Authentic, Natural, In-the-Moment Photographs

The Commercial Demand Guide is a set of recommendations published by Envato for contributors to our stock photography marketplace, PhotoDune. In the guide, one of our key recommendations is to look for "authenticity" in images:

"Authentic stock photography is the art of capturing an image that appears to be “in the moment” and 'real'. Authentic style photos departure from the traditional stock style of posed models and artificial lighting, and puts the emphasis on natural light, 'real life' situations and set-ups."—from Envato Market's Commercial Demand Guide

That sounds good, right? But what does it mean? What does an "authentic" photograph look like?

In this series, we present a look-book of authentic photographs collected by the writers and editors here at Envato Tuts+. This is a highly subjective series—we choose entirely according to our own tastes—so consider this a non-representative (but high quality) sampling.

These pictures delight and inspire us. We hope they inspire you new ideas, help kindle new projects, and give you a better understanding of visual communication.