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Stock image choices? Cost Vs quality?

by ObsidianKnight
21 replies
What would be the concensus on quality sites to get stock images, videos and audio files from?

I do some of my own photography, so can also do my own images, but I am looking for a decent resource that has high qaulity, but not overly too expensive?

I have used IStockPhoto, but was not sure if anyone else out there who has more experience had some better suggestions?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
#choices #cost #image #quality #stock
  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    Free Photos and Wallpapers -Free
    Link in my sig -Free

    when buying from Istock, Getty or whoever, need usually not bother with anything over 72 PPI (DPI) as that is most monitor's default settings... unless you are printing then in which case 300+ DPI is nice, but anything over 100 should be OK for an 8 x 10.
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by DogScout View Post

      Free Photos and Wallpapers -Free
      Link in my sig -Free

      when buying from Istock, Getty or whoever, need usually not bother with anything over 72 PPI (DPI) as that is most monitor's default settings... unless you are printing then in which case 300+ DPI is nice, but anything over 100 should be OK for an 8 x 10.
      I don't think I will be printing any. Right now my main concern is video making, and being able to use quality images, backgrounds and music for the videos without having to go through the trouble of making them myself or outsourcing them.

      I am using Corel Video Studio Pro for video editing and audacity for voiceover work. I just don't want to risk scrubbing google for images that would likely cause a problems.

      Thanks for the site link, I will check it out.
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  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    Audios- Jewelbeat is free, seperate the MP3 from the FLV with either a program or on-line with YouTube to MP3 Converter - Convert online videos to MP3 fast and free

    videos, make with xtranormal, Camtasia or Aminato?
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  • Profile picture of the author warriorkay
    I use Stock Photography: Download Free Stock Photos & Royalty Free Images

    You can get for free but it's a pain looking
    for completely free ones that are of high
    quality.

    Kingsley
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by warriorkay View Post

      I use Stock Photography: Download Free Stock Photos & Royalty Free Images

      You can get for free but it's a pain looking
      for completely free ones that are of high
      quality.

      Kingsley
      That is the problem I am running into. Finding stuff that is quality and free. Seems sometimes they just don't go together.

      Thanks for the link.
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by warriorkay View Post

      I use Stock Photography: Download Free Stock Photos & Royalty Free Images

      You can get for free but it's a pain looking
      for completely free ones that are of high
      quality.

      Kingsley
      I just spent some time on DreamsTime. I did basic searches for similiar images I just used in a video I just created the other day (test run).

      There were a ton of better images to use then what I had found the hard way. I definately think I will end up at least looking into an account there.

      I see that many of the images can be gotten for 2o cents or so, but any idea how much they charge for web-rights? Some of the image I will likely use are going into items for resale, such as videos and template.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    I haven't done a price comparison between all of the stock photo sites but what I've found is that most of them all have the same images and Stock Photos & Vector Art : Bigstock™ - Royalty Free Stock Photography had the best prices between the sites I checked.
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    • Profile picture of the author LynnM
      As well as Dreamstime, which warriorkay mentions, I use Fotolia a lot. iStockphoto have good stuff as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      I haven't done a price comparison between all of the stock photo sites but what I've found is that most of them all have the same images and Stock Photos & Vector Art : Bigstock™ - Royalty Free Stock Photography had the best prices between the sites I checked.
      I noticed that many sites have the same stock images, but was not sure if there was one site that was the "grandaddy of the all" and had claim to the "most" or "Freshest" stock images.

      Who was the first major player for stock images online? Any idea?
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      • Profile picture of the author Gary King
        Originally Posted by ObsidianKnight View Post

        I noticed that many sites have the same stock images, but was not sure if there was one site that was the "grandaddy of the all" and had claim to the "most" or "Freshest" stock images.

        Who was the first major player for stock images online? Any idea?
        You posted this while I was typing...

        morguefile and stock exchange are free. That said, bigstock and istock have nice images that are basically a buck or so each.

        Spending a dollar or two on a nice image for your projects shouldn't be an issue - if you're that tight on budget, you should consider doing something else. No offense, but seriously, a couple bucks for a graphic is too much?

        As a photographer, you know that doing it just right takes a while...
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary King
    Just WATCH the licensing agreement (TOS) for whatever you are using... please?

    Some of these others have mentioned, just putting out my list in one place:

    bigstockphoto.com
    istockphoto.com
    morguefile.com
    stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site

    There are others - some work on "credits" some are free.

    If credits, they average a buck or two each, some higher.

    Hope it helps!

    Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
    Gary,

    Absolutely, I was hoping to never need to actually "go take my own stock images" if I can avoid it, just because of how hard it is to get them right sometimes. Taking my own I could keep all my on rights, but then I have to go through the hassles of protecting my own images against copyright issues.

    I agree, a couple bucks depending on the use should not really be a concern. Just wanted to make sure there was no major disparity from one major player to another. The internet is great for buying something on one page only to find a hundred other pages offering the exact same thing for less.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gary King
      Originally Posted by ObsidianKnight View Post

      Gary,

      Absolutely, I was hoping to never need to actually "go take my own stock images" if I can avoid it, just because of how hard it is to get them right sometimes. Taking my own I could keep all my on rights, but then I have to go through the hassles of protecting my own images against copyright issues.

      I agree, a couple bucks depending on the use should not really be a concern. Just wanted to make sure there was no major disparity from one major player to another. The internet is great for buying something on one page only to find a hundred other pages offering the exact same thing for less.
      Sure, I gotcha... and it does happen.

      While I don't have every single answer, I've been using the sites I listed above for many years with no concerns about licensing (used according to TOS) and without running into the same ol same ol...

      Any time you use a stock anything (image, web template, WordPress theme) you'll have a potential for appearing the same as others, but the net is so vast, as long as you do SOME kind of tweak / blend it into your site, it's all good IMHO.

      Have a great day!

      Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    flicker is also an option. You can search based on copyright and it's not a bad option if you're looking for non-studio style photos.

    A while back I needed nightclub and party pics and flicker was great for this.
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      flicker is also an option. You can search based on copyright and it's not a bad option if you're looking for non-studio style photos.

      A while back I needed nightclub and party pics and flicker was great for this.
      I always forget about Flickr, probably because I never use it. I never would have guessed you could search it by copyright either.

      Thanks for the insight.
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  • Profile picture of the author Edward Floyd
    As mentioned by a couple of others, for free stock images I quite often use stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site . They have a lot of good quality content on there and the licenses are quite flexible.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrea Wilson
    Fotolia is my choice for stock images right now. I always see something that will suit my needs for any of my videos. I have seen a couple of other site ideas here so I might check them out as well, maybe i can add them to my stock photo list.

    Andrea
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by Andrea Wilson View Post

      Fotolia is my choice for stock images right now. I always see something that will suit my needs for any of my videos. I have seen a couple of other site ideas here so I might check them out as well, maybe i can add them to my stock photo list.

      Andrea
      It is amazing that one question asked here gets me tons of better results than a couple hours of google

      I too have added more of these links to my favorites for future use. I hope to be doing 20 or so videos based on some plr articles I am putting out with some ppt slides. But since I am still learning the video stuff, I was gonna put out the articles and slides and perhaps just offer the videos later.

      I was just very worried about using "googled" images as I did not want to get into any copyright issues.

      Lots of great links from everyone. You have all been wonderfully helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author howard542
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    • Profile picture of the author ObsidianKnight
      Originally Posted by howard542 View Post

      Thats right it all depends on the size.. If you only need images for online projects then there is no need to pay a hefty amount for a large image. Unless you want to have a very large image mounted and framed...
      After recently signing up for Fotolia for most of the images for some new sites, I agree.

      It is amazing the actual quality for web at smaller sizes. It definately does seem a waste to spend tons on larger images if you are not going to print them out.
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