iStock by Getty Images is my new favorite images supplier for my sites.

iStock is a royalty free stock photography site that serves up BEAUTIFUL images on the cheap.

Image downloads cost from 1-6 credits depending on the size of image you want. A typical 900 x 600 pixel images (perfect for the web) costs only 1 credit.

The only stipulation is that iStockPhoto requests that you abide by a “fair use” policy – eg. that you purchase a new copy of the image if you plan to use it on a different project (site). Fair enough, at a buck, most of us should be able to afford to do that.

Searching and finding images is easy. You may search by keyword, category, subject, DPI, quality, orientation and photographer as well as by:

• Newest Photos Uploaded
• Featured Collections
• Most Popular

Each photo returned shows how many times it has been downloaded.

Photo Collections include seasonal, educational, people, objects, corporate, business, nature, food, animals and more themes.

Change to unused credits… up to 250 unused downloads can be rolled over month to month for annual subscriptions or any other auto-renewed subscriptions. If you don't auto-renew your subscription, you will lose any rollover downloads accrued when your subscription term ends.

What I particularly like about the search function is that you can choose to hide graphics (if you want photos only) and select your preferred orientation (horizontal or vertical) which is very handy if you are using a dynamic content slider with images.

Overall, I've found the image quality to be VERY good – not exceptional – but very good, especially for website use.

But best of all, iStock is less expensive than other stock photography suppliers. 🙂

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Cheers,