Taking Stock of Stock Photos

As a photo editor and designer, I always have to ask the question ‘Where do I get the right pictures from?’ Until recently I used the traditional stock photo houses like ‘Getty images’, ‘Corbis’, ‘Jupiter images’, Alamy, etc.
However I decided to explore the microstock world a little and was quite suprised about the quality of the pictures available on microstock. What I see as a problem of microstock sites is that the content of the microsites is very similar – you will find the same pictures on Dreamstime as on Stockxpert, Fotolia etc. I have listed my favourite microstock sites below – the 4 which are the most popular because they have the largest portfolios. I also added some smaller sites which I found interesting.

THE 4 MOST POPULAR

ISTOCKPHOTO http://www.istockphoto.com
Positives: great site with many advanced functions.
Big portfolio containing exclusive pictures but also video, flash and even audio! It also has a large community.
Negatives: Highest prices among microsites, and I find there is too much text lumbering around which can take distract you if you just want to quickly buy and go.

DREAMSTIME http://www.dreamstime.com
Positives: Large portfolio, high quality pictures, user-friendly interface. You find all the information you need, exactly where you need it.
Negatives: Sometimes the site can be quite slow.

FOTOLIA http://www.fotolia.com
Positives: Large portfolio, high speed search results.
Negatives: Sometimes irrelevant keywords by pictures.

STOCKXPERT http://www.stockxpert.com/
Positives: Large portfolio covering a broad range of subjects.
Negatives: Not many exclusive images, the website is sometimes quite slow, especially getting dynamic and large previews that last. The thumbnails are too small.

OTHER INTERESTING 5 AND WHY THEY ARE WORTH VISITING:

MOSTPHOTOS http://www.mostphotos.com
Positives: They differentiate from other microsites by their really interesting and great web design. They also have different pictures than other microsites, so you can find something new.
Negatives: The prices are a little higher (arround $50 AU or 25Eur per picture)

PIXMAC http://www.pixmac.com
Positives: Here you can find many high quality pictures which i have not seen on any other microsite. The site is very quick and easy to work with and the price levels rank among the lowest on the microstock market. They also have quite big thumbnails which i appreciate.
Negatives: It lacks an advanced search option.

MOODBOARD http://www.moodboard.com
Positives: User friendly website which has some advanced helpful functions. It is obvious that they know their customers needs. The content is divided into 3 categories (micro, premium and plus) which makes it easy for the user.
Negatives: The only negative I can see is that by searching in all 3 categories it isn’t visible by the thumbnail which price level the picture is in.

YAY MICRO http://www.yaymicro.com
Positives: The site is very easy to work with, there is not a large amount of excessive text lumbering about, and everything is clear at first sight.
Negatives: Their watermark is too heavy, which makes it difficult to examine the picture. Their collection doesn’t seem to be very big yet.

ZYMMETRICAL http://www.zymmetrical.com/art/fonts/
Positives: They don’t only feature photos, but graphics, videos and fonts. The difference to other microsites is that you can pay in your own local currency.
Negatives: The main problem of this site is the speed – unfortunately it is really slow with showing the search results and it seems they have less photos in comparison to other agencies.
(Are still in Beta).

Article by Tomas Boleslav

Tags: DREAMSTIME, FOTOLIA, ISTOCKPHOTO, MOODBOARD, MOSTPHOTOS, PIXMAC, stockxpert, YAY MICRO, ZYMMETRICAL