images

Dreamstime Images

Dreamstime has been around for a while, but I do not hear a lot of people talking about it. One reason may be their Royalty Free license has more options than most and the image price can vary quite a bit based on the options (which seem confusing and easier to find images elsewhere without the confusion). But the images are great, with lots of unique photography for topics not found on other sites.

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: No
Audio: No
Pay Per Image: Yes – approx. $3 for standard PPT use (small, 800px, level 2 RF)
Subscription Download: Yes (eg. 25 images per day for 6 months = $1,250)

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 12,918 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 1,150 results

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:37:50-07:00September 27th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

JupiterUnlimited – Lots of Getty Images in 1 Package

JupiterImages Unlimited is a Getty Images company – a central service that gives access to images from several Getty companies. The mid-level “Essentials” subscription shows images from photos.com, ablestock.com, liquidlibrary and photobjects.net. I spent a few months using this site for a project through a clients’ subscription. The images are great, quality top notch and selection wide. Doing a vector search brings up lots of great vector images, but also plenty that are dated and lackluster. Another highlight is the huge library of photo object images (photos shot on a white background).

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: No
Audio: No
Pay Per Image: No
Subscription Download: Yes (eg. 1 year unlimied download Essential Plan = $1,500)

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 4,077 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 1,518 results

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:38:19-07:00September 26th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Stock.Xchng A Free Option!

“Stock Exchange” (Stock.XCHNG) bills itself as the leading FREE stock photo site- and I would have to agree. This is definitely one of my go-to resources as the quality is good, image size is great (near fullsize print quality) and it is a true image site, though the search can give limited results. It does have ties with pay sites, so note the 1st row of images on each page is not part of the free options (and that’s why they look perfect). Another consideration is everything is a .jpg image, even the vector looking images (because the vector version is available at the affiliated pay site).

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: No
Video: No
Audio: No
Pay Per Image: No – They are all free!
Subscription Download: No

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 262 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 0 results
* With alternate search terms I was able to located 100’s of images for each, just took more effort.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:38:59-07:00September 25th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

iStockPhoto – Independent Artists for Variety

iStockPhoto can take credit for revolutionizing royalty free images. They permit anyone to upload images (vs. contracted artists/photographers) and the artist receives a royalty whenever the image is purchased (vs. paying upfront fees to the contracted artists). The good is unbelievable variety, often outside the expected and norm (independent artists). The bad is anyone can add images, so not everything is professional and polished…

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: Yes
Audio: Yes
Pay Per Image: Yes (average for “Medium” image $9 each)
Subscription Download: Sort Of

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 11,605 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 18,889 reults

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:39:24-07:00September 24th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Shutterstock Photos – Lots of images, including vector!

Shutterstock Photos is one of the sites I have been using a lot lately. They offer a huge selection of images, all professional quaility, though some a bit dated and a great selection. One option I have made really good use of is the number and diversity of vector art, especially for developing template background images.

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: Yes (optional with subscription)
Audio: No
Pay Per Image: Yes average $10 each)
Subscription Download: Yes (25 images per day for 1, 3, 6, 12 month durations)

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 17,206 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 3,696 results

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:39:52-07:00September 23rd, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Where’s His Arm? Why is Stock Photo Doing That…

Presentations are visual communication and that means lots of images. I maintain a number of subscriptions to online stock photo sites. The one thing I see from all is the selective/artistic cropping that often makes it difficult to use an image.

As example, here is a great image, but where did the rest of his arm go…

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:50:24-07:00August 20th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Vector Images From ShutterStock.com

Just a quick note. For a specific project I have been searching many of the popular royalty free image sites for some needed vector (eg. Illustrator) art that will be used to develop a custom background. I have been really impressed with the image variety, selection and quality from ShutterStock.com.

Guess in the past I have searched for photo images (eg. raster) and this was first time specifically looking at vector art. Here I searched ‘Background’ with ‘Vector Only’ and came up with 3,185 pages of 25 images each – good stuff!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:00:23-07:00August 8th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Creativity Boost with MoodStream

Here is a nifty online tool for those days creativity is just not there (or if you have some time to stare at the computer and be entertained). Getty Images has MoodStream.

Pulling from its vast image and video libraries you can have a full screen never ending stream of images and video based on your parameters. Adjust the sliders or use a preset, click ‘Refresh Stream’ and watch.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:19:57-07:00May 21st, 2009|Software/Add-Ins|

Online Paint Program Sumo Paint

Don’t have Photoshop and want something a bit more feature rich than Paint? I spent some time experimenting with the online image editing program “Sumo Paint”.

Sumo Paint is flash based, so the only thing needed is the flash plugin. There are a number of youtube videos (some better than others) that demo some of the unique features like the Symetry brush. For an online application it worked virtually identical to an installed application, it is free and does lots of great stuff.

Head over to Sumo Paint here. Even if you do not need another paint program/image editor, it is worth a few minutes to play with Sumo Paint and see how feature rich the new generation of online applications are. Here is a quick image I created in 20 seconds using the symmetry tool and then a few filters.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:43:45-07:00March 26th, 2009|Software/Add-Ins|

iStockphoto’s

The video is a bit of a commercial for the host, but I do like what Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto’s Vice President of Marketing has to say about images vs. bullets in presentations.

Watch the video here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:51:30-07:00March 14th, 2009|Resource/Misc|
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