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Design

pauloliva
pauloliva
7,889 Points
Posted by pauloliva
pauloliva
7,889 Points

Most Affordable Royalty Free Stock Photos

Hello!

Today I received my first Web Design job; it feels pretty awesome!

It is for a local lawn care business but I'm having problems trying to get photos that aren't copyright protected. I really don't want the company to be sued due to the fact of my negligence of making the website with photos that I'm not allowed to use.

So my question is:

What are some of the recommendations when searching for photos to be used in a website.

Also, I saw istockphoto has Royalty Free Stock Photos, but they are kind of pricey for me at the moment ($200/month)

What other options do I have or what is the best way to go ?

Thanks a lot!

6 Answers

Ed Williams
Ed Williams
2,969 Points
Ed Williams
Ed Williams
2,969 Points

Congratulations, Paul! Nowadays you can get lots of royalty-free images (including for commercial use) without paying for them, and the quality is as good as (if not higher) some paid sites. I'm particularly fond of Unsplash (http://unsplash.com) which builds its collection with "10 free (do whatever you want) hi-resolution photos every 10 days." All photos are released under the CC0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). However, I've recently discovered The Stocks (http://thestocks.im) which gathers and displays photos from Unsplash and other sites all in one location, and promotes itself as "the best royalty free stock photos in one place." I hope this helps.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

First, congrats on the new job!

Is there any possibility you or someone else can get real images of lawns they've done, of them actually working? That's always the best solution. You don't need an expensive camera to do so either. If somebody goes to the website and they see a lawn they recognize (like a local park or business) on this companies website, it's going to be better for the company. Or if on the website, the pictures mowing the lawn are pictures they recognize from website, it'll help draw a better connection between business and consumer. It'll be worth the effort.

Otherwise, Flickr has been my go to site for images to use on a blog I help with. You can search by how the photos are licensed, most just need some sort of credit given to the photo's account holder on the website.

Holger Liesegang
Holger Liesegang
50,595 Points
Holger Liesegang
Holger Liesegang
50,595 Points

Congrats on the new job and in addition to Kevin's and Ed's great advice I'd like to add [fotolia](fotolia.com) to the list, which in some cases might be a good source for clients which a smaller budget.

pauloliva
pauloliva
7,889 Points
pauloliva
pauloliva
7,889 Points

Thanks everyone... I have been checking out all these websites and they are amazing...

I truly appreciate taking the time to reply!