Reviews of stock photo sites : safe websites to sell photos from
Fotolia
Fotolia is the first worldwide social marketplace for royalty free stock images, allowing individuals and professionals to legally buy and share stock images and illustrations.
Fotolia offers the largest image bank of free and affordable royalty free stock photography people places photos and illustrations perfect for any medium, web or print. You can find free stock photos of friends, stock photos people pushing and shoving and much more.
Photographers and designers constantly update Fotolia with thousands of new photos and illustrations each day, while photographers and designers receive commission from each photo sold and revenue from advertising on the free section.
Above all Fotolia is a huge community of creative people who enjoy sharing, learning, and expressing themselves through forums and blog.
Dreamstime
Dreamstime.com is a powerful Royalty-Free stock photography agency, aiming to supply you with high quality digital images at unbelievable prices. All our stock images are provided by our community's photographers, shot on film or digital and approved by our in-house designers and photographers. Structured on categories and subcategories, our database is constantly renewed with thousands of fresh images and titles. The format we provide is JPG / RGB, minimum file size accepted is 3MP.
If you're a designer looking for high quality stock images, we invite you to check the About our images page, for the main details regarding our accepted usage and restrictions. Credits for downloading the images can be bought from the Buy credits page.
If you're a photographer looking to sell your images, please visit the following page: Sell your images. We reward 50% from each sale you make. All discounts are supported by the agency, therefore the real commissions are between 50-70%; on specific occasions they can be as high as 100%.
A referral program was launched in May 2005. Members can promote the community and win a significant percentage from the sales they bring. You can learn more about it on the following link: Referral program.
Shutterstock
Simply sign up for a plan, pay one low fee, and download up to 750 royalty-free stock photos per month. Our collection is growing with over 10,000 new stock photos per week - many of which cannot be found anywhere else!
Our flexible royalty-free license allows tons of uses - for an unlimited amount of time - at a fixed price! Download up to 750 photos per month and use them for as long as you would like! Shutterstock stock images are now super-sized up to 4000x3000!
As a photographer this is a great place to sell jpg photos online
iStockPhoto
iStockphoto® is the world's preeminent collection of member-generated royalty-free images, at the world's best prices. it's also one of the most safe websites to sell photos from .There are no subscription fees or extra costs. Just the best Stock Photography, Vector illustrations, and Flash files online, at prices for everyone.
It's free to become a member. Find the perfect stock image, and start downloading right away. Or contribute your own work for sale on iStock. Visit our Training page, and start uploading digital images to the largest design community in the world. Whatever you believe in you'll find an image to suit you - you can find royalty free picture of religious men and royalty free judaic images , royalty free black white photos cars , and now you can even find cheap downloadable royalty free video clips
Big Stock Photo
An Alternative to High-Priced Stock Photography
BigStockPhoto provides designers with an alternative to high-priced stock photography, in addition to providing photographers with a marketplace to sell their work.
Why pay $50-$100 for a stock photo when you can get it here for about $1.50? Power to the people!
With the advent of the digital photography, and so many people armed with cameras of high enough quality to shoot great photos, we loved the idea of making these photos available to each other, at a low price, while paying the photographers a commission for each photo sold.
At this time you'll find more web resolution photography on BigStockPhoto than print resolution, but more high res photos are being added daily.
A Marketplace for Photographers
Approved photographers can upload their photos to BigStockPhoto, and upon approval by copyright and quality editors, these photos can be downloaded by other users.
Each time a photo is downloaded, the photographer earns 50 cents. When photographers have earned at least $30 they can request a Paypal or check payment.
CLICK TO GO TO BIG STOCK PHOTO
What Every Photo Researcher Ought To Know About Buying Digital Stock Photos
By: Bob Pardue
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Buying Digital Stock Photos
If you've been a photo buyer for your magazine or site any length of time, you probably realize how much the photography industry has changed.
Many professional photographers are now using high-quality, high-res digital cameras instead of film for their stock photos. Read below to find out the easiest way to locate and purchase digital stock photos for your magazine, brochure or Web site.
Where to Buy Stock Photos
- One way to find stock photos quickly and easily is through a stock agency Web site. Stock agencies provide several benefits.
- They offer a large inventory of stock photos by many different photographers.
- You can choose from a variety of styles, colors, photo sizes and quality.
- With digital stock agencies and portals, you can normally buy right from the site without having to put in a request for certain images
- You conveniently have 1,000s of stock photographers in one location instead of having to sift through individual photographer's stock photo submissions sent by parcel post. As you know, postal mail doesn't come with a search box!
- With a stock agency or stock image portal, you can save time because they offer uniform buying guidelines, download methods and search capabilities no matter which photographer you choose.
Individual Photographers
Another way to find digital stock photos on the Web is to contact a freelance stock photographer directly.
You might need to work with a photographer one-on-one if ...
a) you need stock photos for a specific location or with a specific theme, and are unable to locate the photos you need, or
b) you'd like to assign certain projects to one photographer who specializes in that field. It is even possible to work with some stock photographers by setting up an "on spec" relationship.
This means that you give the stock photographer your photo needs and he/she shoots images with the understanding that you may only purchase one or two (or none) of the stock images.
I have worked with several textbook photo researchers this way and I've found that the images the photo buyer didn't use many times sold at a later date to a different photo researcher.
Working "on spec" may be easier to set up than you may think, especially if you catch the stock photographer during a slow photo period.
"On spec" is many times a win-win for the stock photographer and the stock photo researcher.
This is just one example of how the Internet makes it possible to work with one or many photographers and transmit your photos quickly by email or by download from a photographer's Web site.
Quality and Size of Digital Photos
Probably one of the most confusing aspects of buying digital stock photos is how to determine the size and quality of an image.
When you receive photo submissions by postal mail, you have the actual photo print or transparency in hand, making it easy to determine if the quality and size are adequate for your project. However, with digital photos it's not always that easy.
Formats Used in Digital Stock Photography
JPG (or JPEG) format, which is one of the most popular formats for digital stock photos, enables the photographer to reduce an image's size tremendously for emailing to photo buyers while retaining the size and quality needed for most magazines and publications up to even a two-page spread.
Most digital stock images are displayed as thumbnail images, and then high-resolution (high-res) images are emailed at the photo buyer's request.
Warning: A major drawback of using JPG digital files for photos is, if the photo is re-saved over and over it will lose some digital information each time it is saved. So, it's a very good idea to save a JPG image as a Tiff file as soon as you receive it. This way you can save it without sacrificing quality.
Fortunately, most stock photo agencies require that images be of top quality before they're accepted. This eliminates your worries about the quality of images in many cases, but always make sure the size of the stock image fits your needs before making a purchase.
Model / Property Release
If you plan to use your stock image for advertising purposes, or for some editorial use, you may need a model or property release. Check with your magazine or client and do some research to make sure which images will need a release.
Licensing Agreement for Digital Stock Photo Usage
Also, read the photographer's licensing agreement carefully so you'll know how, where and the length of time you can use the photo.
The general rules of usage still apply when buying stock photos on the Web. That's another reason to work with a dependable stock agency site or directly with a professional stock photographer.
Use these tips to help locate great digital stock photos easily, and when you need them!
About the Author:
Bob Pardue is a professional stock photographer located in the Southeastern USA. His stock images have been published in numerous books, reports, and publications in the USA and abroad. http://www.parduephotos.com
Read more articles by: Bob Pardue. This article is distributed by: www.iSnare.com