Anvil Graphics Blog

Back in July we discussed several methods of acquiring nice photos for use in your projects. The best way to have the right photo is nearly always to hire a professional, but that can get expensive fast, and justifiably so. If hiring a professional is just not in your budget, than stock photos become your next best option.

We recently did a thorough review of the major online stock photo services and would like to report on those findings. Before doing that I would like to mention that any photo search can be a time intensive task. To find the right photo you want to have a clear idea of what you want it to communicate, what size you need, how it will be used, etcetera. Allow money in the budget for the search itself, which can take several hours or more. It also takes time to present the photos to the client, typically in a pdf file created from download comp images.

When looking at photo purchasing web sites there are a couple things to keep in mind. You obviously want a site with a lot of photos to select from, but that requires a good search feature. Take a minute or two to review how the search works best for each site. You can do searches like “windmill NOT Dutch” to narrow the search. Most sites work best after you have registered and logged in. This procedure activates the light box, allowing you a place to store comp images in different categories for later review and comparison. You also want a site which is FAST – otherwise you spend a lot of time waiting. And don’t even think about visiting these sites without a broadband internet connection.

Try to figure out quickly what kind of site it is, for example Corbis and Jupiter have most everything, while one site might concentrate on ethnic/multicultural images and another site macro photos of everyday objects. Other sites may be aggregators, delivering search results from a number of different stock photo vendors. This can be fast, but you are now dealing with a lot of different pricing structures, and the chance of looking through these same photos later at the parent site. Establish right away if the site is in your price range, particularly when working with RM (Rights Managed) licensed imagery, as it can be quite expensive. You may need to go through the steps of purchasing the photo to know the actual price.

Why Royalty-Free, and what does it cost?

Royalty-free (RF) is the most common photo people are likely to buy, but that needs to be clarified a little more. RF does not mean the photo is not licensed. The photographer still owns the copyright, and future use of the picture. RF essentially means that, within the limits of the usage agreement, you can do almost anything you want with the photo at no additional charge. That is different from a RM licensed image in that you do not need to pay again for additional printed copies or even another usage altogether.

The usage agreement for RF images commonly specifies that you can not resale the image, or put it on products (such as a calendar or greeting cards) for resale purposes. You can not make the image available for download by others, or modify it in some slight way to attempt to negate the original copyright. You can also not use the image in a way which defames the persons depicted, or which implies those persons endorse a particular product.

As mentioned, licensed photos can be very expensive. Royalty-free comes in a wide variety of prices, everything from a buck to several hundred. Sites like iStockPhoto.com have an excellent variety of photos, but many of them have been downloaded hundreds of times. With RF there is always a risk that the photo you have chosen will show up in something else, even a competitors’ product.

To try to mitigate the problem of duplication, more and more photos are being sold “exclusive” RF, meaning the images are much more expensive. The assumption is that the end user will have more exclusivity to the photo because fewer people are willing to pay a much higher price. The good news is that you do get what you pay for. The more expensive photos are a much higher quality, the lighting is better, and they usually come with a model release. These are professional photographers making a living doing what they do best.

So how much do you need to pay? Our review shows that “exclusive” RF images start at about $150, but most of the images are falling in the $350 range. The most expensive we saw in this category was around $500 per image. At iStockPhoto they now represent a more exclusive collection called Vetta, which is also quite a bit more than the usual $10 download (they sell by file size, but the Vetta images are much more professional).

The Best Photo Sites (at least that we could find)

There have been some mergers this past year, so some stock sites which were popular in the past no longer exist. Here is a round up of the best sites we have seen for stock photo. (*) is for aggregator sites. No free or very inexpensive sites are listed here.

• ImageSource.com – RF
• Stock Connection – scphotos.com – RF and RM
• ImageState.com – RF and RM
• Corbis.com – RF and RM
• Kavewall.com – RF (interesting macro photos)(CDs available)
• DesignPics.com – RF
• AgePhotostock.com* – RF and RM (illustrations)
• OjoImages.com – RF (CDs available)
• GlowImages.com* – RF, RM and subscription (CDs available)
• FotoSearch.com* – RF and RM
• Alamy.com* – RF and RM
• GettyImages.com – RF and RM
• Veer.com – RF and RM
• EnergyImages.com – RF and RM
• Fotolia.com – RF and RM
• JupiterImages.com – RF and RM
• ShutterStock.com – RF and RM

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If you want to visit an unusual photo web site with many fascinating and dreamy photos, where the site adapts to your taste and interests, check out www.photoree.com