Best Stock Photo Sites (Free & Premium)

[addz123]

Just wondering if anyone would mind sharing the best free and premium stock photo sites they recommend?

Obviously don't want to be paying £1500+ per year licenses.

My main markets are finance, education, beauty, students.

Cheers.

Adam

 

[alex]

Definitely Image Source, but then again I’m going to be biased

To be fair though, they are generally considered to be one of the best premium stock agencies in the world and have the largest distribution network in the industry.

 

[addz123]

Thanks Alex. I took a look right now and phoned them up but £5 per picture seems a bit pricey.

A friend recommended DepositPhotos.com, which looks great and reasonable too ($0.03 per photo) with great selection of images.

I've also seen iclipart but I don't think it's high quality enough for me.

 

[alex]

Thanks Alex. I took a look right now and phoned them up but £5 per picture seems a bit pricey.

A friend recommended DepositPhotos.com, which looks great and reasonable too ($0.03 per photo) with great selection of images.

I've also seen iclipart but I don't think it's high quality enough for me.

I can understand that the price feels a bit high. When I joined Image Source I assumed everyone was like ShutterStock and Fotolia, 'microstock' sites with a high volume low cost model. Image Source is a 'premium stock' agency that invests thousands into each shoot. Basically a low volume, high quality and price model. The images are usually sold for advertising and publishing etc. All images are model and property released too. £5 seems a lot for a web-res image when compared to microstock images, but they are very popular and good value, especially when you consider the high production costs.

 

[julian]

Alex start looking for another job. I use to own a stockphoto business and i'm telling you now fotolia will own all in long run.

stockimage, istockphoto etc days are numbered. You can't charge £5+ for 72dpi images these days..

To start fotolia was a bit trashy at the high end (and low end) but has come a long way in the last 3 years. Go back 5+ years, and to get any decent stock you had to pay through the nose like getty etc.

5 years ago I might have agreed with you about quality of stock images but now I don't think so.

 

[alex]

Alex start looking for another job. I use to own a stockphoto business and i'm telling you now fotolia will own all in long run..

Haha thanks for the advice, I’ll keep my eye open, but we’re doing pretty well at the minute. When considering fotolia I can’t deny how popular they’ve become, but they are (currently) a very different market to us and deal in very different products. People who buy premium stock need security, quality and sometimes niche content that can’t be produced for microstock because of cost etc. Equally people who buy from microstock sites aren’t fussed about exclusivity or model/property releases. Although we do sell plenty of web-res images, our biggest market is hi res (higher res than fotolia offer) and we also do RM licensing which fotolia don’t do.

Things have changed though, I’ve heard stories of £100k shoots and individual images selling for over £50k. Things may have changed, but there are still plenty of people who demand premium because microstock just can’t offer it. If they did they’d be giving up their business model, but maybe the two markets will begin to merge within the next few years.

Which stock business did you run?

 

[bizzyboy]

I use photodune.net. Decent selection at reasonable prices.

 

[DomainDetective]

For free images you can try sxc(dot)hu. As with all images, need to read terms of use as they vary for different contributors.

 

[domainbartender]

graphicriver.net for cliparts! 8)

 

[fscisum]

Have you checked out on Pinterest before? The photos there are best, and you can also choose from different topics! Just ask the photos' owners for permission. I'm sure that most of the owners would not charge you!

 

[alex]

Have you checked out on Pinterest before? The photos there are best, and you can also choose from different topics! Just ask the photos' owners for permission. I'm sure that most of the owners would not charge you!

The issue with Pinterest is that the pinner isn't usually the owner, and in a lot of cases neither is the source the image is pinned from. In other words Pinterest is a very bad source for images because even if the pinner and the source give permission, you can't always guarantee that they have the right to grant you use.

 

[Stephen]

PhotoDune.net

I use photodune.net. Decent selection at reasonable prices.

I agree, PhotoDune.net do have good size images for only $1 each and their range and quality is improving.

I used to use iStockPhoto.com but there prices have gone up over the last 2 years, but their quality is good.

 

[cc976a]

I was using iStockPhotos, but price hikes are getting silly

Started using 123RF.com - some good quality photos in there, reasonably priced too

 

[martin-s]

Shutterstock is excellent. Google for a 30% discount off their packages - one month of 25 images per day is then just £100 or so.

 

[WealdDomains]

Does anyone have any feedback on using Geograph (dot org dot uk) images for geodomains under the Creative Commons licence ? Thanks, David.

 

[fscisum]

Great point, Alex! Anyway, some people are the owners of the photos, and you could ask the person first if he is truly the owner of the photo. I don't think that he would lie to you, but it would be challenging to find the owner. However, some people, especially the photographers, create the separate category that is distinguishable.

The issue with Pinterest is that the pinner isn't usually the owner, and in a lot of cases neither is the source the image is pinned from. In other words Pinterest is a very bad source for images because even if the pinner and the source give permission, you can't always guarantee that they have the right to grant you use.

 

[RobM]

I use shutterstock and pond5

 

[Helmuts]

I have a website of royalty free images http://www.artforweb.co.uk

Maybe there aren't too many photos, but all are shot by me, they are free for both businesses and individuals and more will come gradually.

... this is a project for the piece of mind


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fscisum]

It's nice of you, Helmuc! I'm glad to chat with you on your site as well. =)