Photography Information

 

Selecting Good Stock Photography in the Age of Digital




The business of stock photography has drastically changed over the last few years. Ten years ago, selecting photographs for your brochure or newsletter meant spending hours pouring over stock photography catalogs and ordering photo research to find the exact image. When the order came in a giant overnight package, designers would spread transparencies out on the light table, squinting through a magnifying loop to check every detail.

Enter the digital age.

High speed Internet connections. CD's. Searchable Archives. Royalty-free stock. These elements have changed the face of communication design forever. The quality, quantity, affordability and accessibility of stock imagery have made it the resource of choice for many organizations.

The advantages of instantaneous access to searchable archives of good images are numerous.

  • Speed :: We can never have enough of it. Search. Download. Import. It's remarkable.
  • Choice :: Searching "stock photography" on Google delivers 1,470,000 results. You can find pretty much anything out there.
  • Price :: While there are free resources, unless you are doing a school report, you may need something slightly more exclusive. Also, many of the free images are only good enough for online display and the selection is very limited. Royalty-free images are reasonably priced, you pay for only the size you'll use and images can be used as needed with no extra charges.
  • Flexibility :: Image selections can be grouped, saved and emailed to others in the review cycle. People in different locations can simultaneously review ideas.
  • Archiving :: Some companies even keep a record of your buys that you can re-download whenever you need them. To use this resource effectively, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
  • Plan ahead :: Will you ever need the picture to be printed? The low cost of "low resolution" images can lure you into costly mistakes. Images need to be 300 dpi (dots per inch) at the size they will be printed.
  • Low-cost tradeoff :: Pictures are now so affordable, everyone's buying them. That means your image could show up in your competitor's brochure. Some projects call for more exclusive imagery.
  • Image-enhancement :: When you need something totally unique, such as your product in the shot, it may be more economical to hire a photographer than to have your designer spend countless hours in Photoshop trying to get it just right.
  • Availability :: Good images still cost money. While many firms have images on file, don't expect your designer to have a database full of images right for your project.
When searching on the web, search for "stock photography" rather than doing an image search in Google or another search engine. Google returns all images from the web -- including those that are the property of others and not legally usable.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at [email protected] or 610-567-2799.


MORE RESOURCES:

USA TODAY

Photography Pioneer Kodak Exits Digital Camera Business
Techzone360
By Ashok Bindra , TechZone360 Contributor Unable to keep pace with the transition from film to digital technology, film photography pioneer Eastman Kodak Co. said that it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames ...
Kodak quits the camera businessDigitaltrends.com
Kodak Gives Up on Digital Camera BusinessTechNewsWorld
Kodak gives up making camerasAFP
Mashable
all 787 news articles »


Artensoft Enables Tilt Shift Photography Without a Tilt Shift Lens
Houston Chronicle
Artensoft announces the release of Tilt-Shift Generator, a Windows tool to enable photographers simulate the appearance of a miniature scale model in post processing. Effectively replacing high-end tilt-shift lenses, the new software allows ...

and more »


Tell the World Your Story - Enter The Art Institutes Storytellers Photography ...
Sacramento Bee
9, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- If you see the world in photographs, then The Art Institutes schools challenge you to put your skills to the test in the third annual Storytellers Photography Scholarship Competition. Submit six original photographs that tell ...

and more »


Photographer Captures Worlds in a Drop of Water
LiveScience.com
Reugels is a floor installer and hobbyist photographer in Marktsteinach, Germany, but "hobby" doesn't begin to convey the beauty and precision of his photographs of images reflected in tiny, perfect globes of water. LiveScience caught up with Reugels ...

and more »


Ahwatukee photographer offers unique gift options for Valentine's Day
East Valley Tribune
This year, residents can try something different with a visit to Everardo Keeme of Everardo Keeme Photography in Ahwatukee Foothills, who offers both portraits and greeting cards for those special people in your life. "People still love getting mail ...

and more »


PHOTOGRAPHY & THE LAW : Reading & Understanding Your Rights
Business Insider
One of the areas we touched on were the use of cell/smart phone as reporting tools along with the dangers and advantages of posting on social media websites That led to the case of AFP v Morel, in which Daniel Morel, a photographer in Haiti during the ...



Unique Valentine; Boudoir photography is more than meets the eye
northwestohio.com
Local women, wearing very little, are posing for a type of photography that is popular around Valentines Day. But Boudoir Photography is more than meets the eye. “It's just one of those things that make you feel good about yourself,” Adrienne Bell said ...



Cranford photographer featured at Bouras Galleries
Independent Press - NJ.com
By Independent Press Photographer Miriam Jarney of Cranford will exhibit at Bouras Galleries. The exhibit is from March 5 through April. The Galleries are open to the public. For more information please call Linda Cole at 908-277-6054.



Oscars® to present photos of 2011 Oscar® nominees by Douglas Kirkland
Examiner.com
The photographs were taken by famed photographer Douglas Kirkland and will be displayed at the Academy's Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills from Saturday, February 11th through Sunday, March 18th. Douglas Kirkland has photographed some of Hollywood's ...

and more »


Digitaltrends.com

Facebook woos photographers with new lightbox viewer, launching end of week
VentureBeat
The new display helps Facebook compete with other photo services and social networks that already offer bigger, crisper viewers that make photography shine. Facebook is the largest photo-sharing site online, with more than 250 million photos being ...
Facebook rolling out new lightbox photo viewerTecca

all 10 news articles »

Google News

home | site map
© 2006 KeralaClick.com