So chances are if you’re developing a website you’re going to want to spiff it up. What better way to dress your site up than with stock photography? You’re probably aware of how much money stock photography websites ask for! Some images can cost you as much as 500 USD! A typical developer or designer can hardly afford to pay for such photographs. Taking your own photos is time consuming, and there is a real art to taking good pictures. I do admit I like to play around with photography, but when it comes to putting photos on my websites that’s another story. Fortunately, with some great stock photography websites at your disposal, you never need to look elsewhere for cheaper alternatives! These sites listed down below are in no order. The order is completely random. Please read on to learn about top places to get stock photography:
1. iStockphoto
From high quality photographs and vector illustrations to music tracks and well edited videos, you can find almost anything you know as ‘multimedia’ on www.istockphoto.com. Graphic designers, content managers and video editors can always find what they need on this website within minutes. Depending upon your specific requirement of stock photographs and monthly or annual budget, you can choose a suitable subscription plan on iStockphoto.
2. 123RF
This website houses millions of high quality vectors, photographs, graphic elements and even videos. www.123rf .com is particularly known for its varied subscription plans. You can buy stock photographs at 123RF for as little as 21 cents for a photograph or vector illustration! At 123RF, you can find images on almost all imaginable categories!
3. ShutterPoint
Unlike many other traditional stock photography websites, ShutterPoint takes money from photographers and therefore, ensures high quality work. The arrangement works great in both directions. Photographers get better commissions and consumers like you can easily find high quality photographs on www.shutterpoint.com.
4. Getty Images
Getty Images is one of the most popular places online where people find stock photographs. The website is extremely easy to use and you can get familiar with the user interface, subscription plans etc. within minutes! Getty Images has thousands of photographs on almost every category you can think of! You can either go for a royalty free subscription plan or choose the premium rights managed plan. It is a good idea to just experiment with the royalty free plan in the beginning before you’re fully confident of going for the second licensing model. You can check out them at www.gettyimages.com
5. Fotolia
An excellent online store for stock photographs, fotolia.com houses millions of excellent photos, videos and vector graphics. You can grab any of these stock photographs or videos by paying as low as 75 cents. The best thing about Photolia is that you can use the image as many times as you want! The license once given to a buyer does not expire; ever! Photolia offers varied subscription plans to suit your specific stock photography needs.
6. Shutterstock
This online stock photography website has well over 18 million stock photographs – all ready to be used by designers, developers and content managers like you! The best thing about Shutterstock.com is that you can use any many as 0.35 million images without paying a single penny! While some of these free stock photographs may require you to give credits to the photographer or place a back link on your website, most of them do not ask of anything in return at all! You just need to use a suitable keyword to find a great stock photo on this website.
7. Unsplash
This is a pretty awesome website which has lots and lots of high resolution stock photography which you can download for free. The idea behind unsplash is they offer 10 unique photos per day. You’re free to use the photos however you see fit. I do like how you can subscribe to them and they will send you daily updates of new photos that are available. You can check them out by going to unsplash.com.
8. Morguefile
Morguefile is a website that is kind of like a search engine for stock photography. They make it really easy to sort through images. This site has tons and tons of photos that are submitted by users so that they can use them on their websites. However, they do require that any image you use on your website that you credit the photographer. You can check them out at morguefile.com.
9. Imagesource
Imagesource is a stock photography website that has over 300,000 photos. You can either get royalty free, rights managed, or there is a unique section for music. All you need to do is sign up for an account and you can purchase photos and easily add them to your lightbox. You can view their website by going to imagesource.com.
10. Thinkstockphotos
Thinkstockphotos is a stock photography site created by Getty Images. You can search through their photos which are royalty-free images from Getty Images and iStock. What is unique about this site is you can purchase photos in packs. Packs are $49 for 5 photos, $229 for 25 photos, $799 for 100 photos, and $1499 for 250 photos or you can purchase a monthly subscription for $139-$299 month. You can check out their website by going to thinkstockphotos.com.
11. Pexels
Pexels is an amazing stock photography website. You can search through their entire collection with topics like summer, business, abstract, sunset, art, black and white, car, building, people, vintage, technology, street, city, and nature. You can use the photos for free and they come with a CC0 license. They do have 5 high quality photos coming in each day. If you want to check out their website you can view it by going to pexels.com.
12. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is a stock photography website that has been online since 2000. They have over 6 million active users. They even have over 150,000 active contributing photographers. They do have a number of different plans. You can get 5 images for $39, 10 images for $62. Also, you can sign up for 1, 3, 6, and 12 month plans where you get 750 to 18,250 photos per month. The price ranges for their monthly plans are $215/month to $3,366/month. If you want to learn more about Dreamstime you can visit their website at www.dreamstime.com.
So are there any other websites that you feel should be added to this list? Do you have experience using any of these websites? Please leave your comments down below.
I really did enjoy this post. I am going to bookmark it for later access, since I have a website and this list will be extremely helpful. I had no idea that their were soo many great resources. Thanks!
You’re right that taking your own photos is very time consuming and a big hassle unless photography is your hobby. Stock photos are the way to go if you want high-quality shots, and they can make a big difference to the look of your site. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to spend money on photos, but I love that Unsplash will give you 10 free shots a day. Most of my posts will only use 4 or 5 images and I can’t manage one post every day so 10 is more than enough. I’ll be checking them out. Cheers.
Ccool, let me know how it goes 🙂
Wow Garen, love this post, I have been looking for images since I started, thanks so much for listing some of the best sites out 🙂