Oh sure, there’s no limit to the number of websites out there with images that you could potentially use for your presentation. The problem is, with such a vast Internet, it’s sometimes overwhelming to find what you need. You want something that’s high quality, taken by a professional and is visually stirring but not every website is going to offer the same class of pictures. Make it easier for yourself. Go to www.iStockphoto.com and then commit that website’s address to your browser’s favorites folder. iStockphoto.com provides a cornucopia of great images at a reasonable price. With an easy-to-use interface, searching for images is both simple and can be as fun as browsing around your favorite retail store.
More Bang for Your Buck
To get a quality photo on other royalty-free sites, such as Getty Images, it might cost you anywhere from $50 to $100 per picture. For one presentation that price is way to steep for any normal person to be able to afford, especially since you will be using a variety of images in your slideshow. The prices at iStockphoto.com are much more affordable. Great images can be bought for as low as a dollar and they offer a pay-as-you go service. However, if you know you’ll be using the site often, there is a great subscription feature that allows you to pay once a month and get up to a certain amount of pictures every day. The lowest priced subscription plan is $108 per month with a limit of ten credits per day. This allows you to get a maximum of about three-hundred pictures at thirty-six cents an image, which is a much better deal than using the more expensive alternatives.
Your Photo Supercenter
Consider iStockphoto.com the supermarket of stock photos. Much like your local Wal-Mart; iStockphoto.com offers free samples, bargain bins and special deals. Each day there is a different free photo that is made available to both users and visitors to the site. iStockphoto.com will often run sales much like the clearance section of a department store, where you can get older pictures for cheap. Consider most picture are already cheap, that means you can get some really great deals and rack up a hard drive worth of pictures for under twenty bucks. Check out the dollar bin for the lowest priced items on the site. Just like you can get Martha Stewart bed sheets at Wal-Mart or Todd Oldman dorm room décor at Target, iStockphoto.com features photos from certain photographers and digital artists. In their designer spotlight section they focus on just one or two artists at a time, allowing you to see fresh new artwork from up-and-comers.
Easy to Use
The best feature of iStockphoto.com, however, is how easy to use their website is. You can search for images using any number of different specifications. Images can be categorized by size, style or even by price range. The site has sections which show you the most popular images and showcase certain photographers and designers. If you want to look for pictures that will work best for presentations, you can weed out the images meant for websites, posters or DVD covers by searching in specialized categories. When searching for a picture you can put your mouse over the thumbnails and instantly get a full view of the picture without having to navigate to a new section of the website. This simulates the browsing experience you might have at a department store; having the ability to inspect the product instantly, without having to navigate to a new page. Of course you don’t have to use iStockphoto. You are completely free to spend hours of your time scouring the Internet looking for quality images, but why bother? iStockphoto can’t be beat when it comes to competitive prices, extraordinary pictures and the best photo shopping experience on the internet. The next time you want a great picture for your presentation, point your browser towards this excellent resource.
