Our top 5 recommended image-selling resources
Following on from our last post on the different methods for sourcing photographic material, this week we’re bringing you Tactical Thinking’s 5 best web-based photography resources.
As a group of individuals we’ve been creating and applying web imagery for quite some time now and during the course of our web careers we’ve come across many different image resources. In fact, there are so many to choose from that this post was actually much harder to write than we first anticipated.
Gone are the days when you would send away for a stock photography CD and hope they had what you needed. Now it’s simply; ‘find a site that caters to your needs, sign up and start downloading’. What an easy life.
Here’s our top 5 recommended resources
…based on the following values:
- Range of snow-related photos available
- Price of images
- Artistic merit
- Usability of the web site
Please bear in mind that we haven’t purchased from every site so our usability testing really just extends search functions and navigation.
1. istockphoto
Taking the number one spot for sheer numbers. istock’s collection of winter sports, royalty free images are so in-depth that you’re bound to find something to fit your criteria.
Their prices are very reasonable starting at $1 for a 300px X 400px sized image, up to US$20 for 3300px X 4900px. However it’s not quite as simple as that - istockphoto require you to purchase credits (at time of writing this it’s 10 for US$13) which you then use to download their images. This process, although not inconvenient keeps their customers returning to the site to use up loose credits - clever chaps!
Regarding the quality of images; istock again have a huge variety from holiday snaps to top-notch professional photographs. Most images are available at 4 or 5 download sizes and all are royalty free. istock also has a strong selection of vector illustrations, flash and video. They even have a ‘dollar bin’ for those always in search of a bargain.
2. Getty Images
Coming in a close second, simply due to price. Due to the quality of their images, the prices are somewhat higher than that of istockphoto’s. You can easily pay into the hundreds of dollars for just one image depending on it’s use.
Getty Images provide both royalty free and rights managed imagery. But it doesn’t stop there, they have licensing agreements for ‘rights ready’ (a slight tweak on rights managed), creative subscription and editorial use. See their full descriptive list of licensing agreements to find out more.
Getty have a good range of winter related images with a massive focus towards professional snow sport athletes. Their site is easy to use and functional, but getting a quote for an image can be a real slog, partly due to the fact they have so many licensing variables.
3. Stock xchng
A Hungarian site billed as “The leading FREE stock photography site”, and is a very handy and reliable resource. The motivation for the site is to create a platform for: “creative people to exchange their photos for inspiration or work”. With over a million registered users and 250 thousand photos online this leads to a good variety of attractive images.
The sign-up process is quick and easy, and the clear license agreements on their free images allow them to be used in digital format on websites, multimedia presentations; and in print format on brochures, CD covers etc.
There is also a sister site, Stock Xpert, offering more professional images at competitive rates, and the better images shown on Stock Xchng usually fall into this category.
4. Shutterstock
Described as “The largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world” - subscription being the key!. Shutterstock’s collection of winter-orientated images is strong, with a big focus towards illustrations. They have a range of ski and snowboard photographs available in 4 different sizes. All are royalty free, however they do offer an enhanced license allowing further flexibility. The web site is easy to navigate and they even offer a ‘register only’ option allowing you to search and compile a lightbox of images that you want to purchase before taking the plunge into a month-long subscription.
That bring us nicely to the subscription angle. At US$199 for one month allowing up to 25 downloads per day, it’s not unreasonable (that’s the minimum period by the way). In theory you could purchase up to 800 images in that time - rather a bargain wouldn’t you say? But what if you only need 10 or 20 images? Well then this isn’t the site for you. Ideal for a large project being performed over a long-ish duration, but not suited to the small winter tourism business in need of a few images for a quick web site or brochure refreshment.
5. Digitalrailroad Marketplace
And last but not least… Our initial reaction to Digital Railroad was very positive. It’s a great site to navigate, has a home page that provides access to well-tailored options, plus they have an abundance of quality winter tourism images - both royalty free and rights managed.
In fact, Digital Railroad are very comparable with Getty Images in terms of quality, numbers and, it seems, price too. However, this is where they begin to lose ground. I think you’ll all agree that most marketers and designers like to have quick and easy access to a products price. We all work to budgets and need to make timely decisions based what we have to spend, meaning we usually want a quote there and then. Digital Railroad’s shortfall is providing this quote. The process is time consuming and you’re required to wait for a personal email from them clarifying the image usage before finally obtaining a quote.
For me, this process is unnecessary, but then I don’t require the ‘personal touch’. For large companies purchasing multiple images on a frequent basis, I think Digital Railroad is a great source. You are allocated an account manager who is there to ease the communication process, be it over via email or telephone. This, it seems is a rarity among image-selling web sites and may be highly useful if your time is minimal but your budget extensive.
So there you have it. Five great image-selling resources, reviewed and detailed to keep these decisions simple. We’d like to hear of any other good resources that you can recommend too.
