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I Can Has Stock Images!

Jim Basio
Jim Basio, ON THE TOPIC OF General
Aug14 9

Stock imagery can really make or break a good design. Searching for that perfect image(s) to complement your design can be a very time consuming task -- not to mention budget limitations we may have to consider.

Luckily, there are lots of great stock image resources available on the web whether to meet any budget size.

image

  • istockphoto.com - giant selection of royalty-free stock images and photos
  • gettyimages.com - the leading provider of creative and editorial imagery and film to communications
  • moodboard.com - buy or sell images at a range of prices to suit your needs
  • jupiterimages.com - offers anything from royalty-free DVD collections to standard rights-managed images and royalty-free images
  • digitalrailroad.net - selection of royalty-free and rights- managed stock shots, but it also features an eBay-like marketplace where photographers vie to meet your requirements by the deadline

Inexpensive Alternatives

  • fotolia.com - inexpensive stock photography, photographers can also sign up to sell stock photos
  • dreamstime.com - essentially a royalty-free microstock site, the selection is limited
  • ultrashock.com - offers high-res photos, conceptual vector illustration and other assets

Specialty Providers

Freebies

  • photolib.noaa.gov - one example of the many photos you can use for free from U.S. Government sites.
  • public-domain-photos.com - claims to be the largest collection of public domain photos
  • sxc.hu - the leading free stock photo site
  • morguefile.com - contains photographs freely contributed by many artists to be used in creative projects by visitors to the site
  • stockvault.net - a stock photo sharing website where designers and photographers can meet to share their images
  • freerangestock.com - high-resolution free stock photos and free textures
  • photogen.com - nice collection of good quality photos
  • flickr.com - best online photo management and sharing application; be sure to check the license before using any of the photos
  • everystockphoto.com - excellent option for searching multiple sites (Flickr, Stock.xchng, etc.) for stock photos

image

Feel free to add sites that been left out!

Bart said on 08/14 at 06:30 PM

And for the complete list:
http://www.barclaey.com/stock/

allen said on 08/14 at 06:41 PM

PhotoShelter
http://www.photoshelter.com

Ben Carlson said on 08/14 at 09:21 PM

Those are some good resources. I’m going to have to second Allen’s recommendation of PhotoShelter. Not only is their quality of photos high, their site is great too.

fractalfrog said on 08/14 at 09:52 PM

DevianArt - http://www.deviantart.com/
Image * After - http://www.imageafter.com/
Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Openphoto - http://openphoto.net/
Unprofound - http://www.unprofound.com/
Geek Philosopher - http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/photos.htm
Cepolina Photos - http://www.cepolina.com/freephoto/
PhotoRack - http://www.photorack.net/index.php
Freepixels - http://www.freepixels.com/
FreeFoto - http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
FreeDigitalPhotos - http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
NationsIllustrated - http://www.nationsillustrated.com/

Just to mention a few ;-)
All free (but check the licenses), which is great when you’re sketching of if you’re on a tight budget. Just keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for…
The money that you “save” by using free photos are often lost in the time it takes to search through hundreds or even thousands of unsharp, over/under exposed and low resolution photos.
For sure, there are plenty of gems hidden on the various free sites but these gems can be hard to find, considering the vast amount of sub-standard photos combined with an often less than stellar search function on the site.
Personal favorites are Everystockphoto, for free images, and iStockphoto, for VERY reasonably priced photos.

depi said on 08/15 at 01:50 AM

Great list of stock image websites, thank you for sharing with us!

Thomas said on 08/18 at 05:00 PM

My favourite:

http://www.photocase.de — Freebies

(Multilanguage in four languages at the moment). High quality, provided by users but controlled but a community team to keep the high quality policy. It’s a credit system, means you need credits to download the photos, you can buy credits or obtain them by contributing, so the downloads can be virtually free.

Jim Basio said on 08/19 at 01:20 PM

Thanks for all the site suggestions so far, keep them coming!

@fractalfrog Totally agree that some precaution has to be taken when using free photos and that there is a lot of mediocre images to wade through. Time spent searching is such a huge factor.

That is why sites like Everystockphoto, that searches multiple sites, has also been my go-to site for most free photo stock. It has been a great help in cutting down time.

Jim Amos said on 08/28 at 09:51 PM

Another great resource is veer.com - royalty free and otherwise, some great imagery not too similar to what everyone else stocks, also they sell some really unique fonts. You can subscribe to a mailing list where they’ll send you neat little print catalogs of their showcase items.

Pedja said on 09/17 at 09:08 AM

Thanks, to everybody,
I have just bookmarked this page.

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