Stock Photography

Dave1975

Active Member
So where does everyone go for their stock photography?

I quite often use iStock just as it's easier for me with the credits as you go setup, really like some of the vector illustrations you can pick up there too. Occasionally visit SXC if the client has no budget for stock photos, any other stock photos anyone can recommend free or paid? Does anyone use the regular subscription services that allow 'x' downloads per day?

Cheers,
Greg
 
Yeah we use istock alot, in fact I have the great job this morning looking for a few images. :(

But for the prices very reasonable, I have pretty much given up on SXC as they are either really quite bad or overused, I would love to have more clients with budgets for Getty Images.

Brett
 
peekaboo said:
I have pretty much given up on SXC as they are either really quite bad or overused, I would love to have more clients with budgets for Getty Images.

Same feeling here to be honest, have you ever tried one called Morgue File?

Has Peekaboo built up it's own catalogue of stock images since you started? I find that some clients expect me to have a back catalogue of images ready to use or suggest...
 
Hi Greg,

To be honest no we don't keep a catalogue, various reasons, can't really reuse paid for images plus, I would want to use the same image twice on different projects.

Brett
 
peekaboo said:
To be honest no we don't keep a catalogue, various reasons, can't really reuse paid for images plus, I would want to use the same image twice on different projects.

Yep I completely agree with that Brett, although I had always wondered if I should be trying to start/keep a catalogue running, won't worry about that now :)

Has anyone ever had the chance to commission a photographer for projects? or even get out themselves and take some photos for projects?
 
Istock and SXC here, I agree though SXc has been overused - but it does offer up the occasional gem!
 
We use photographers quite alot now, we tried doing bits ourselves but it works out better for us to pay out now.
 
peekaboo said:
We use photographers quite alot now, we tried doing bits ourselves but it works out better for us to pay out now.

Yer. I have a photography company that we use called MoveMountain, but if for whatever reason they can't do the job I might go out and do it myself.

A really good camera is priceless for this kind of thing.
 
There's some really cool shots on their site Lee, are any of the ones on their site images that you've commissioned and used? Remember having a chat about cameras with you on MSN before, you'll have to post up your flickr link as remember seeing some great shots in your profile :)
 
Greg said:
There's some really cool shots on their site Lee, are any of the ones on their site images that you've commissioned and used?

Not on there no. The ones that I had done were for a restaurant website I did a while back.

Greg said:
Remember having a chat about cameras with you on MSN before, you'll have to post up your flickr link as remember seeing some great shots in your profile :)

:p Thanks! My photos aren't amazing but this is my profile Flickr: mrleesimpson?'s Photostream
 
Mixture of istock and Shutterstock for me, more Shutterstock since istock significantly upped their prices and you can get 5 very high res images for £29 on SS. A Place I do freelance for have a Jupiter images account Stock Images - Royalty-Free Stock Photography Images and Photos at Jupiterimages but that seems limited on very high res images so better for web stuff. They also used to have a Photos.com account which was pretty bad in my opinion; most photos look very staged and all the people looked American and this was an issue for a lot of clients.

A very useful site for doing visuals and mock ups is LiveSurface LiveSurface Layered Image Templates, quite pricey for individual images but they have blank stock photos of common objects and billboards etc for visuals. Best bit is they come as layered photoshop files so you just pop your image in and it even keeps reflections background textures so looks super real.
 
We use shutterstock here at work too, have an annual membership which is very useful!

Haha ch3tzy i've used some of your images before, didn't know they were yours :)

Is it worth uploading the photos, do you make much money off it?
 
Their website says "you'll earn $0.25 to $28.00 per image download" - so in otherwords peanuts. Obviously if you value your work at that rate go for it.

Instead I'd recommend using Alamy to sell images as rights-managed photographs - at least you might make a reasonable licence fee and have some control where your work ends up.
 
you might as well get an answer from one of the most successful stock photographers out there . Yuri Arcurs has an article on his website about a list of stocks with the organisms and what you need. It definitely encourage posting your images with several agencies and not to enter into exclusive agreements with any organization.
 
Is it worthwhile selling your own photos/illustrations through sites like istock? I've contemplated it numerous times but never got round to investigating it fully. Designers seem to be turning to stock sites for illustrations more than they used to so...
 
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