Valentine’s Day has its own special imagery. If you are a designer, blogger, advertiser, content manager, or publisher, using thematic images right now is a great idea because your audience is going to be highly perceptive. Check out this list, which highlights 10 microstock agencies who rule the market this February.
YAY Images
YAY Images never fails to impress. By deciding to take images from this agency, everything is so much simpler. Its subscriptions are remarkably inexpensive, and all of them permit limitless re-downloads without charging anything extra. Another awesome benefit is the fact that users can host acquired images for free, and are allowed to continue hosting them even after their subscriptions have stopped being active.
More than anything, I’d like to shed some light on two subscription plans: Streaming and Digital. Digital focuses on images of 3 megapixels, which can be put to good use in PowerPoints, e-books, or apps. Alternatively, the amazing “Spotify for images”, or Streaming from YAY, involves images of 700 pixels that are meant to be used on websites and blogs, and costs just $9.90 per month. Check out the lush images at the end of this article that use Streaming technology.
With Streaming, you can forget all about downloading each image to then edit in Photoshop, only to upload it again wherever it belongs. An accomplished in-browser editor equipped with very advanced tools will help save loads of time. What is more, the onsite editor is about to be available through all the other existing subscriptions, too.
There is so much more to look forward to: over 1 million celebrity photos are scheduled to be released this February. And, for the time being, a 50% discount is granted to new users who remember to employ coupon code VALENTINE_DESIGN3EDGE.
Stockfresh
Stockfresh is an intuitive and affordable stock image agency. If I were you, I’d make sure to visit their collection of exquisite photos, vectors, and illustrations, because it harbors some outstanding pieces of work. The provider commands over 3 million royalty-free stock photos and vectors that are simply gorgeous. Getting in touch with Stockfresh makes even more sense now that Valentine’s Day is upon us – just try and start a keyword search, and you will fall under the spell of 18K vectors and 50K photos that send a message of love.
Besides, the Stockfresh user interface gave me the distinct impression of being charming and straightforward, so users never waste any time in finding their ideal images. This is very important if you work with deadlines, because you’d want to keep things as simple as possible, acquire creative files nice and fast, and finish your project on time.
As far as pricings go, Stockfresh is quite accessible, seeing as the smallest subscription comes with the monthly cost of $99, and the lightest prepaid pack with 5 credits can be acquired for the price of almost $1 each. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to make this agency a constant ally, or take stock images occasionally.
Bigstock
Bigstock is an important presence in my selection of 10 best stock image supplies. Here, you will find a superb collection of stock images that is 100% royalty-free and certain to be the cup of tea of all graphic designers, developers, freelancers or small businesses. The agency sports a tradition of offering one giveaway to free members each Monday – it’s called ‘Free Image of the Week’. And that’s not all.
An uncommon generosity makes Bigstock such an appealing solution at the moment. I am referring to its splendid 7-day Free Trial for curious new visitors. If you start this trial, there are no secrets, and you may drop out of it anytime you wish. While you’re part of this trial, though, you get a week’s worth of free access to Bigstock’s bulk of 15 million vectors and images, where you will be able to download heavenly stock photos at a rate of 5 per day.
After the first week, if you want to keep taking images from Bigstock, you need to either subscribe, or pay with pre-acquired credits. It’s possible to take up a bundle of prepaid credits for as little as $35, whereas subscriptions might attach the mere cost of $0.35-a-file. And bear in mind that free re-downloads are a given, with any of this agency’s subscription plans.
Aurora Photos
Aurora Photos is also worth visiting around this time of the year. You may find it interesting to find out that this agency has supplied TIME or National Geographic with fabulous images. This Valentine’s Day, chance a glance over its high quality content, and especially the 1000 beautiful stock files that result from a basic search.
Pixmac
Pixmac is more than ready to welcome you in this period, as 81000 delicious royalty free images that speak of love can be traced back to two separate collections: an elite selection of 2.5 million, which fills up the special Subscription Collection, while the rest – 7 million – is available for purchase via credits.
Depositphotos
This fantastic agency has just passed the milestone of 20 million heavenly photos, vectors, and videos. There are two major reasons why Depositphotos is so awesome right now. First of all, the agency’s Adobe Extension enables designers to get stock photos without having to quit their Adobe workspace. Secondly, I strongly believe that you wouldn’t want to miss out on the Depositphotos Sales Lightboxes, as they come to life around significant holidays – encasing images that are highly relevant, and dropping their prices with 20%. Over 900 stock photos and vectors now make up the Valentine’s Day Lightbox.
Inmagine
Inmagine deserves a place in this February’s top 10 stock image sources. If you come here looking for Valentine-inspired images, it may well result in over 20.000 high quality photos and illustrations. As you go through these findings, it will be easy to browse for similar files and so locate the perfect image really fast.
Alamy
Yet another great place to get superb royalty-free images from is Alamy. This agency has one of the largest collections of this list – 45 million rich creative assets. All in all, there are circa 50K awesome Valentine-related images to consider. What is more, Alamy sells its vectors with a 30% discount through promo code ‘alamyvectors’.
Photospin
We love Photospin. You will spot some really gorgeous images here. This merchant doesn’t sport credit-based shopping, but it allows single file purchase for the starting price of $2 per item. On the other hand, long term commitments are available in the form of yearly subscription plans, the smallest of which costs $429.
Veer
Be sure to take Veer into account the next time you go shopping for creative files – photos, vectors, or fonts. If you sign up now, the agency rewards you with 10 free credits. And yet, the heaviest argument in favor of this marketplace is an album entitled ‘The Look of Love’, with 50 breathtaking images that you’re bound to fall in love with.
The following images are living proof that, as far as Valentine’s Day goes, some agencies have truly outdone themselves in providing creatives with stock images.
