Buying Stock Photos Vs. Using Free Photos

[Nomad]

When you need images for your designs or images to be used on your posts/articles, what do you do, do you buy stock images or do you look for free photos? Well, I have bought stock photos for my graphic needs only a few times. I bought the images because the client I was working for was paying really well. I don't buy stock images for myself, I always use free pictures.

 

[Arantor]

Depends what I'm looking for. Sometimes I'll browse Adobe Stock or iStockPhoto looking for what suits. I will say that the quality of what's on the paid stock sites *is* higher than that on the free sites, but there's plenty of rubbish in the paid stock sites too.

Ultimately I'll go with whatever suits the situation, wherever that happens to come from, and I don't mind spending a while finding just the right image.

 

[Chance]

I search through both. Unsplash usually for free stock photos, but I do pay a yearly subscription to both Envato Elements and Shutterstock for use of their stock photos (up to 750/mo from shutterstock, unlimited with Envato Elements)

As mentioned above, a lot of things on Shutterstock are rubbish. What irks me the most is when you download something that uses the white and gray boxes in the background making you believe they're transparent, then when you download it, the actual image has white and gray boxes - it's a trick. I would have much rather a solid color background and jsut removed it myself lol.

All in all if you're in this for a profit, paying for stock licenses is definitely recommended.

 

[Cedric]

I use mainly free to use graphics/stocks. I've been wanting some stocks on Shutterstock but I find it very expensive for what I need it for. So I usually find a free alternative.