collections

.These collections are completely free to use and they’re a great place to start if you want to keep your visuals feeling consistent and professionally styled without needing to invest in paid photography right away.

I add to and create new collections regularly, so you can always check back to see what’s new!

Image & Video Resources I Use in My Studio:

If you’re ready to invest in visuals that are a little more curated and specialized, these are a few of the premium libraries my studio uses for client projects.

A quick note: some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase (at no extra cost to you). I only recommend platforms I genuinely love and have used, and there’s absolutely no pressure to go the paid route!

Image & Video:

• Editorial Stock Images: While I whole-heartedly believe that you can find excellent photo resources for free, ESI is a great option if you’re looking to invest elevating your visuals.

  It’s been a go-to resource for me when I’m building both templates and client sites because they have such a distinct, editorial style to their collection of stock images that is hard to find anywhere else. I’ve spent hours searching free sites to try and find images that have a similar look and feel to the the ESI gallery. If you’re looking for unique, stand out images and have the budget for it, this is my top recommendation!

• Death to Stock: A powerful and artful alternative to traditional stock libraries. Their collections are bold, cinematic, and often feature underrepresented voices and stories. Especially great if you want your site to feel editorial, expressive, or a little more unexpected. (Note: not an affiliate link, just a platform I really respect and recommend! )

• ForeFolk Studios: When I first started created content for brands, I struggled so much with finding photos that matched the vibe of the Pinterest boards I was creating. ForeFolk Studios specializes in creating Pinterest-inspired content that you can use royalty free which makes it so much faster to get that editorial feel legally and ethically (truly, it has saved me literal HOURS of endless scrolling stock sites).

• Unsplash+: This is the premium subscription tier from Unsplash, and has exclusive content not available in the free library. A great option to expand on free imagery collections, since lots of photographers have both free and paid collections available.

Video Only:

• Social Stocks: Polished workspace shots, product mockups, and lifestyle content that feels so chic and lived in. I find they strike a great balance of looking polished without seeming over produced which makes the content work so well for both social and website content (it genuinely feels like you’ve got your own content creator in office).

• My Vanilla Gallery: If you’re looking for videos with a dreamy, romantic vibe, My Vanilla Gallery is a great place to start. Their content is well suited to evelated brands that want to embrace a soft, feminine feel.

Making Images Your Own:
Editing Tips for a More Cohesive Look:

You can make your images feel even more custom and cohesive by making small tweaks to your editing. Here are a few quick ways to add your own visual signature:

• Adjust the tone: Apply warm or cool filters to create a consistent vibe across your photos.

• Tweak the contrast, brightness, and saturation: Subtle changes can make your images look like they belong together.

• Use overlays or gradients: Slight opacity or color overlays can tie different images into your color palette.

• Crop and reframe: You don’t have to use the whole image! Sometimes that full image feels too messy.

There are also tons of editing tools out there that you can use. We always recommend the platform that you’re most comfortable with using, so if you already have a favorite for editing your personal or business Instagram photos, stick with that!

But if you’re looking for recommendations, here are a few of my favorites. All of these recommendations have free and pro versions. While pro versions often offer more features and filters, I’ve only recommended options that I feel offer lots of editing options and flexibility in the free versions.

(P.S. None of these are affiliate links or sponsored—just ones that I like to use both personally and professionally!)

Editing Tools I Recommend:

• Tezza: Polished presets with a modern, lifestyle feel

• Canva: Great for quick edits, overlays, and mockups

• Snapseed: A powerful (and completely free) photo editing app by Google that lets you really fine-tune everything from brightness and contrast to selective adjustments and filters.

• Lightroom Mobile: Professional-level editing with full control over color, tone, and detail.

• VSCO: Classic filters and easy tone adjustments

How to Optimize Your Images for Web:

Beautiful images are one of the fastest ways to elevate the look and feel of your website, but if they’re too large, they can slow down your site and hurt your SEO. The good news? Optimizing your images is super easy!

Here’s how to keep your visuals looking great and loading quickly:

1. Resize Before You Upload

Large files (straight from your phone or camera) are often way bigger than they need to be for web.

• Aim for images under 500 KB when possible (under 300 KB is even better for background images).

• For full-width banners or large visuals, a width of 2000–2500px is usually more than enough.

Try this free tool from Shopify to resize and compress your images:

🔗 Shopify Image Resizer

2. Rename Image Files Before Uploading

Before you drop an image into your Squarespace site, rename the file with a short, descriptive name using dashes instead of spaces.

For example:

Instead of: IMG_4728.jpg
Use: herbal-tea-morning-routine.jpg

This helps search engines understand your content—and it’s great for SEO.

To see more about SEO optimizing your images, read through our guide HERE.

3. Add Alt Text

Alt text tells search engines (and screen readers) what an image is about. It’s great for SEO and helps you improve accessibility.

To do this: Click on the image > Edit > Add a short, clear description in the Alt Text field.