The complete guide to buying stock photos

With so many possibilities, stock photography might be considered difficult to navigate. What rights do you have over an image? For how long will you be able to use it? Where to even start?
Keep reading to get the answer to all your questions!

How to get high quality photos without watermarks?

A company always needs great pictures. Whether that’s to make attractive leaflets, for social media campaigns, or simply for their website. While looking for such images, you may have encountered watermarked pictures. What do watermarks mean exactly and how do you deal with watermarked photos?

Getting exclusive images - How does it work?

When getting your images online, you might be wondering what kind of rights you have over pictures. Especially when designing marketing materials such as ads or social posts, you want your brand to feel unique. But in order to do so, you might have to use pictures exclusive to your company. Why and how can you do it? Let’s find out.

What is a model release and why is it important?

While working in the photography industry, you might come across the term "model release" but what does it means and, more importantly, what it implies for you ? Let’s guide you through the basics.

What is a Property release?

When looking for stock images, you might encounter the term “property release”. What does it mean and what should you watch out for? Let Imageselect guide you through it and tell you exactly what you need to know!

Royalty free vs rights managed pictures

Among the many licencing models existing, Royalty Free (RF) and Rights Managed (RM) are the two most commonly used in the stock photography industry. But what is the difference between them?

Which photos can I use from Google Images?

It is quite common to believe that you can freely use any images found on Google Images but that is not actually quite true. Though Google Image is a great place to find images quickly, the popular search engine only showcases images found on other websites.

What are Royalty Free Images?

Nowadays, it is hard to imagine a regular ad or website containing no images at all. Visual content is a great way to promote a product or accompany a text, as it helps to understand it and so to reach the purpose. There is a list of licenses that concern photo usage on the Internet, but we are going to stop and consider the most widespread of them — royalty free license. 

What are the Different Types of Illustrations?

If you don't know what an illustration is, or you don't know what types of illustrations there are, or if you want to refresh your knowledge, then you have come to the right place.

Illustration as a genre began its development precisely thanks to the mass production of printed editions. Magazines, newspapers, brochures, and albums use all possible and ways to compete for attention through bright visual design. 

When do I need to pay for a stock image?

You might have considered using stock pictures for your next project. They have the advantage of being ready-to-use, in comparison to a -usually quite expensive- professional photographer. If photos can definitely help you make an attractive design, it’s fairly easy to get lost in rights clearance and the legal aspects of model release.

Tips You Need to Get Great Basketball Photography

Let's divide the tips into two aspects: technical and general. So, when we talk about the technical aspect we mean the following tips:

How to create a black and white photos

Black and white photos are eternal. They are timeless and seem to speak through generations. Nothing distracts. Color-saturated shots can be beautiful, but the riot of colors is confusing and disorienting. Black and white, paradoxically, sometimes makes you really see the subject.

Where can you find free high-quality illustrations

When editing texts for a blog, website, or social media profile, we often have to use photos. After all, the image is a complement to the conveyed content, and the image usually prompts the recipient to click on a given link. So, how to look for legal photos that we can use in our work? There are two ways. 

3 tips to select the right images for commercial use

Like all businesses, you want to get your name out there, be noticed and bring attention to your brand. With a good product or service and a few smart ideas, a marketing campaign can be on the way in no time at all. But how can you design it in an attractive way while respecting your brand image and goals?

At ImageSelect, no surprises, we think it all starts with the proper images.

What is a stock image?

Stock photos are photographs of a specific subject for sale on a unique website that is used in advertising. Stock image advertising studios, web designers, website creators, books and magazines, and interior designers buy to solve business problems. All those businesses need high-quality stock photos to render their services and products. What makes a stock photo different from a classic bespoke photo? The stock photo is not made for a specific customer. The buyer chooses from the many available photos on stocks and finds what suits their project.

How to photograph food?

It would seem, well, what interesting things can be photographed during a buffet table? Well, for many people, the feast is the main event, so to speak, the logical conclusion of the festive event.

Photos of food, as the last phrase of the dialogue, are remembered on a subconscious level for a long time. For this reason, it is important for the photographer not to relax, like other guests, but to continue to do his job.

How to find a stock image?

The number of images on the Internet, both paid and free, is growing at a tremendous rate. Finding a good stock image becomes both easier and more difficult at the same time. We want to share with our users 4 common mistakes to avoid when searching for photos on the Internet and 4 tips for finding suitable photos on Imageselect.

How to properly superimpose text on images?

Photography, as a background for text, is used not only in web design. This technique is popular both in decor and in the media. Look around: adding text to an image gives sense to the message and can be an emotional hook for the consumer.

A guide to the Types of Textures in Visual Design

There are many different structural elements used in web design. The texture is a powerful force shaping the visual perception of future design as an online marketing tool. What does it give design? The realism of things! What seems to the visitor more real, evokes a strong emotional response, stimulates him to action. With the help of textures, you can control not only emotions but also a person's attention, leading him to the necessary action.

What are vector images, and how to create them?

Unlike raster images, vector images no longer consist of pixels, but many anchor points and curves connecting them. A vector image is described by mathematical formulas and, accordingly, does not require information about each pixel. No matter how much you zoom in on a vector image, you will never see pixels.

Where can you find high-resolution images for commercial use?

High-resolution images add color to our life, which sometimes seems gray. It’s definitely amazing to keep on our gadget background something that we are interested in, what makes us excited. Just remember how excited we were when we were kids, setting car and sports pictures on our old-fashioned mobile phones, and collecting different stickers. 

Microstock for beginners

Drawing microstock is like a sport. If give up training for a couple of weeks - the muscles lose their tone, become lethargic, and all that. Moreover, the better you are in shape, the longer the tone will last without effort. Microstock allows photographers, illustrators, and video operators and from all over the world to make money online. Earnings depend on the professionalism and the number of works in the portfolio, but its size is not limited.