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Stock images, rightly or wrongly, are one of the best ways of spicing up an otherwise dull website page.
Pictures speak to the emotions and portray a specific image - in fact, as any advertising agency would probably want to tell you 'image is everything'.
In the web design world this is actually not true and I can get really frustrated with the idea that the actual graphic design aspects are placed on some type of pedestal and that it is a case of 'graphics über alles' - actually, if your website content matches up to what your website visitors are looking for then the actual design of the site does not really matter that much. No really!
Nevertheless, for a corporate website or a brochure type site, stock images can be used very effectively to add interest to a web page.
Click on the read more link below to find some good sources for stock images to use on your site.
Most people who are either just starting off with web design or trying to design their own sites for the first time would probably be very tempted to tap into one of two very popular resources, namely:
Google Images and Flickr
This, however, is not the best way to find images to use on your site!
Firstly, most of these images are copyrighted and have restricted usage - they are NOT free to use as you wish and yes, the chances of being 'found out' is probably small, however, it is definitely not the professional and right thing to do.
Secondly, these images are probably not the best to use to portray certain aspects of your site - while most of them are fine for portraying happy family snapshots, for a business website you probably would want to have pictures that portray a more business-like look and feel.
The other end of the scale to Google Images and Flickr is the professional stock image sites, such as Getty Images on the high end of the scale, and a couple of others that provide royalty free photos at very reasonable prices. What do we mean by royalty free? Isn't that the same as 'free' - why do I still have to pay for these photos?
Royalty fees is a phenomenon that is well known in the music industry - every time that a piece of music is played on a radio station, for example, the station has to pay royalty fees to the original artist (although, how much of that money actually ends up in the pocket of the artist is debatable). Nevertheless, photos can also have royalty fees attached to them, which basically implies that you might have to pay a stiff fee for using that photo on your site and also possibly paying a fee every time that someone views the photo!
Luckily most stock image sites sell royalty free photos - you still have to pay a low cost fee for the photo, but apart from that you are free to use it - with certain restrictions. Most of these sites do allow you to use the images on your own or client websites, but not in products that can be deemed to be of a nature where you will 'resell' the image. A typical example of this is to use the image in a template design of a template that you will be releasing commercially.
Some good, value for money, commercial stock image sites:
http://www.istockphoto.com
http://www.bigstockphoto.com
http://www.fotolia.com
http://www.stockxpert.com (please note: As of February 2010 Stockxpert has closed down)
Luckily there is a middle of the road solution for sourcing stock images, fitting in neatly between Google Images/Flickr and the commercial stock image sites. These are stock images that you can download and use completely for free.
Here is a list of three sites that offer you a very good selection:
http://sxc.hu - funny name, but very good site. Just be aware though that this site displays images from the commercial site http://www.istockphoto.com at the top of the result pages when you search for images and you might be tempted to click through to the commercial site. The layout of the two sites are also exactly the same, so you might end up trying to download a photo that you have to pay credits for - please be careful that you do not click on photos that are 'premium results'. You do have to register to use the site and download the full-size images, but you do not have to purchase anything to be able to download the images.
http://www.dreamstime.com - this site is also a commercial stock image site but they do have a nice selection of free stock images. You will have to register on the site to be able to download the free images. Registration is free, you only have to pay something ever if you do decide to buy one of the commercial images.
http://www.morguefile.com - you do not need to register on this site and can just search and download, however, I have to admit that I have not really used this site as much as the others mentioned here.
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SNAPsus was born out of a desire to fundamentally change the way people create web content, you don't have to be web designer in order to create web designs.Our system is unique content creator system , with user interface and graphics abilities that haven't seen before!
SNAPsus contains 4 types of content: Web site, small Movies, e-Cards and Presentations, the user will be able to combine between these contents.We will have a new website up in two months.
Our thought was a partnership in which we use some of your images, if you agree of course, and we put links to your company on our renewed website. Maybe we can also discuss a revenue share. I hope you are the right person in your company dealing with Partnerships.
Please let us know if it is possible to co operate with you for the benefit of both sides.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Eyal Melchet
VP Marketing
www.snapsus.com
00 972 505209322