7 Cheap Stock Images Mistakes You Should Avoid

Cheap stock images are excellent alternatives to custom photography. They are less time-consuming and more affordable than conducting photoshoots. However, many people fall victim to common pitfalls related to the use of stock images. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid these mistakes.

  • Purchase from stock photo sites. Do you think Google is a free resource of stock photography? Think again. Although the search engine provides images for free, most of these images are copyrighted and are not licensed for reuse. To make sure that you have the permission to reuse the images in any project, get them from stock photo websites.
  • Choose the right photo license. Keep in mind that purchasing an image does not save you from committing mistakes. You may still be in violation of the license when you use the image incorrectly. Usage is used in two main stock photo types: royalty-free and rights-managed. The former allows multiple usages with some restrictions while the latter requires the user to state exactly how and where the image will be used. Due to their exclusivity, rights-managed cannot be utilized many times.
  • Avoid popular images. Many people also use cheap stock images with their creative projects. Thus, it is possible that two or more companies will end up with the same images. You can avoid this problem by finding and using less popular images in the deepest pages of your search results.
  • Avoid generic images. Many people use generic photos in their websites. Do not follow them. Generic images can lead to poor user experience. To avoid this, communicate specific information through specialized images. Examples of generic images are handshakes and business meetings. If you want to articulate a unique value proposition, steer clear from them.
  • Don’t use photos that misinterpret your message. Rather than using images of buildings and personnel, choose images that illustrate the products and services you offer.
  • Don’t change the file name. Renaming files removes one vital piece of information from the image you downloaded. The long stream of numbers, typically associated with stock images, can be used to search for the original photo again.
  • Download the highest resolution. In the event that you need to incorporate images in printed materials, you should download the highest resolution to produce high quality results in print publications. Your visitors will appreciate the crispiness of higher resolution images than their smaller counterparts.

Stock photography has a lot to offer to creative professionals around the world. It is affordable, which means it will surely fit your creative budget. It is less time-consuming. You only need to spend time looking for that image that suits your creative needs. In conclusion, if you know what to avoid when using cheap stock images, you can enjoy a perfect project.

 

7 Steps on Finding the Perfect Cheap Stock Photos

Finding the perfect image to reinforce your message has been a huge part of every project. It is one of the biggest decisions you have to make. With over millions of choices in various cheap stock photo sites, it can be tough to sort through all of the images to look for the ones that will work. Here are seven steps on finding the perfect cheap stock photography for your creative project.

  1. Lay out the content. You may be tempted to visit your favorite stock photo agency and start looking around for images; however, this may get you in trouble. You need to lay out the content first to determine how many cheap photos you need and how many you will use. By understanding how much content you have and how much space you have to work with, you are able to download and use enough images to fit your project.
  2. Plan the image’s placement. The difference between choosing the right and wrong image for you project comes in placement. If you have design elements and text to add to your cheap photos, you need to choose images with plenty of room to breathe in. make sure there is plenty of space in order to scale and crop the image, without worrying about fitting everything in your design.
  3. Leave room for text. If you are planning to add a catchy quote, make sure you choose stock photos cheap with built-in negative space to accommodate your text. It should contain a flat surface or block of color to place text with contrasting color.
  4. Take note of contrast. Use cheap stock images with light or dark-colored areas if you can’t find any with negative space. Avoid images with a noisy pattern or a neutral background to avoid ruining your design by applying a drop shadow or stroke to your text.
  5. Consider orientation. What are you using the images for? By determining the purpose of the cheap stock photos, you will be able to choose the right orientation. For instance, if you are designing a postcard, a landscape photo is the best option. If you need an image for a poster, portrait is the perfect orientation for you.
  6. Important notes on images of people. When choosing cheap stock photography of people, you need to consider facial expressions, objects they are interacting with, and their clothing.
  7. Narrow your search. Lastly, filter your results by using advanced search options. Searching through irrelevant cheap stock images is the worse. Sort by relevance or by type to avoid wasting your time sorting through millions of images.

Finding the perfect cheap stock photography is not as difficult as it has to be. Use these seven helpful steps in your favorite cheap stock photo sites to improve your search and save your time. Instead of spending too much time finding the perfect image, spend it on creating beautiful designs and delivering the best work to your clients.

Photocase: A Sweet Introduction

You may have heard about a stock image website that offers exclusive images to its clients. It does sound like a great agency, right? Many websites have scattered all over the internet and they all offer one product – typical stock images. Unlike these common sites, Photocase offers extraordinary images that you will never find in other websites. Here is a sweet introduction about Photocase photography to help you appreciate it more.

History of Photocase

Photocase was founded to help a small group of graphic designers share their photos between one another freely and easily. It started serving a huge number of freelance editors and graphic designers in 2001. They shoot, upload and share their own pictures to create a pool of unique, good quality images that they could use in any project free of charge. The server then grew to what it is today.

Since then, many have shared the website’s passion for atypical and inspiring stock photography. It is now a community of over 12,000 photographers, 160,000 images and 360,000 users. The Photocase’s customers include some of the largest design and advertising agencies in Germany. It also caters to bloggers, editors and publishers. If you are one of those people who are tired of typical stock images, you should join the website’s growing community.

The Photocase Now

Although the website has grown to a remarkable creative community, the idea has not changed at all. It still believes that stock photography does not have to look like stock photography – but more. Photocase does not want to be a part of a market that sells similar images. It has a different vision. It focuses on providing more creative, unique and authentic images. Thus, it became a home for strongly curated stock photography.

If you browse through the website, you will see that Photocase has been successful in achieving its vision. The site is filled with unique and exciting images. The contributors are passionately adding more exciting and inspiring images to gain approval from the website’s strict requirements. How strict is the application for approval? It is very firm. In fact, 90% has been rejected.

Although the company has a strong hold on the German market, it is now working on establishing itself overseas. Photocase feels that there is a big demand for creative, high quality and unique stock photography. And, that is what its library is full off.

To make things even better, the websites partners with other websites to provide its users with Photocase free credits and discounts. For instance, stockphotosecrets.com offers a Photocase coupon code upon registration via its link, giving new users 3 free credits and a 25% discount which are automatically added to their account.

How a Shutterstock Coupon Code Can Help Your Small Business

Shutterstock is one of the most well-known stock photo and vector image sites online. For many people, stock photos are the way to go to help them with their marketing efforts. For others, however, stock photography is not so affordable. For these people perhaps a Shutterstock coupon code can help them.

It is an agreed-upon fact that stock photography is far more cost-effective than conducting your photo shoot. Stock photography brings to life the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is often far more efficient to choose the right stock photo to convey a message than it is to write two or three paragraphs attempting to convey the same message to an audience.

Stock Photo Secrets has maintained a relationship with Shutterstock. As a result of this relationship, the readers and subscribers of Stock Photo Secrets are granted an exclusive coupon code they can use on their next Shutterstock subscription. The coupon codes enable small business owners to take up to an additional 10% off their Shutterstock subscription. That’s actually a lot more than what some people might think. Let’s demonstrate.

Imagine that your budget is stretched tight – unless it really is stretched tight like most business owners. In that case, you don’t need to imagine anything. Take your yearly budget and add 10% to it. For some small business owners, this could mean an additional thousand dollars. Without a doubt, you can find a place to use a thousand extra dollars per year effectively. Now let’s put that in perspective with a Shutterstock coupon code. The plan that Shutterstock has that provides the most value to the customers cost about $200 per month for 750 images, or $2400 per year. For those who don’t know easy math, 10% of $2400 is $240. Now let’s subtract $240 from $2400. Your new price per year is $2160. That means your final price gives you more than one free month which is over 750 free images. There’s some serious value in that.

Shutterstock is been around since 2003. It is a New York-based company that was started by a photographer. Many people in many marketing departments across the country and the world know and realize the value of stock photography. It is far cheaper than any personalized photo shoot, and Shutterstock offers a royalty-free images. Once you purchase an image, you may be subject to a licensing agreement; however, you will not need to give credit to Shutterstock for the photo. You may use it for your blog and your marketing efforts as if you owned the photo.