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A Guide To Stock Photos

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Royalty Free Stock Photographs

Professional Stock Images can really make the difference between an average presentation and a great one, whether you are looking for something to liven up your website, blog, squidoo lens, or designing adverts or promotional materials for Print.
I have been comparing 2 of the biggest Royalty Free Stock Photo suppliers, both as a customer, photographer and affiliate. Here I hope to help you make your choice of which to join, buy images from and promote.
Here we will be comparing iStockPhoto & 123RF and inviting your contributions to the debate as to which is best.

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Introducing 123RF

123RF is your one-stop royalty-free photo library offering stunning, practical stock photos at the most affordable price!

With a stock of over 3million Royalty Free images available for downloading and a simple credit or subscription plan, it is easy to see why they are the fastest growing Stock Photography company.

  • Image prices start as low as 10p an image for subscribers or 45p for credit users
    • .
  • Credit Packages start from as low as £10 ($20)
    24 Hour Live Support

  • Rewards Scheme - Purchase credits and get rewarded with points you can exchange for amazon vouchers, more credits, etc.

  • Over 10,000 free images always available (at time of writing 17781 photographs were available for free download)


    • Swan Love 

    Introducing iStockphoto

    The world's fastest growing collection of original, independent, royalty-free images

    iStockPhoto are probably the biggest supplier of Royalty Free Stock Images in the industry.
    With over 55,000 artists and photographers uploading to istockphoto they are certainly one of the biggest sources of stock images.
    With Flash, Video, Audio and Illustrations istockphoto do usually win hands down on the variety and are often the number one choice of designers seeking stock images or media.
    iStockphoto also have some images available for free download, but very few in comparison to 123RF.

    View Stock Images

    Stock Photos of Dogs 

    Where To Get Free Images -

    123RF usually have available over 10,000 free images for you to browse through and download the basic size, 300x400px at 72dpi free! (At time of writing they had over 17,000!)

    This selection is constantly changing and the images are provided for downloading free for a period of 30 days by contributors who wish to raise their profile and attract visitors to the images they have for sale in their portfolio.

    The image size isn't particularly suited to print or for use online if wanting to fill a large area, but they are a great size for blogs and for squidoo

    All Images On This Page Are Free Images From -

    123RF.COM

    Vote For Your Favorite Stock Photo Supplier

    1

    Vote Up

    123RF

    5 points

    Sunrise Stock Image 

    iStockphoto Vs. 123RF

    Which is your preferred supplier of Royalty Free Images

    Give some reasons why you prefer one stock photo supplier or another.

    Or if you are a photographer earning money from royalty free stock photos, tell us which company you prefer and why!

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    iStockphoto

    Phil_Bell says:

    I've been using iStockphoto. Didn't even know about 123RF until now. I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip.

    Posted June 14, 2009

    goose says:

    I like istockphoto because of the huge range and great search facility. Though the free image resources listed below are pretty cool

    Posted December 03, 2008

    123RF

    fortune68 says:

    123RF sounds better than iStockPhoto, and it also seems a fair bit better priced. I'd go with 123RF!

    Posted November 08, 2008

    a_willow says:

    I have currently around 50 images (mostly vectors) on 123rf.com and earned some money of them, too... I found out that it was much easier to be accepted by 123rf than iStockphoto. So my vote goes to 123rf.com!

    Posted October 06, 2008

     

    How about background images and textures?


    This is just one of the Royalty Free Stock Textures that I downloaded Free from 123RF

    Royalty Free Vs. Rights Managed Stock Images

    Royalty Free Images are quite simply images where you pay a small fee for their use in advance and then are free to use the image on almost anything, though it is worth reading the licensing agreement from the supplier. Often they only allow you to use the image in print a certain number of times, or for limited print runs.
    Rights Managed Images you pay for a license and then pay a royalty on it's usage. This form of acquiring stock images is often used by advertisers and publications with a large print run. Also the advantage of buying a rights managed image is that it can be yours exclusively.

    Earn From Image Hosting!!

    Shareapic have a rather unique image hosting service where you can earn money from people viewing images you host on their server!!

    Please do check that the small print on the rights of the images you do upload though.

    Other Royalty Free Photo Sites

    These are sites that I have discovered or have been suggested to me, though I haven't time to give them full reviews they are worth a look at. I've yet to find a source of royalty free stock images that rival istock or 123rf.
    Do check the usage rights of the suppliers listed below as some do not permit commercial use, whilst other require a credit and link.
    wp Clipart
    a clean and safe site for children and others to find good-quality, printable images that have no copyright restrictions. All the images are in the Public Domain.
    stock.xchng
    stock photography community - reasonable number of free images available.
    Shutterstock: Royalty-Free Subscription Stock Photography & Vector Art
    5,032,430 royalty-free stock photos
    70,100 new stock photos added this week*(Nov '08)
    126,504 photographers
    morguefile.com Where photo reference lives.
    Morguefile.com free stock photos
    freerangestock.com
    Not just royalty free, totally free.
    BigFoto.com
    Free Download of all Pictures, though you must provide a link (free pictures, or free photos) to bigfoto. The link does not have to be positioned next to the image.
    Piotr.Pix Free Stock Photos
    Piotr.Pix is an image database providing free high-quality images. You can freely use pictures in your personal, charity projects or any non-profit project.
    openphoto.net
    Free Images, not a huge range, but they are free!

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