Intro to DepositPhotos

DepositPhotos (click here for review) is a one-of-a-kind service offering millions of different images. They are set to satisfy the needs of every individual, from the marketer to the creative professional. Before the days of stock photo imaging services, a typical marketer was required to set up an expensive photo shoot. Such a task would equate to a huge monetary cost upfront. That wasn’t all photo shoots can be very time-intensive tasks. DepositPhotos organizes their photos in four different ways.

Photos

These are your basic photos taken with a point-and-click camera. As is common with many stock photo services that you can find online, DepositPhotos has a contractor relationship with photographers around the world. As they say, If you have the tools, you can do the trade,” these photographers have the tools to provide DepositPhotos with high definition photographs and DepositPhotos pays for them.

Illustrations and Vector Art

These were created by graphic designers. These provide DepositPhotos with something other than photographs. Illustrations, as the name implies are drawings. Vector art is much simpler than an illustration. It uses primitive lines, geometric shapes, curves and polygons to convey a message. If the piece is applicable to the goal and mission of the stock photo service, DepositPhotos will host it. Just like the contractor pay model around photographs, graphic designers receive a commission if their drawing gets sold.

Editorial and News Images

The difference between editorial images and the rest of the stock photos is in its licensing. Most of the stock imagery hosted by DepositPhotos can be used for marketing purposes. In other words, they can be used to sell something. Editorial and News images are different in that you are restricted from using it for any marketing purpose. Your basic stock photo contains unknown” people, places and activities. On the other hand, editorial images provide context to known people, places and events. You can still use them for articles and blog posts, but you must use them for noncommercial purposes.

High Definition Videos

As stated earlier, hosting your own photo shoot can be time-intensive and expensive. The same principle applies for high-definition stock video footage. These were shot with high definition video cameras and edited specifically for use as stock video footage. It’s quite common to see this kind of video footage in commercials and ads. In fact, most advertising agencies don’t shoot their own video. They purchase video clips from stock agencies such as DepositPhotos.

Before You Get Started An Exclusive Offer

Before you get started with DepositPhotos, take advantage of an exclusive offer. We have managed to make things super easy for you. We worked directly with DepositPhotos to bring you 35 free credits over a seven-day free trial period, plus a 15 percent discount on your first purchase. Instead of telling you what the value of this is, let’s do the math. If you were to purchase 100 credits, each credit would be one dollar. Purchase fewer credits and the price for each credit goes up slightly. Purchase more credits and the price for each credit goes down slightly. On average, each credit is approximately equal to one US dollar. Right off the bat, that’s $35 in free images. The 15 percent discount for a moderately priced plan including credits is a savings of about five dollars. This offer saves you $40 just for signing up.

Payment plans

Registration with DepositPhotos is free. The photos, however, are not. There are three different payment plans you can choose from to get your photos. The first one is a monthly subscription. You pay a set price per month for a set number of photos or images per month. For power users, there is a daily subscription. In this model, you can either pay for one month, six months or 12 months in advance. In return, you will get a set number of images per day. Playing around with their payment plans, I found that the cheapest offering is as low as $.16 per photo. However, that entails a 12-month daily subscription with 50 image downloads per day. The cost is $2899. For most people, that’s an extreme. My point is, to find the best offer, you need to play around with the monthly subscription and daily subscription modules to get on that works for you.

The third model it is called Pay-As-You-Go Credits.

What Is a Credit?

Pay-As-You-Go Credits allows you to customize your plan when the monthly or daily subscription plans don’t quite fit. When you purchase credits using this model, the amount you purchase will be added to your account. The more you purchase, the cheaper each photo will be and vice versa. The less you purchase, the more expensive each credit will be. Once you get a credit, it is good for one download. This can mean photos, illustrations and art vectors, editorial and news images, or HD videos. This is a prepaid credit plan that is good for one year from the date of purchase. This means if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, or pay for several months up front as in the daily subscription, then this is the plan for you. This allows you to purchase credits and use them however and whenever you wish (within that year from the purchase date).

The program is really flexible. Because the credits are good for an entire year, you can purchase 50 credits today, and they’ll still be good six months from now when you decide that you need a photo. Even if you opt to purchase fewer credits (making each credit more expensive), the upfront cost will also be less. This makes it perfect for those who are just starting out or for any other reason that you might be budget-minded when it comes to stock photo imagery.

Those are the rules two regarding credits. If you don’t think you need a whole lot of images throughout the year, don’t purchase a hole in the credits because they will expire in one year. The other rule is that each credit, no matter what the exact cost, is the equivalent of one image. Once you purchase an image, it becomes yours within the license agreement. Royalty-free does not mean ownership rights. After you download the image once, if for any reason you need to download it again, there will never be an additional charge. You can download the image an unlimited amount of times as long as you stick to the license agreement.

What Can I Spend a Credit on?

DepositPhotos has one of the most extensive image libraries on the Internet. They know the true value of the phrase, A picture is worth a thousand words.” Some abstract concepts such as love, integrity and value can be difficult to put on paper. True to the phrase, it really can take over a thousand words to explain what love is. However, on paper a picture is much more sufficient. That’s the purpose of imagery to enhance messages. Every form of art at least every form that I’m aware of is an expression of some sort of message or feeling.

Back to the question what can you spend credits on? Well, you already know the DepositPhotos has millions of images all in one place at your disposal. They have 36 categories of images and videos for you to choose from.

• Abstract
• Animals
• Architecture & Buildings
• Art Objects
• Beauty & Fashion
• Business & Finance
• Celebrities
• Cities
• Computers & Electronics
• Concepts
• Decoration
• Education
• Fauna & Flora
• Food and Drink
• Holidays & Events
• Illustrations
• Industrial
• Interiors
• Jewelry & Gems
• Medicine & Health
• Miscellaneous
• Nature
• Objects
• Other
• People
• Places
• Professions
• Religious
• Science
• Shopping
• Signs & Symbols
• Sport
• Technology
• Textures & Backgrounds
• Tools
• Transport & Auto

Many of their images often fit more than one category. That gives this website the feel of having many more millions of images than they actually have. Not that you’ll ever run out of image ideas. They have more than enough to keep you busy.

The Search Engine

When you visit DepositPhotos for the first time, you’ll find it that not only are there images very well organized, but they’re also very easy to search. An inviting background image will greet you no doubt one of their own stock photos with an integrated search bar ready for you to type. That makes it easy to bookmark the site and start searching immediately no downtime. The cursor is automatically placed inside the search box so you can click on your bookmark, start typing, and as soon as you press enter, you will be greeted with more images than you can shake a stick at.

This is where it gets fun. Go to DepositPhotos and type in the most abstract, difficult-to-convey term you can think of. You’re not limited to one word, either. Type in something like rock and a hard spot,” and see what you can come up with. DepositPhotos did a fantastic job of making sure you can find exactly what you’re looking for quickly and easily. Go have fun!