My small business (mainly web design, with domain registration and hosting rolled into the package when needed) is just now coming together, and I'm realizing my web site -- currently partially complete -- is not as impressive as I'd like. What I need is some good tech-related stock photography, but the EyeWire and Photodisc CDs are so expensive. I particularly like the tech abstract look (e.g. "Connection" by EyeWire) but it would really pinch to spend over $300 on a photo CD, especially to use just for my own site.

Does anyone know of a good, less expensive source of stock photos, or should I bite the bullet and lay out the cash for EyeWire?

I already looked on eBay, too... nada. I'm about ready to get out the digital camera and start photographing my keyboard, RJ45 connectors and circuit boards and put 'em through a couple of Photoshop filters and see what I get.

http://www.hemera.com

That's about the cheapest, decent quality photoart you'll ever get :)

100 000 images across two packages for $200 or so.

For some clip art, get their 'Big Box of Art', then head over to Nova Development and grab their 'Art Explosion 600 000' box.

You should be set for quite a while then

Bear in mind none of the above has the same level of professionalism as some of the stock places, but when money is a consideration there's a lot you can do with them

Greg Moore

anyone else have other software you have seen/used/bought that had photographs you can use like Hemera's Photo Objects ?

if not, im planning on purchasing the Photo Objects 50k Vol2 for around $85-$90 (unless someone seen a better deal on it) :)

thanks

What about completely free?

http://www.istockphoto.com/ Good quality stuff, though not too much of a selection.

Dan

I looked through iStock. There's some nice stuff there. It's free for a bit, but to remain free to have to contribute - a good idea I think. If you upload images of your own that get accepted then you can continue downloading for free.

Greg Moore

I found the hemera photo objects a couple months ago at the gateway.com accessory store. Disk 1 was around $70 and disk 2 was $85 or so.. I also found a coupon online for $25 off purchases over $150.. so I got the two disks for $140 with shipping.. They were extremely fast with processing the order too, I had the disks in 2 days..

They still have the CD's at gateway.com.. but I'm not sure if there are any $25 off coupons floating around or not..

They are pretty good CD's too, I have already made back the investment I made into them. But, don't expect the purchase to be the end of your search for good stock photos.. there are a lot of things that you won't find on the disks..

Great suggestions, thanks! I really like the istockphoto concept of downloading and also contributing new materials. Even without contributing it looks like the cost is minimal. What a relief to know that there are options other than EyeWire, Photodisc etc.

Individual Eyewire photos are available for download at Getty Images website.

I bought my stock photo from eyewire for $30 or $40 (I forget which).

They have 3 prices for everything; the internet needs only the lowest DPI quality (everything else, which adds up to $200 or whatever, is for print).

If you want top quality and don't mind paying a little more, gettyimages.com