The Best Ways to Find Proffesional Images

Lets face it, we are not all professional photographers regardless of how hard we try.  We lack experience, high end cameras, lighting equipment and knowledge of how to use it all.  Fortunately some people are, and the professional photographers have posted there images on a few websites for you to download or purchase for a small fee then download.  So the two best places I have found to go are:

www.flickr.com – Free

Flickr offers a wide range of images and photographs that are all available for download, BUT you can only use certain ones publicly.  To find images that you can use go to advanced search and towards the bottom of the screen you will see creative commons search criteria. If you are using the images with a non profit or for a non-commercial purpose select the top check box “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.”  If you are using the images commercially then the second check box must also be checked and would like like this image.

 

www.istockphoto.com -Buy Credits

iStock photo is my favorite resource.  The images are must be purchased using credits, but the quality and range of photographs and graphics is the best.  There prices vary on the type of image, the size of the image and how many credits you buy at a time.  The image to the right is off the iStock site showing their current rates for credits.  Before you buy, there are a number of promo codes also available which can be found doing a Google search.

 

There are many sites and resources out there to use.  The Creative Commons Website is also an excellent resource for finding images, video audio and more.  Wherever you find your images be sure to ensure that they are royalty free.