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A Quick Guide to Buying Stock Photos (Written by a Stock Photographer)
Which stock photo site is the best?
TL;DR: If you’re searching for the perfect stock photos for your business, at an affordable and transparent price, Shutterstock is the best option (read article for more details).
Stock Photography Explained
Web designers, graphic designers, and hobbyists often buy stock photos for their projects. There are many choices and quality levels available, and our guides can help you make better decisions about where to buy, what to buy, and how much you can expect to spend on stock images.
Stock photo agencies have different selling models, that can modify (reduce) the cost of the images you buy.
Some agencies let you buy photos paying per item. And some also offer stock photo subscriptions, a plan that entitles you to a larger number of images during a time frame, for a fixed, periodic fee. Most top agencies include both options in their offer.
Each buying system has it’s pros and cons, and the convenience of one over other depends mostly on your particular needs.
Stock Photo Subscription
Here’s the main features in subscriptions:
- Download dozens to hundreds of images per month or year, for a flat monthly or annual fee.
- Access to collections not available to individual photo purchasers.
- Subscription lengths of 1 month to 1 year, enabling flexibility based on project scope and stock photo needs.
- Low, medium, and high resolution images available.
- Choose different subscription levels depending on image resolution requirements. For example, some companies offer web res and print res subscriptions at different price points.
- Price as low as fractions of a dollar per photo.
- Hassle free Royalty-free licensing…
