Communicate Visually With Stock Images Using My List

Stock images are a great way to communicate visually and improve the quality of a design related project. They can even be used and manipulated to create your own custom image using elements of other stock images. Sometimes a professional high-quality stock image comes with a high cost. However, if your design project is expected to yield monetary returns, the high-cost may be irrelevant because the expected return will justify the spend. If you don’t have a budget for stock, don’t worry! With a little effort, good quality stock can sometimes be scored for free. The list below is my go-to list for acquiring stock images used in website projects for clients of HALE.GROUP. I’ve listed both free and paid services. For fast low budget projects I often try to find something from a free resource but for high-end business sites I usually end up resorting to paid services with best professional quality usually found on Getty Images. Getty is known to be the most expensive stock image resource so I don’t usually even tread there unless I’m working on a project with substantial budget or agreement in place about the cost of the images. I hope others will find this list useful. If while reading this, you have a suggestion to add, please reach out in the form below.

About the Photo Above
The image was captured and created by Muhammad Ruqiyaddin and downloaded from Unsplash.

Free Stock Image Resources

Unsplash.com
Website: https://unsplash.com
Notes: It’s a good resource that I stumbled upon in a learning session during a Divi feature tutorial.

Paid Stock Image Resources

Getty Images
Website: https://www.gettyimages.com/
Notes: In my opinion, Getty is the most well known and reputable resource for professional quality stock images. It’s also one of the most expensive resources so I generally only go there when working on projects with budgets at a certain threshold and/or an agreement in place for reimbursement of selected approved images.

About the Author

Dusty Hale
I'm a professional photographer and website solutions consultant living in beautiful Tamarindo, Costa Rica for over a decade. It is my joy and pleasure to serve others using my creative and technical skills in the digital industry.