Affordable Photography and Art for your Marketing Material
PDF Using visuals in your marketing communications is important. They help visually communicate your
Stock Photography on iStockphoto.com
message message to your target audience and often are used to create that initial attraction into your collateral. One form of affordable visuals is know as stock art or photography.
In the past, stock photography (better known as royalty free art - where you pay a one time fee and are allowed to use the art or photography) was expensive; ranging from $100 to over $1,000 per image, but still more affordable than hiring a professional photographer for the day. However, over the past several years, the stock photography industry has seen a tremendous growth in what is called micro stock agencies. These are agencies selling royalty free stock photography and illustrations at a fraction of the cost of the larger stock houses. In fact, you can purchase small file sizes, suitable for the web, starting at $1. The micro agencies are community driven, meaning that photographers from around the world can contribute to the site and it’s portfolio growth. But you say, “what about the quality?”
The quality of these agencies are comparable to the larger stock agencies. Some actually provide stock video footage and audio tracks as well. In fact, Getty Images is one of the larger stock photography portfolios on line. Several years ago, Getty purchased the micro stock agency, iStockphoto.com. The result was a large network of royalty free images at an incredibly low rate.
In future postings, I will write a comparison article on micro stock agencies, but in the meantime, if you are seeking affordable art or photography for your marketing communications collateral, then my reccomanedation is to begin your search on iStockphoto.com or do a search on teh internet for “royalty free photography”.
