Are Cheap Stock Images Worth the Effort?

Finding cheap stock images takes more than just time and money. It takes a lot of effort to find that unique photo that will suit your creative project. So, are they worth the effort? They definitely are. Let us say you are a designer hired to design a layout that requires photography as one of the main elements. However, you are only given little or no budget to come up with a great design. Should you spend all your pay on photoshoots? Thankfully, stock photos are here! Click more information here.

Unlike photoshoots, cheap stock images do not require you to set up a venue, buy equipment or pay for the professional photographer. All you need to do is spend time researching for stock photo agencies that will suit your creative needs and, of course, your budget. Fortunately, there are plenty of that in the market. Shutterstock, iStock, the Dollar Photo Club and many others have millions of stock images in their libraries. You will surely find what you are looking for.

Let us answer some common concerns.

  • What is considered cheap? The word cheap is subjective. What may be cheap for you is expensive for others. Is one dollar for a photo cheap or expensive? It depends on the buyer. Generally, a range between one to five dollars is considered cheap for stock photo buyers. If you are looking for this very low price, microstock is the way to go.
  • What license should you get? You should get the license that suits your creative needs and not your budget. There are two common types of license – royalty-free and rights-managed. The former allows you to use the photo in any project for as long as you like. The latter, on the other hand, allows you to use the photo one-time for a specific purpose.
  • What quality is the best? Of course, the higher quality is the better choice. However, some stock photo agencies price their images based on quality. This means that lower quality images tend to be cheaper than higher quality ones. Thankfully, websites like the Dollar Photo Club now offers all images in high resolution for the same price.
  • How many images should a stock site have? How many cheap stock images should a stock agency have for you to consider it as your primary image bank? We say it depends. No matter how big their collection is, if you cannot find what you are looking for, not helpful. Stock sites that offer unique images usually have hundreds of thousands of images in their libraries, but you can be sure that if you are looking for unique images you will find them there.

So, are cheap stock images worth the effort? It definitely is worth the effort. Spending time and effort browsing through page results is not as time-consuming and expensive as conducting a photoshoot.

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