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Which are the Best Stock Photography Companies?

Let’s Look at a Few Stock Photography Companies

Many photography companies claim that their company is the best company for having the best stock photos on the market. This is an understandable statement, not wanting to show any negative issues with your own company. After an in-depth investigation into which companies are the best, it is not an easy task to determine. Each company has a distinct difference in the way they present their site to the public.

The following websites offer easy navigation and subscriptions.

GettyImages

gettyimages

GettyImages.com offers the largest amount of images out of any other stock photo website. GettyImages is preferred for traditional media, such as print. GettyImages is selective with their choice of images, to ensure the highest quality of conceptual images. The website also offers media exclusive purchases and licenses, which is preferred by larger companies and brands. They also offer music sections as well as creative and footage photos.

Cons: GettyImages has expensive pricing. They do not offer vector images, which tend to be preferred for print. Find out the difference between Vector Images Vs Pixel Based Logos.

CorbisImages

CorbisImages

One of the largest selections of high resolution images is at CorbisImages.com. Preferred for traditional media, such as print. CorbisImages offer media-exclusive purchases, preferred by large companies and brands. Their images tend to be the best for conceptual. They also offer customized subscriptions, to fit your needs. CorbisImages also offers creative and editorial licenses for images. A variety of illustration, audio, and video are available.

Cons: They do not offer vector images, which tend to be preferred for print. Prices are expensive. They do not accept user image submissions.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

Shutterstock.com offers free downloads of the week, which is always a nice perk. This website is preferred for traditional media, such as print. They also offer multiple subscription plans and pricing. Shutterstock ensures the credibility of images by its acceptance process for images.  This is done by  the website’s evaluation of the photographer’s application and photos. Because they are very selective with images, ShutterStock ensures that their users are getting the best of the best with high resolution images.

Cons: They do not offer many free images or audio. Also, their subscription prices are expensive. They don’t offer illustrations and audio.

BigStock

BigStock

You can find the best deal for your buck at BigStock.com. This website is preferred for digital media, such as websites. BigStock is the best place to find affordable vector images and illustrations. They also accept user image submissions

Cons: The amount of images they have, compared to competitors, is limited. They do not offer royalty prices for individual images. Vector images cost more than normal images.

iStockphoto

Screen shot 2013-06-03 at 1.34.50 PM 

You can also find a variety of royalty free images at iStockphoto.com. This website is preferred for digital media, such as websites. Subscription plans and royalty fees tend to be cheaper on this website. Instead of buying credits, you may do a pay-as-you-go plan. iStockphotos also offers illustrations, videos, and flash options. Users are allowed to give their own images in exchange for discounts on payments. iStockphoto even offers a one year plan in a selected category. This could be beneficial if you’re going to need similar photos in bulk, throughout the year.

Cons: They are not selective with the images they accept so their stock tends to be of a lower quality. 

Dreamstime

Dreamstime

Dreamstime.com allows for contibutors to pick their licensing. This website offers a wide variety of images. They also a wide variety of free images. They also offer weekly subscription plans. A variety of different licenses are offered.

Cons: Faulty customer services. Credits tend to be pricey. 

Thinkstock

Thinkstockphotos

Thinkstockphotos.com users pay for subscription plan, which gives them access to all their stock photos. Their subscription can be pretty pricey, but it’s only a one-time payment that offers you a large amount of images.

Cons: They don’t offer a royalty price for individual images. They do not offer illustrations and audio. They do not offer video or audio. 

Fotolia

fotolia

Fotolia.com offers different royalty and subscription prices that can accommodate how often you acquire images. Fotolia offers illustrations and videos. Their images are more reasonably priced.

Cons: They do not offer audio. They also require a minumum of 10 credits purchased.

In conclusion…

Each site has a superb selection of photos for whatever you are looking for, and each of these sites has their own uniqueness about them. They each offer different fees and try to make their site as appealing to the potential client as they possibly can. Every photo from every site has high quality photos from black and white photos from the past to almost 3D, crystal clear photos of the planets. They have photos of animals on land, and under the oceans. They have very professional looking photos from every walk of life imaginable.

Take a look for yourself and appreciate the photos that you view. You will be amazed. These photos are also great for amateur photographers to experience new ideas in the photography works, and fresh ideas for certain ways to create poses, capture fantastic pictures in a natural state, which is to catch some scene without the knowledge of the subject.          

Now that you have an overview, you decide which is the best stock photography company!