Looking to improve my photo search on the web!!!!

[StevenLaw]

Hello everybody, I have been in the photography bossiness for quite some time and use the web for my projects that need photos of a different kind and types. There are many resources available online from where you can find different pictures. This requires a lot of surfing through the web and I have to screen thought the many links and pages to get good ones. It’s not a problem to find good photos but the time factor is too much as the links and pages seem to present a different view when opened up. Sometimes there is porn stuff and the rest are not related to what I want. This is a complete waste of my time and is annoying. So, if anyone has any suggestions that can help me improve my work on web please let me know!!!

Thanks in advance!!!

[JasonElise1983]

it sounds like you are doing google image searches and using the photos for paid/ commecial work. if that is the case, that is generally illegal. Try searching stock photography sites. You'll have to pay for them, but atleast it's A) legal and B) no porn.

iStockphoto.com (<cheap)
sxc.hu (<free)
Corbis.com
gettyimages.com

those are some of the stock sites i use.

-je

[ChrisA]

Hello everybody, I have been in the photography bossiness for quite some time and use the web for my projects that need photos of a different kind and types......

Type the folowing (with the quotes) into the Google search box
"stock photo"
You will get many, many hits but the first 4 or 6 are enough for what you need.

[t0mat0]

Can I recommend potentially going through the upcoming Slide Rocket? Or similar? They'll have a copyright filter so only ones relevant to you (non-copyrighted) will show. I think the search goes via Flickr currently. You might want to check the interview of Scoble and one of the designers out. they had several other neat ideas in terms of sharing and finding images to,o, but I can't remember them offhand.

[bbeers]

SXC.hu is great, as said above it is free. All you have to do is sign up for a free account and you can use it. But not all the images are free. If you do an advanced search you can specify non restricted images which are free use.

I have been using the site for years and love it. check it out

[ezekielrage_99]

IMHO you can't fault iStockPhoto (www.istockphoto.com), it has a great range and priced very well. I used to use getty but lately it's been by far too expensive.

[semicharmed]

I would have to third iStockPhoto; I work on my college paper, we're entirely self-funded and it's a great (& affordable) place to find those images/graphics we don't think to shoot/design until 10 p.m. on production night.
The search function is also really easy to use; which makes searching much easier.

[Apple Architect]

As stated the microstock sites are great.

You might like to try the following.

Shutterstock

http://www.shutterstock.com (http://www.shutterstock.com/?rid=60738)

Purchase is based on a monthly spend, minimum is 1 month for £109 (25 images downloaded a day)

iStockphoto

http://istockphoto.com/index.php (http://istockphoto.com/index.php?refnum=amskinner)

Quality of the images is very good. Much more focus on very generic images, which are more aligned to business needs.


Fotolia

http://www.fotolia.com (http://www.fotolia.com/partner/48961)

Images are good but will have a much more European focus.

Photographer's Direct

http://www.photographersdirect.com (http://www.photographersdirect.com/index.asp?sid=17121)

The site is slightly different in that you can request certain images and people will respond with appropriate images. This removed the need to search through and find. Time limits can be set. However the amount paid will be higher (typically people are paying around £40 for an images based on usage)


Hope this helps in your search for images.

[CMD is me]

Veer is also another good source. They'll work with you on pricing.