Design your way

Stock photos play an important part in a designer’s work, being the prime source of imagery for client projects.

They’ve been around for more than a decade, and this model continues to be very successful because stock photos are easy to get to, and also because they cost much less than the alternate route of hiring professional photographers.

You most likely know a few stock merchants that you go to whenever you need fresh images. Check out my own selection of favorite microstock agencies over the summer of 2014.

iStock

The most popular marketplace by far is iStock. In fact, this is the first one in recorded history. Presently, it doesn’t just offer royalty-free photos anymore, but also vectors, sound effects, videos, and music – and all files accompanied by a Legal Guarantee.

However, there is a special reason why iStock is such an attractive solution for designers during this summer. The agency now sports a 20% discount for new clients, given that they purchase photos, illustrations, videos, or audio files with a minimum of 30 credits. All you have to do to make sure you get 20% off the normal price is to simply type in the code SUMMER20 at checkout.

Alamy

My second favorite merchant of this summer is Alamy, mostly due to the fact that it provides such a massive collection of assets. No less than 18 million royalty-free stock files are encased in these vaults, so you can imagine that the only likely issue is making up your mind on what to buy.

Then again, the gateway page is troublesome because it doesn’t lead you to Alamy’s items straight away. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on any link under the heading ‘For buyers’. This is a potential problem for some of us. When people access a homepage with only a search box and some hyperlinks, but no direct reference to products, they might lose their patience.

Stockfresh

Stockfresh, on the other hand, greets visitors with an unbelievably simple interface, which makes easy work of tracking down and buying the much needed stock resources.

Besides, all vectors, graphics, and photos hosted by this agency are handpicked and tested for quality, so users don’t ever have to plod through tons of mediocre-looking items until they manage to find something halfway acceptable. Also, you’re not asked to register before downloading royalty-free files, which again, saves time.

Yet, if you stop by this agency on a regular basis, you may wish to consider one of the subscription plans. Even better, you could pre-acquire credits and take advantage of colossal discounts of more than 50%.

On top of everything, if you join the affiliation program and advertise for Stockfresh on your website or personal blog, you could receive a 10% value of every sale that is closed with customers referred through you.

Media Bakery

Media Bakery has certainly earned its rightful place in my top five stock photo sources in the summer of 2014. It’s been around for more than a decade, and until now it has gathered an impressive number of creative files: 10 million photos, vectors, videos, and music files.

2 million of these are carefully selected and placed in the Microstock Image Collection, where they are sold for astonishingly modest prices, starting from $1 and all the way to $49. The search filters on the left are highly sophisticated, which gives you the opportunity to narrow down your quarry and only be presented with accurate results.

PhotoSpin, Inc.

Not a lot of people know that PhotoSpin was the first stock image company that offered image subscrip-tions 15 years ago. Right now, they’ve tailored their subscriptions to allow up to 50 downloads per day, and a maximum of 1000 downloads per month. So, these subscriptions might come in handy if you happen to work with a big volume of images.

What’s more, PhotoSpin’s affiliate program seems to be quite appealing. You’re supposed to create an account, and then add some banners and contextual links to your site. Whenever you send in business, you get 15% for each sale, which is one of the highest commission rates in the industry.

Photofolio

As creative professionals, we know how unpleasant it is when someone does not appreciate your work, or give you the proper credit. Therefore, my heart goes out to photographers and graphic artists who contribute their pieces of work to various agencies, but don’t get a fair share of the commission when their stuff gets sold to publishers or marketing specialists.

That’s why I’m always happy to come across agencies that don’t go for maximum profit in the detriment of the actual contributors who make it all happen. So you can imagine how pleased I was to discover that Photofolio is not like other merchants. Much like Stockfresh, this marketplace is fair and rewards contributors with at least 60% of each sale.

Snapwire

Not all stock photo sources are based on the same model. While most of them demand that you manually browse through their images and single out those you prefer, a few precious others take a more personal approach.

Snapwire is fantastic, because it gives you an alternative. You can just request for a certain type of photo, and a community comprised of thousands of photographers rush to create those custom photos for you.

It’s almost like hiring a professional photographer, but without the outrageous fees. Finally, the photos that you will be getting have an authentic look and feel.

Mostphotos

Mostphotos is the closest thing to heaven for designers, bloggers, art directors, and content managers. Not only does this collection reach more than 7 million royalty-free images in total, but they happen to look so crisp that you’ll hardly believe they really are stock photos.

I was also mildly surprised when I first learned that 50K contributors submit thousands of new items day by day. This means that there can’t possibly be any shortage of fresh and original resources.

Shutterstock

It won’t do to leave out New York-based Shutterstock from this selection of summertime stock favorites. The first thing that goes though my mind when I think about this stock markeplace is globalism, as Shutterstock seems to be omnipresent. It has no less than 150 premises scattered all around the world, and operates in 20 languages.

Corbis images

The very last stock photo agency that I’m going to mention is Corbis images. Check out the diverse categories from there, and feel free to use any item for commercial or editorial purposes. Its extended library of royalty-free photos and illustrations are pure eye candy, as any creative professional who gazed upon them can concur.

Ending thoughts

There you have it: my personal list of places to visit when I’m looking for neat stock photos. Naturally, there may be other fine choices that I haven’t mentioned here or don’t even know about just yet. So, if there is anything you’d care to add, please be my guest.