Whether you’re starting a marketing campaign or are simply a hobby blogger, photos will range from a necessity for your content to being at least a very pleasant aesthetic complement. But where do you get these photos from? Do you take them on your own, use Google or hire a photographer for hundreds (or thousands)? In fact, a hassle-free and mostly automated way of acquiring great photos exists for a relatively cheap cost: stock photos.
Why is it difficult to find good photos?
If you want to use any photos in printed material, you’re likely to require a resolution of 9 megapixels* or more (3508×2480) for filling an entire page or poster. Needless to say, excellent photos rarely come up anywhere near that high a resolution on the internet, because professional photographers wouldn’t just let anyone use their property. So, what would they demand to make you an exception? To know the answer, you first have to learn about copyright. Whenever you take a photo, you typically become the sole copyright holder of that photo (as long as it doesn’t contain identifiable persons or property belonging to someone else), and you’ll be protected from theft by international law. The only way to legally use a copyrighted image is either by buying its full ownership, which is kind of a big deal, or simply by obtaining a license for using it. The latter is actually a way easier process than you might think and may be done through an online shopping interface without doing any contact or negotiation at all.
*This resolution is high enough to fill an A3 at a density of 200 DPI (dots per [square] inch) or an A4 at 300 DPI. The lowest acceptable DPI for readable printed material is 150.
Two sources: the $100 photo vs. the $1 photo
When designing your website or marketing brochure, you’re likely to need featuring at least one photo of your product itself, but what about secondary photos? For instance, would you like to show the European meadows that your restaurant’s ingredients come from? At first, you might be under the impression that this kind of photos (requiring travel, props or actors) is fairly expensive, which is true. However, other photographers have already shot these generic scenes and themes for you, but it is your product that can’t be substituted and has to be specifically photographed.
If you haven’t guessed yet, the $100 photo is the one that you exclusively own, which usually comes from a hired photographer. Your product photos fall under this category. On the other hand, the $1 photo is any photo that you can obtain usage rights for, usually cheaply for a non-exclusive license, regardless of how much the original photo cost to make. These are called stock photos
Stock photos and where they’re acquired from
Stock photos are traded by stock agencies, which is done in modern day via their very intuitive, mostly-automated shopping interfaces, making the whole process easy for everyone. Typically, these photos aren’t “sold” at all, but the thing you purchase -as a customer- is a right to use them. While these usage licenses vary from agency to another, in the vast majority of cases, they give you near-full freedom in using the stock (including commercial purposes), are non-exclusive, permanent, and are granted for a one-time fee ranging from 25 cents to $10 or more per photo (depending on your selected plans).
Free stock photo sites do exist, which is a great option for hobby bloggers or designers, but are generally not recommended for businesses or professionals. Since they function with little to no budget, free sites have extremely narrower photo collections with less quality assurance and no legal guarantees. Of course, that’s not to say that free stock sites can’t supply some really amazing photos, but if you’re working commercially, a simple premium stock photo plan can go a long way, with legal guarantees reaching upward of $10,000, without taking a significant amount of your budget.
When to use stock photos and when to hire a photographer
Do you really want to commission the photography of floating fruit slices with water splashing on them to a photographer that you’ve either never heard of, or who costs half your monthly budget? Or would you rather select that photo from thousands of options and get it for one or two dollars? Each of stock photos and hired photographers have their pros and cons no doubt, which I’ve outlined below to help you keep track of things. Indeed, you’ll often find yourself using a combination of both.
Pros of hiring photographers
- Photos of your exact products.
- Exclusive ownership (usually); nobody will copy you.
- You choose your own angles and compositions.
Cons of hiring photographers
- Time and money consuming.
- If you need just one more photo afterwards, you’d need to schedule a whole new photo shoot.
Pros of stock photos
- Available for cheap.
- Time-saving; downloadable with one click.
- You’ll find almost anything you can think of (out of hundreds of millions of photos) without hiring props or actors.
- They give you great design freedom (as generic photos, or as components in photo manipulation).
Cons of stock photos
- Non-exclusive ownership (usually), albeit the global distribution of customers makes it nearly impossible for one of your competitors to use the same photos.
- Can’t substitute your main product.
- You are bound by the angles and compositions you find (albeit they’re a plenty).
7 stock photo sites for different needs
What’s the best stock photo website out there? Before answering this question, it’s crucial to determine your demands, budget and personal taste. What follows is a comparison between several stock photo sites/agencies with a highlight of what could set each of them apart, in no particular order.
Depositphotos
$10 for 10 photos a month + $1/photo – Launched in 2009 – More than 90 million images and videos
When compared to other websites’ plans, Depositphotos’ flexible plan almost sounds too good to be true, at $10 for 10 photos + $1/photo (whereas you pay as you go). Yet, the website has been around since 2009 and nearly rivals the industry’s giants with its 90+ million-asset library. While not providing the cheapest photos-per-dollar ratio around, Depositphotos’ flexible plan definitely earns its spot on this list as the most flexible monthly plan with the cheapest starting point.
Stock Photo Secrets
Budget annual plan – Launched in 2011 – More than 4 million photos
Although small in volume when compared to the industry’s giants, Stock Photo Secrets has found its way to this list thanks to its 99Club package, which is a rather competitive annual plan for semi-pro users. While most industry giants drop below the $2/photo threshold only when paying as high as $100 a month, the 99Club gives you an astonishing $0.50/photo starting from $100 for 100 photos a year, not a month, giving you much greater flexibility.
Shutterstock
More than 220 million photos, videos and audio files – launched in 2003
Shutterstock is one of the stock photo market’s giants. Their website description -as of publishing this article- claims to accept 150,000 assets to their collection on a daily basis. When I say “accept”, I mean that their employees do actually validate the photos’ quality on a one-by-one basis before admitting them into shop. As with some others in the field, Shutterstock has a regular publication for their photographers, guiding them about customers’ recent trends and demands to keep their collection freshly saturated.
Adobe Stock
Integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud – Launched in 2005 – More than 100 million images, videos and audio files
Adobe Stock, as the name implies, is Adobe’s service for stock materials. Perhaps Adobe Stock’s most distinguishing feature is the ability to browse stock photos from within Creative Cloud apps, then to test them in their full resolution before making your purchase. If you’re satisfied, the deal may be finalized with a simple click. The service has a 30-day free trial.
iStock
Generic and exclusive collections – Launched in 200 – Tens -or hundreds- of millions of photos
iStock was launched in 2000 and was later acquired by Getty Images, the world’s largest stock image trading agency. Today, they use it as their traditional photo outlet with the regular non-exclusive licensing principle used by other giants like Shutterstock. However, they have a slightly different business model, with regular photos falling under a cheaper set of plans, and another collection of higher quality images which are exclusive to Shutterstock and its subscribers who opt in for the extended plan.
123RF
Large legal guarantee & online photo editor – Launched in 2005 – More than 65 million photos
123RF is located halfway between the larger agencies and the smaller ones with cheaper plans. Their legal guarantee may cover up to $25,000 in costs, which is significantly higher than average. A feature which may come in handy under special circumstances or with the less technically savvy is the site’s online photo editor.
Getty Images
Exclusive licensing of modern & historical photos – Founded in 1995, site launched later – 80 million modern, historical and editorial photos
Sounds familiar? Getty Images is the owning company of iStock and this is their original website, which is now specialized in licensing significant photos (modern, historical and editorial) for exclusive usage, which individually cost hundreds of dollars. You might be wondering at this point why to not just hire a photographer an entire day. The answer is that photo shoot results are inconsistent for one, and secondly, that excessively creative photos (esp. these involving trial and error), or these involving special events or locations, will most likely cost as much as ready-made photos. But more importantly, Shutterstock prides itself in covering significant events “from every angle”.