Professional Stock Photo Service Comparison
Finding & Using Professional Stock Photos
When you’re a busy web developer, webmaster, or designer, it can be tough to find the right photographs to represent the best image for your clients on the web. In the old days, preweb — about a decade ago, your choice was to order a CD package of stock photos, or hire a photographer. Now, thanks to the web, you can hunt for that one perfect photo you need and download it now. This article will examine three online Stock Photo services and explore their different fees and offerings, then we will give you a quick example of how to use a stock photo in a template.
Comparison of Three Online Stock Photo Services…
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ShutterStock:
Did you know you can purchase EPS artwork and even video footage online now? This innovative stock photo company now offers over 700,000 professional photos in many categories, plus EPS illustrations and video footage. Searching for what you need is fast and easy, and there are over 25,000 photographers with galleries for review.
Note that those of you with photographic skills may like to submit photos and earn money for each one that gets downloaded.
Learn about earning income as a ShutterStock Submitter (currently paying .25 cents per download)
How ShutterStock Works: This is a monthy fee service, currently costing $139 for one month/$395 for three months, and in return you can download up to 25 images per day/750 per month. Your image cost would be as low as .19 cents per stock photo. Stock video footage costs more — typically between $69 - $199 per clip.
iStockPhoto
Here’s another great online stock photo site with very professional images. According to their intro. page, “This massive collection of royalty-free images is the world’s fastest growing independent library. We feature photographs, Vector illustrations, and Flash files. Becoming a member is free, and there are never subscription fees or hidden costs.” To get a sense for this service (we like the way you can search by Newest, Photographer, Ratings, Title, Downloads, etc.) take a look at:
Business Collection of images (only one of several categories)
Those of you who want to fire up your digital camera and earn some extra income, take a look at: Becoming a Contributing Photographer for iStockPhoto (currently paying 20% of each sale)
How iStockPhoto Works: The big difference about this service is no monthly fee. You simply search for the photo you want, then pay either $1 (web ready image), $3 (medium resolution, “print ready”), or $5 for a “large” file. There are also an extra-large size (Full Page Bleed) for $10, and an XX-Large size for $20-$40.
BigStock Photo
You can search this huge site with over 320,000 photos and buy licenses for just about any use, including posters, postcards, printing, calendars, shirts, clothing, mugs, software use and much more.
You might be wondering, with hundreds of thousands of photos, why would I need to review more than one stock photo company? Well… if you take a careful review, you will see that each of these companies has a subtle difference in style and subjects of photos submitted. For this reviewer, Big Stock seems to offer more artsy, moody shots, with some fine fashion and people shots as well. Take a look at: BigStock Photo Main Search (simply follow the “Submit Your Photos” link if you wish to earn at this site– currently paying .50 cents per download.)
How BigStock Photo Works: At this site you purchase “credits”, ranging from one credit for $2.50 (get one photo) to 10 credits for $20, up to 100 credits for $140 US.
How to Use a Stock Photo in a Template
Many web developers use pre-made templates to speed up production and hold down costs for low-budget jobs. To use a stock photo in a template, follow these steps:
- Select your template based on client goals (we’re using the free trial template from FastStartTemplates.com in the example below — you can download it now)
- Review images in the template and select a stock photo that can fit it proporionately
- Open Photoshop or an Alternative Image Editing software (check out Photo Pos Pro on our Software Page)
- Open the photo/image area from the template where you wish your new stock photo to appear
- Crop and resize your new stock photo to fit, then paste it into the original image
- Save the template image with the new photo in place, and keep the same name
That’s it. Your stock photo should appear in place, in your template. Here’s a visual sequence, step-by-step to help you:
Step 1. Determine the Image you Wish to Replace with Your Stock Photo
We used the Web Developer tools for firefox to outline table cells and label the images so we can easily find and open the correct image for replacement in our photo editing software. To learn about the free Web Developer extension for FireFox, click here.
Step 2: Open the New Stock Photo, Resize & Crop to fit into Original Image
We used Photoshop to crop and resize the new stock photo image (right), then selected it with a soft, feathered edge, and pasted it into the original template image.
Step3: Save the Edited Image, and Review it in a Browser
Save the edited image with the same name, into the same image folder so your HTML template will find it, and you’ll see it inserted in the proper position when you preview the HTML page in your web browser. Get this web template to practice the exercise at FastStartTemplates.com.
