Template Photo Placement Best Practices?

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a series of 15 online courses with LOTS of photos. We have created templates, but have been just copy + pasting the slide layout we want and then changing the photos and text from one course to another, and using slide master. None of the photos repeat within a course, so it doesn't make sense to plop any photos into the slide master. Also, the copy+paste practice removes the states associated and any other formatting.

I have some experience with Adobe InDesign, where you're able to draw a photo "box" into a layout, apply attributes to it, etc without placing a photo. Once the template is finished, it's very simple to click on the photo box and insert a photo. This way, all the formatting is preserved and photos can easily be swapped.

Is there a feature like this in Storyline 3? 

Thanks!