iStockphoto is a stock photography service that offers over 6 million royalty free images, including flash file downloads and vector illustrations.
Standout Features
- Flexible Pricing Structure
- Product Selection
- Product Quality
iStockphoto offers subscriptions and gives you the chance to purchase image files individually. Subscriptions range from $0.30 per file for three months, $0.28 per file for six months and $0.26 per file for one year. If you want to purchase a single photo, you can pay anywhere from $1 to $24 dollars for photos ranging in sizes from X small to XXX large. Based on the figures they present, we recommend that you go with the subscription if you're going to be using a service like this long-term. Let's say you want to buy 100 X small images for a newsletter you're creating. If you bought each photo individually, you would end up paying $100, but if you purchased these photos using a subscription, the price tag would end up being only $26.
The licenses they offer are for one computer and one user.
Their membership is free and you have access to your own private lightbox. You can also login and monitor or add credits. The service lets you know how many times a particular image has been downloaded and will allow you to email an image before you purchase.
iStockphoto offers a color search option as well as by file type, orientation, photographer and size. They offer a one-of-a-kind CopySpace search, which offers a grid of six boxes that can be selected to be open for copy or to contain the image.
For such a low price, their quality is respectable, including some concept imagery and artistic photos.
They offer a good selection of photos, with some vector illustrations, flash files and concept images. They do not offer editorial images per say, but some images are targeted enough that they could be used to convey a specific message. They also offer some isolated images.
Just the price alone is a good reason to investigate this service, but they also offer vibrant concepts and images that carry a voice. iStockphoto is a popular site, that performs many downloads, however, if you need a managed rights image or commissioned work it may be worth your money to look into some of the more selective collections like those offered by Getty or Jupiter Images.
