Stock To The Rescue

Adobe Stock accelerates creativity. It can also save your butt.

Image source: Adobe Stock / jordandshort/Stocksy.

Adobe Stock is packed with magical powers.

Consider the power to source visuals for global marketing campaigns in minutes versus weeks of production planning, managing, executing and editing. We’re still geeking on the millions of awe-inspiring clips added to the Adobe Stock library through our recent partnership with GoPro. Where else are you going to find first-person footage of you and your dog playing with a chill wallaby in the back of your van while driving around Australia? (Imagine managing that shoot.)

It gives you the power to “collaborate” with highly acclaimed creators by selecting works from our featured collections instead of building and managing partnerships from scratch. We are smitten with Milou Krietemeijer-Dirks’ collection of photographs inspired by the masters of Dutch art history.

Today we want to explore a different, often overlooked, magical power that Adobe Stock provides you and your team: the power to save your butt when things go wrong.

Expect chaos

If you’ve been a part of a creative endeavor that didn’t experience some sort of surprise glitch, you are an anomaly. Every creative director, photographer, and filmmaker knows that one particular feeling that fills the gut when a project manager utters, “We have a problem.”

The emotional cocktail of debilitating dread mixed with inspired vigilance burns itself into our senses. It slams us with that millisecond of terror that we quickly burn to fuel impassioned reparation. “It’s OK. We got this,” slips from all of our lips.

The next time you whisper those words, whip out these Adobe Stock hacks to turn messy twists into majestic finales.

Manage chaos

1. When faces stand out

I think we all know what’s it like to capture the perfect photograph or video clip for a brand project, but, upon returning to the editing suite, spot that one uncontracted face staring straight at your camera. Chasing down uncontracted passersby is a rite of passage for today’s content creator —at least it should be if you’re working smart. But it’s impossible to catch them all.

Here’s a hack: Before you set out to capture crowd visuals, drop into the Adobe Stock library to pour through the 358,910+ pieces on crowd-related content. There are tens of thousands of carefully anonymized assets, and even more with faces properly contracted for use.

2. When the skies fall

The production schedule on a video shoot is anything but simple. Once you understand what it takes to align the people, places, and protocols to make a great film, it’s a miracle that anyone succeeds. And when rolling outdoors, you invite the scariest variable: Mother Nature. Many a shoot has been shut down, delayed, even cancelled, because the elements of nature refused to smile for the camera.

Here’s a hack: Adobe Stock possesses millions of HD and 4K videos from settings around the globe. If Mother Nature dumps a foot of snow on your supposed-to-be-sunny shoot, turn to our library to find, treat, and add b-roll footage. It’s likely you’ll find clips from the same city, country, and climate just waiting to join your film.

3. When logos creep in

Logos — dreaded logos, the bane of capturing anything creative in a public place. They’re impossible to escape in the modern landscape. In cities, there are stickers everywhere. Vehicles are always a pain. If you need a bicycle, motorcycle, or bus shot that’s logo-free, good luck. How many brutal last-minute late nights have you spent attempting to blur and crop logos from important captures? Too many.

Here’s a hack: If you’re shooting to shoot something in the real world that you know risks logo creep, turn to the Adobe Stock library first. All Adobe Stock content is filtered for branded material. Down to the logo on a sock, we require our creators to submit brand-free material.

Embrace chaos

As creators, we marvel at the mystery of the creative process behind our favorite works. We dissect the collision of shapes and colors. We pause for slow-mo animations to see exactly how frames lock together. We scroll up and down immersive sites to isolate their elements. Studying the masters makes us masters.

But greatness is a messy process. The best work is often born of the most chaotic, sporadic, even calamitous process. Things need to fall apart, catch fire, and explode in our faces to get through to greatness. History’s most acclaimed creators were willing to try and fail repeatedly. When something exploded, they regrouped, reassessed, and reinvented.

When everything goes right, Adobe Stock gives you a powerful tool for enhancing your creativity by working fast, staying organized, and collaborating seamlessly. But when everything goes wrong, Adobe Stock gives you the magical power to embrace chaos and revolutionize your creativity.