An Athletic Woman Wearing A Headlamp Runs Through A Rocky Terrain At Night

Commercial vs Editorial Image Licensing: When You Can and Can’t Use a Photo

Commercial vs editorial use for images comes down to one question whether the photo is helping to sell something.
A Woman In A Striped Swimsuit Dives Gracefully From A Wooden Boat

Why Authentic Imagery Beats Generic Stock (and How to Tell Them Apart)

What makes an image authentic, why authentic images beat generic stock for attention, trust, and distinctiveness, and three quick checks…
A Woman Stands On The Edge Of An Infinity Pool

Curating a Cohesive Photo Collection for a Campaign

How to curate photos for an ad campaign: fix a few visual rules, give every image a job, and cut…
Abstract Art With Colors

Licensed Real Photography vs. AI-Generated Images for Commercial Use

Choosing between licensed real photography and an AI-generated image carries a legal cost, an audience-response cost, and a long-term value…
small group gathered around a beach bonfire at dusk, with a wetsuit and surfboard nearby

Finding Authentic, Non-Generic Imagery for Brand Advertising

Learn how to tell whether an image is truly authentic to your brand with two quick 10-second tests.
Overhead shot of a woman at a wood desk flipping through a folder beside an open laptop and notepad

How to Confirm Stock Photos Are Legally Cleared for Commercial Use

Here's how to check that a photo's rights actually match your use case, before it becomes a problem.
A man's hands flipping through paint color swatches while holding a tablet displaying a similar image

Where to License Authentic Commercial Photos

Here is where to license commercial photos that carry a campaign, and what to confirm before anything runs.
People Enjoying The San Francisco Bay Waterfront - Grunge Styling

Maximalism, Grunge, or Americana? A Framework for Picking the Right Trend for Your Brand

Not every new design trend fits every brand. Here's the framework Art Directors can use, and defend internally, to pick…
Woman Walking Abstractly With Clouds And A Planet On The Horizon

What Stills’ 2025 Trend Report Got Right About 2026 (and What We Didn’t See Coming)

Stills' 2025 and 2026 trend reports read like one continuous dataset. This breaks down exactly which 2025 trends predicted 2026's…

Introducing Natural Language Search and Search by Image

With the rebuilt Search on Stills experience, you can now search the way ideas actually take shape—using natural language to…