Selecting Good Stock Photography in the Age of Digital

business of stock photography has changed drastically over the past few years. Ten years ago, select images for your brochure or newsletter meant spending hours pouring over stock photography catalogs and ordering photo research to find an accurate picture. When he came to the giant overnight package, designers would spread transparencies on a light table, squinting through a magnifying loop to check every detail.

Enter the digital age.

High speed Internet connection. CD. Browse the archive. Royalty-free stock. These elements have changed forever the face of Communication Design. Quality, quantity, affordability and availability of stock images have made it a source of choice for many organizations.

the benefits of immediate access to searchable archives of good images are numerous.

Speed​​: We can never have enough of it. Search. Download. Import. It is outstanding. Choice:: Searching "stock photography" on Google gives 1.47 million results. You can find pretty much everything out there. Price: Although there are free resources, unless it is a school report, May you need something a little more exclusive. Also, many of the free images are only good enough for online display and the choice is very limited. Royalty-free images are reasonably priced, you pay only for the size you'll use and images can be used if necessary at no additional cost. Flexibility:: Image selection can be grouped, saved and e-mail to others in the review cycle. People in different locations can simultaneously review ideas. Archiving:: Some companies even keep a record of your purchases that you can re-download whenever you need them. To use this resource effectively, there are several things to keep in mind. Plan ahead: Will you ever need to print a picture? low cost "low resolution " images can lure in costly mistakes. Images should be 300 dpi (dots per inch) in size they will print. Low-cost tradeoff: The pictures are now so affordable, everyone buying them. This means that your images can be displayed in your competitor's brochures. Some projects call for a more exclusive image. Image-enhancement:: When you need something unique, like your product in the frame, it can be more economical to hire a photographer than to have your designer to spend countless hours in photoshop trying to get just right. Availability:: Good images still cost money. Although many companies have images on file, do not expect your designer to have a database full of images right for your project.

When searching the web, search for "stock photography" rather than doing image search on Google or another search engine. Google returns all images from the web - including those owned by others and not legally use.