Looking For Stock Photos For Website/Blog

[dbluez]

Where can I get some good stock photos for my site?
I tried downloading a stock jpg from Dreamstime but
when I tried resizing it in Xara (I had to make it 915 x 342)
it looked all grainy.

Do I have to start with a vector image and
if so, where can I get those images?


Thanks,


db

[steve.ledger]

Resized up or down?

Any photo you resize up will go soft and show up the pre existing compression artifacts, nothing you can do about this except find a hires version.

Sizing down in Xara produces deliciously sharp and detailed images unless you optimise them with too much compression.

(Also check your page view quality is set to Very High Quality)

When you say 'stock photos', do you mean free?

[mwenz]

no idea, db. not enough information. what subject? what is the purpose such art is to convey? what is to tie into? what is your sites primary and subordinate color scheme?

mike

[angelize]

If you are looking for free stock photos stoc.xchng has a large selection.

[amoore]

A number of microstock sites (eg, Dreamstime, GL Stock Images [aka GraphicLeftovers], Crestock, PantherMedia, Pixmac) offer both photos and vector illustrations. ClipartOf and The Vector Lab are vector only. The biggest of these microstock sites is istockphoto.

Since you got the image from Dreamstime, I assume you're not just looking for freebies.

You'll find a lot of duplication among the sites. You may find that one site is cheaper than another.

Note that the standard format for stock vector illustrations is eps. Generally, Xara handles them pretty well. Note that there can be some interesting "complexities" resulting from translating the image from its authoring program into eps and then into Xara. That said, I frequently use stock vector illustrations licensed from microstock sites with excellent results.

[dbluez]

Thanks guys!
It's for a site I've got and there is a featured image
that's 915 x342 px so Sledger, I was trying to re-size up.

I will probably buy the image from Dreamstime or iStock or
some of the other sources mentioned by amoore.


I guess based on these responses I should get the highest resolution and re-size downwards
or try an original vector image.

Amoore, thanks for those sources. I will take a look.

db

[steve.ledger]

If it is a 'photograph' you are referring to then there really isn't such thing as a vector photo, unless of course you vectorise a photograph

[dbluez]

Thanks Sledger....still learning!!

db

[gwpriester]

Vector images are defined by outlines of shapes and can scale up or down to almost any size without loss of sharpness or quality.

Photos are bitmaps which are like a grid of tiny squares. Each square (pixel) is a solid color and a fixed size. So as you scale a bitmap image larger, the pixels also get larger. Windows screen resolution is 96dpi. So as your image resolution gets smaller, the pixel size gets larger. As long as the image resolution is 96dpi or larger your image is OK for websites. But if your image resolution is smaller than 96dpi, then as sledger points out, it is going to start getting softer and fuzzier. At the exagerated resolution of 24dpi you can see how fuzzy the pixels have become.