Guide to Stock Photos and Graphics

The latest desktop publishing and Web site creation systems make it easier than ever for a small business to create terrific looking marketing materials, presentations, newsletters, Web sites and other items. But finding great-looking but affordable photos and other graphics to work with has been a problem.

The best photos and graphics come from professional photographers and graphic designers who create exactly what you need. But hiring professionals to create custom work is prohibitively expensive for most small businesses.

Now there’s a solution: Web-based stock photo services that offer millions of high quality, royalty-free stock images (photos and other graphics) that you can download to your heart’s content for a modest subscription fee, or in some cases for free. High quality, royalty-free photos that can literally cost just pennies at online subscription services can be used for all kinds of purposes, including these:

1. Web sites
2. Multimedia presentations
3. Trade show displays
4. Billboards and banners
5. Packaging and labels
6. Broadcast video
7. Business cards and letterhead
8. Brochures
9. Office, store or restaurant decoration
10. Public areas

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find free photos on the Web

There are innumerable sites on the Internet that offer free photos for public use. Why free? Many sites try to attract customers with free images in the hope that they will purchase additional materials.

I recommend: Sites that offer free stock photos abound. Check out ImageAfter for completely free photos. Try Dreamstime for photos as inexpensive as $1 apiece, or browse About.com and its lists of free or inexpensive photos.

Download high quality, royalty-free photos and other graphics by subscription

Simply sign up for a plan, pay one low fee and download hundreds of royalty-free stock photos per month.

I recommend: Need photos on a regular basis? Consider subscribing to a stock photo service like the one at 123RF. Subscriptions generally provide a certain number of photos monthly. Shutterstock has a download service you should consider.

Know the difference between "free" and "royalty-free."

Free photos are just that — they cost nothing, but may be limited in what you're allowed to do with them (for instance, some are not free for commercial use). Read the fine print. Royalty-free photos, on the other hand, aren't free — they just don't generate fees every time you use them, as rights-managed photos do.

I recommend: Learn the definitions of royalty-free, rights-ready and rights-managed photos at Getty Images, which offers a multitude of stock photos in all categories. A few other popular sites for finding royalty-free (as well as rights-managed photos) are Fotosearch and Photostogo.

Find free clip art on the Web

Clip art is the term for stock graphic elements that you can use to jazz up the document you're designing. Whether it's an American flag or a bullfrog, you can probably find an illustration that suits your taste.

I recommend: There's also a plethora of sites offering free clip art. For instance, see GalaxyGauge's nifty Graphic Type Library for artistic drop caps, ABitBetter's funny "Screen Beans" or register on Freeze.com to access a large database of free clip art. Find more free clip art Web sites at About.com.

Consider licensing artwork for limited use

If you can't find what you need free, consider licensing what you need; you won't have to buy the work outright, as you're just paying to use it for a certain amount of time.

I recommend: See Sarno Photography and Web Design for information on the benefits of licensing. To search for artwork available for license, check out Photographer's Direct, Fotosearch and Photostogo.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Just because a photo doesn't have a copyright notice doesn't mean it's not copyrighted.
• Keep in mind the resolution of the photos you're considering. If you only plan to use a small piece of it, and you plan to blow it up larger, the photo may wind up being too grainy.
• Consider contacting local design schools to see if any photography or illustration students might be willing to work inexpensively for the experience — and a credit line.
• Royalty-free photos are generally yours for unlimited use; the price is determined by the size of the photo, not its usage. (Prices vary from very low — less than a dollar, depending upon the account you have with the vendor, the size of the image, etc. — to quite a bit.)
• If you're a heavy user, consider buying CDs of royalty-free photos, which can keep prices down.

The official source of Stock Photos and Graphics is the Stock Photo Agency page at Business.com