Cheap stock Photography
My previous post about free stock photos, however sometimes you might not find the photo that you are looking for at those sites. In that case the solution is to look at some of the commercial stock photography agencies. Stock photos at most of the well know stock photo agencies are really expensive with a photo price ranging from about 100 up to several thousands of dollars. If you are running a big business and you are looking for that unique image that maybe ok with you, however if you are just looking for photos for your website or blog those prices are simply out of reach.
So, what is the alternative in that case? The answer is microstock photography sites. Microstock sites as they are commonly called offer stock photography at very affordable prices. Their prices range from 1$ per photo up to about 10$. You might be wondering about the quality of so cheap images, I can simply say that the quality in most cases is excellent. The way this sites work is simple, photographers and illustrators from all around the world upload their photos, these photos are then reviewed by human inspectors and if they meet the quality criteria of the sites they are added to their database. When a stock photo is sold the creator receives a commission. Personally, I am a contributing photographer at a number of these agencies and I make a nice side income from this activity of mine which at least funds my hobby of photography. Here are the links to the three I personally recommend both for buying but also for selling your photos and illustrations. (Note: I have included my referral link for some of these agencies, o if you sign up under me I will get a small commission if you buy or sell your images) There are many more but those are the ones that I like the most.
Dreamstime: Dreamstime is the first place that I visit when I am looking to buy stock photos. Why? Because it’s the cheapest and the quality is really good. Most of the photos cost just 1$ (very few cost 3$) and if you plan on selling your photos there you will get 50% commission. Dreamstime now offers almost 220.000 images for download right now.
Istockphoto: Istockphoto was the pioneer of microstock photography, the quality is excellent and the selection is very big. At the moment of writing this post Istockphoto has 584619 files for download. Besides stock photography Istockphoto offers a large selection of vector files (.eps). The prices range from 1 to 20$ depending on the size of the photo.
Fotolia: Fotolia is a relatively new microstock agency (a few months old) however they entered the microstock market very dynamically. In that short period they have managed to an archive of almost 250000 photos. Prices start from 1$ per photo as well. One thing that I should note is that fotolia also offers a collection of free photos as well.
Here are the links to the other microstock sites that I know just in case you are looking for more affordable stock photography resources.
Canstockphoto
Bigstockphoto
Stockexpert
Gimmestock
ScandinavianStockPhoto
AreaImage
Shuttermap
StockPhotomedia
USPhotoStock
There are also some subscription based affordable Stock Photography agencies which I haven’t mention in this post but I will probably make a post about them in the future.
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January 10th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
So, you’ve opted to not be exclusive with these micro-stock companies…is that because you do better financially by taking smaller commissions from several sources rather than just one? (I’m currently working with iStock and have wondered.)
Thanks!
Brad Wieland
January 10th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Hi Brad, the reason I am not exclusive with Istockphoto is simple. when I first found about microstock sites about a year ago the upload process at Istockphoto was a pain while other stock photo sites like shutterstock (a subscription based agency) were offering FTP upload and no upload limit so I have build up a portfolio quite easily at those sites in very little time. On the other hand I never really started uploading photos on Istockphoto (although I have been accepted as a contributing photographer) because of the upload process and the high rejection rate. Right now I am using Istockphoto only for purchasing photos and I don’t have a portfolio there.
January 18th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
thnx for this list. I foud one of those sites very useful.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:17 am
[...] Istockphoto announced yesterday that they have reached an agreement with Getty Images and is now part of the Getty Images family. I have mentioned IstockPhoto before in my Cheap Stock Photography post, but here is a small presentation. IstockPhoto was the pioneer in microstock photography, they have launched almost six years ago and created a community of contributing photographers, that, allowed them to sell stock photos in very affordable prices (0.5$ at first). Since then they have grown and they now have a library of almost 625.000 royalty free photos and illustrations. Getty Images on the other hand, is the leader in professional stock photography and the dream of many professional stock photographers. They accept only a handful of contributing photographers each year and only accept the best of the best. [...]
February 16th, 2006 at 8:36 am
Nice article,
(my customers ask for that, I guess yours too)
we run a little web/print agency in Brussels, Belgium.
We use istock a LOT (and sxc.hu). And only hope istock won’t be ‘contaminated’ by getty/imagebank philosphy which is: pay hard, see few.
- I understand that my point of view is customer based: I’d rather pay less and see more
- I also understand photographers have to make a living. There’s a place for every budget, hope they keep that in mind. Otherwise istock will die and others will take the market.
Interesting thing: istock raised their rates as from jan 06, so it’s a mere coincidence Getty bought them, or is it not? Strange things happen…
Cheers
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:10 pm
you can check out http://www.123rf.com too.
April 16th, 2006 at 8:59 am
As a contributor to and purchaser from http://www.totallyphotos.com I have noticed a trend towards more sales over the past couple of months on this site (I never contributed to istock as prices were just too low). Wondering if the purchasers are coming from istock?
I guess people who sell on istock should be able to say.
April 28th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I just started and am waiting approval at, iStock, Shutterstock, toatllyphoto
I look at it as a challenge and figure I will at least lean something.
June 22nd, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Not managed to find another site that compares to the sales (money wise) that iStock is providing. The second and third best seem to return about half the amount that iStock offers and these are Shutterstock and Dreamstime.
All in all its not worthwhile becoming exclusinve to any stock site unless you don’t have the thime to upload to more than one site. It can be very time consuming.
August 29th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
I find that my portfolio sells 4 times better at ShutterStock than iStock. That is both total revenue and downloads.
October 19th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Cool. I like microstock photography. If you asking me, my list is;
Shutterstock
iStockphoto
Fotolia
Dreamstime
Featurepics
The las one is very good stock site because you set price, not them, so you can say how much you want for your image. Also they generate frames with images so you can put them on your own site (like I did) and promote yourself.