Top Stock Photo Sites for Novice Designers, Writers, and Artists

Finding the right stock photography site to purchase your images from is no walk in the park. It involves a lot of time and effort to make sure you don’t end up with overused content. Hiring photographers may be the best option, but it can be expensive and time-consuming. Creative Commons does not help either as they may come with legal liability. If you are a novice designer, writer, artist, download images from reputable stock photo websites to ensure high quality and avoid legal issues. Read more here.

For starting designers, writers, artists who want to stand out from the competition without breaking the bank, we recommend the following stock photo sources:

  • PHOTOCASE

    The artsy stock photography website from Berlin is one of the best niche and trendy stock photo agencies in the market. They have over 500,000 images in their library, filled with unique and very distinctive stock photos. Photocase also has a special collection of artistic, extraordinary, and rare photos. You can find stock images with unconventional models, out of the box concepts, and non-posed shots that can make your project stick out from the competition.
  • DRAGONIMAGES
    DragonImages is a stock photography website based in Asia. They produce regionally specialized stock images, perfect if you are looking for high quality, professional photos that represent the Asian culture and people. They add adversity to the large pool of stock photo collections available. Their super low prices make them one of the best places to download stock images if you are new to the creative industry.
  • TONL
    TONL brings diversity to the stock photo industry through accurate representations of the real world we live in. They have a small yet varied library filled with authentic, natural-looking images of models from various racial heritages and cultural backgrounds. Their plans and pricing are also affordable, which help many starting creatives and businesses with small budgets.

If you are a starting creative with a limited budget, that doesn’t mean you can’t get high-quality images to enhance your projects. The following list of stock photo sites offer unlimited stock photography at super affordable prices:

  • STORYBLOCKS

    Storyblocks is a stock media platform that specializes in unlimited download plans. They have over 400,000 images in their collection, all of which you can download for an affordable price. Aside from 100% royalty-free content, you can also enjoy fresh content, unbeatable savings, and unlimited use. If you need tons of photos all the time, this is one of the best stock photo resources for you.
  • ENVATO ELEMENTS
    Although relatively new to the creative industry, Envato Elements host several marketplaces specializing in specific media types. They have a curated collection of over 630,000 content that you can access with a subscription plan. You can enjoy unlimited downloads from the entire collection for only $29 a month.
  • STOCKUNLIMITED
    StockUnlimited is a stock photography website that offers unlimited downloads of illustrations and vectors. They have over 1 million visuals, including stock photos, audio files, and fonts. You can download them for a very low price. Nine dollars for 10 downloads is an excellent deal to get all kinds of media you need for your project.

If you are a starting designer, writer, or artist, unlimited downloads and very low prices are all you need to create remarkable projects. While you can get all these from Creative Commons and public domains, these stock photo resources are not reliable. You can end up violating copyright laws, which may tarnish your reputation as a creative. It is still best to purchase the right license to protect you from legal issues that may arise down the road.

Copyright infringement is a severe offense in the creative industry. A stock image needs to have the right license for you to be able to use it legally. Creative Commons license is not applicable for commercial use. Thus, you need to download your startup stock photos from reputable stock image sites. You can use royalty-free and rights-managed images from the above photography sites in various projects, including social media and blog posts.

 

 

Adobe Stock Drives Photoshop Use Up

Adobe Stock is set to go into business in a big way. With millions of stock images, the website is also offers illustrations and graphics. Thousands of creative folks use Adobe’s Creative cloud applications for their photo-editing assignments. With that being said, Adobe hopes to sell photos and art to the same customers with the promise of cost-efficient images, easy and fast photo-editing.

How can Adobe increase the use of its tools?

Through Adobe Stock, Adobe hopes its Creative Cloud members will also get 40 million cheap stock photos and clip-art from the company. To attract its existing customers, the company offers up to 40% when they subscribe to an image plan. If you are using PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator or other Adobe tools, this can save you a lot of money. Moreover, you can also save a lot of time from downloading the images to your computer. They are directly saved to your library for easy and fast access.

With that promise, many Creative Cloud members are enticed to use the stock photo service as their personal image source. In fact, this integration alone garnered a whopping 8.8 score from both experts and creative folks.

How can Creative Cloud users get Adobe Stock?  

Adobe Stock is the firm’s new attempt at a marketplace for stock photos. Creative Cloud users can access the stock photo service through the 2015 update. The service is built right into the applications. Since majority of professional photographers are already using PhotoShop and other Adobe applications, the company aims to become its own dealer in order to simplify the buying process.

The website can be opened from any Creative Cloud application. From there, you can browse for whatever you like. Just like other photo websites, the images in Adobe Stock include details like the creator, watermarks, size and format. Once you purchase a photo, it will be saved to the Creative Cloud library immediately, making it available for any Creative Cloud application you are using.

What is Adobe Stock’s best feature? 

The photo service’s best feature comes with trying out a preview before actually purchasing the image. Through its implementation with Adobe applications, you can try out a preview of the image by adjusting and adding layers of effects to the low-resolution, watermarked version. Once you purchase the image, the high-resolution image will be automatically applied to the project. Plus, all the added effects will remain intact.

Adobe Stock offers several purchasing options. You can have the basic $9.99 per image or subscribe to a plan. Adobe says that unused photo credits can be rolled over for up to one year or an equivalent of 120 images. Non-Creative Cloud members can also purchase photos, but for a high cost.

Shutterstock: Great Stories Start Here

Shutterstock has been in the stock photo business for nearly two decades and it never disappoints the creative community. Founded in 2003, it is one of the pioneers of microstock industry, offering royalty free images at very low prices. The stock site initially has 100,000 images in its collection. But shortly after, it opened its doors to contributors around the world. Now, it has over 180 million royalty-free images, video clips and music tracks in the library.  Find more here.

With the number of stock photo agencies in the market, why should you consider Shutterstock to be your primary image source?

  • With over 180 million stock files in the library, you will surely find the perfect image for your creative needs. Hundreds of thousands of images are added every week, too. Finding amazing content for your next creative projects is easy when you have a massive load of image choices.
  • Shutterstock is one of the stock sites to offer cheap stock images. It offers images on demand if you only need a few images or if you want to test the waters before committing to periodic fees. A subscription is also available in the website if you need lots of images. You can get them for as low as $0.26 each.
  • Shutterstock’s royalty free license includes both standard and extended versions. The stock site assures great value for your money, being able to use the images forever and as many times as you want.
  • AI-powered Search Tool. Shutterstock launches a composition-aware search tool that allows users to specify one or more keywords, search for copy space and arrange them on a canvas to reflect their sought image’s specific layout. The feature is free, and will only get better in time and use.
  • Free Content. When you sign up to the stock, you automatically get free content every week. Download your free photo and vector of the week, and use them to complete your creative projects. Both comes with a standard royalty-free license, allowing you to use them in any project for as long as you wish.
  • Shutterstock Editor. Are you not working with any image editing tool yet? Shutterstock comes with a free image editor. You can choose from millions of images, customize your logo and create high quality, ads, social media posts and presentations in just a few minutes. Try it out to make fast and easy edits.
  • Curated Collections. Be inspired by the stock site’s curated collections. Divided in four categories, you will find the most artistic and innovative stock photos in this gallery. If you are looking for images that do not look like stock photos, this is the library for you.

What are you waiting for? Explore Shutterstock, the largest and most vibrant two-way marketplace for creative professionals, and get your stories started. Download stunning content at straightforward prices, with on demand images and subscription plans. Amazing royalty-free assets are ahead of you. Create your free browse account now and search over 180 million royalty free images, video clips and music tracks.

 

Enjoy Amazing Royalty-free Images with a Shutterstock Voucher Code

Having high quality images that match your theme and style is imperative to the success of your website. The right photos do not only make your page more appealing; they can also turn your visitors into avid customers. If you don’t have the resources to conduct a photoshoot, it is best to search through stock photo sites. While you can download free images, we strongly discourage it as it can lead to serious copyright issues in the future. Read more here.

One of the stock photo sites that offer amazing royalty free images is Shutterstock. It has over 170 million premium images in the library, with thousands more uploaded every month. Although the stock photo agency does not exactly offer the cheapest stock photos in the market, Shutterstock makes up for it with diversity of collection and ease of use. Furthermore, you can get a Shutterstock voucher code to enjoy some discounts on your purchase.

Where can you get a Shutterstock voucher code?

  • The stock photo website offers the coupon codes itself. Many website claim to offer the coupons but not all of them are legit. That’s why Shutterstock decided to offer the vouchers themselves. You can get it from the website under the “Shutterstock Coupons” link. Currently, a 10% discount is available. You can use the coupon to spend time downloading the images you need rather than searching untrusted sites.
  • Stock Photo Secrets. SPS and Shutterstock shares a good relationship, which gives the former very good deals. As one of the affiliate websites, SPS offers valid and active Shutterstock coupon codes. You can use them to get more discounts from both image and footage subscriptions. At the present, the website offers 15% discount on both images and footage. Plus, you can save 20% from annual subscriptions.

If you are constantly in need of royalty free images, getting discount can save you up to thousands of dollars per year. Just make sure that you are getting your coupons from reliable websites.

How can you redeem your Shutterstock promo code?

  • Click here for an exclusive doorway to subscribe on Shutterstock.
  • Choose a subscription and click “Buy Now” to proceed.
  • Log on your membership details, or create a free browse account.
  • Enter the exclusive coupon code just below the product you want to buy.
  • Proceed with the purchase to enjoy your savings.
  • Congratulations! You can now enjoy downloading stock images for your creative projects.

P.S. For the best value, we recommend you get the annual subscription.

Shutterstock offers premium content and has an easy-to-navigate website. The price rates are also flexible. You will surely find a plan that suits your needs and budget. Overall, the stock photo site is already a great source of high quality, royalty-free images. The coupons are just icing to the cake. But with them, you get to enjoy loads of discount. That’s money you can send on other important things to make your project more amazing.
 

 

Get Your Shutterstock Coupon Code in 2024

shutterstock premier

shutterstock-logoShutterstock is an excellent place for getting high-quality images to use for your content since you pay once for the license, and it is royalty-free.  This means that you could use the image on your website, business cards, and flyers, but you only have to pay the one fee.  That is certainly a good deal, but even then, images can still be a bit pricey, check the Shutterstock pricing here, especially for a small business owner looking to stretch their marketing dollars.  Finding a Shutterstock coupon code in 2023 can go a long way towards getting more bang for your buck.

Shutterstock Coupon Code

There are a lot of coupon sites out there offering coupon codes, and some are better than others when it comes to how trustworthy they happen to be.  Shutterstock is aware of this fact and offers a coupon code right on their website that users can take advantage of for their next purchase.  With this coupon code, you receive a percentage off of your next order of standard-license images made online.  There are no specifications on a minimum or maximum purchase amount being required to use this coupon code.  This will not be useful if you plan on purchasing the enhanced license, but should be perfectly adequate for most users just wanting to make their content pop with pictures.

Another Way to Save

shutterstock premier

Coupon codes are just one way to stretch your marketing dollars to get images.  Shutterstock also offers a weekly email that comes with a free image and vector that you can use just like any images you have purchased.  You are granted a license to use these free images, and they are sure to come in handy in the future.  When you sign up for a free account, you will start getting these images sent to your inbox every week.  Combining this free offer with the discount coupon is a great way to take full advantage of the savings that Shutterstock does offer to their clients.  A free vector or picture may not be needed now, but could be useful later on.

No longer do you have to try to source low-quality images for your content because of restrictions on your budget.  You can use the provided Shutterstock coupon and free images to grow a healthy file of legally sourced high-quality images that will enhance your online and offline content.  Images tend to draw the eye and interest viewers into taking a second look at your materials.  Take advantage of these offers to gain the benefits of using pictures and drawings.

Are Royalty-Free Stock Images Really Free?

5 stock agencies

Are royalty-free stock images really free? That the question many people tend to ask. What is royalty-free mean? What does free mean? The answer lies in its licensing.

Whatever you take a free offer from any microstock agency that offers free images that image still has the license attached to it. Whether or not you pay for the image has nothing to do with the license. Licensing is a whole other ballgame. Take DepositPhotos for example. In 2015, they ran a promotion that said that if you were to sign up for a brand-new account as a brand-new customer, you would get five free credits per day for the first seven days of your account. That equates to 35 free images that you didn’t pay for. That’s what free means. “Free” means that the agency offered it for free without payment from you. These images still have the royalty-free license attached to it that governs how you might use it.

“Royalty-free” is something else entirely. Royalty-free is the license that tells you how you can use the image. There are three different licensing schemes that are in use by microstock agencies. Royalty-free is the most common of them. It is the most affordable option and allows you to use the image more than once without paying a royalty. Hence the name, royalty-free – you’re not paying a fee every time you use it.

The next license is an extended license. “Extended” means that you are extending the royalty-free license. This is the kind of license you need if you every intent to reproduce the image for reselling purposes. Although the exact details of the royalty-free license are different from agency to agency, you generally get a certain number of impressions with royalty-free images. If you want to increase that number, you need an extended license. This allows you to print things like business cards, T-shirts, greeting cards, calendars and more.

stock photography

Sometimes that’s not the best for you. What if you needed to use an image exclusively to prevent things like brand dilution? If that’s the case, you need what’s called a “Rights-Managed” license. This is a time-sensitive license that is more expensive than both royalty-free and extended. However, you are granted exclusive use of that image during the license duration. Brand dilution is what happens when a brand loses its value. This offers protection against that because no other competitors can use this same image. This image is exclusively tied to you. Usually, rights managed images allow you for a much larger amount of impressions and print distribution than do royalty-free or even extended license images.