Trying to Source Image for Website

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Golden

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Andy
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Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to be asking this question, however since there is a lot of knowledge here, I'm hoping that someone can help me.

With a couple of colleagues I am setting up a new online business. We're in the process of finalising the website design and looking for some images to use on the site.

The style of the site has a large banner shot across the top, with a little text on and the main information below. In fact, it is similar to this website and the standard I am aiming for is what they have achieved with the image of the girl on the home page (takes a while to load and shows black to start off with) http://www.squarespace.com/

The challenge I am having is finding images that fit the following criteria

  1. Are the right dimensions (min 651 x 2560 px)
  2. Look up to date (for example all 'technology' in the image was made recently- important as we are a tech company)
  3. Looks real and does not scream 'cheap stock shot' (one characteristic of most of the stock photos we have looked at is the complete lack of paper / books / magazines / stuff that real offices have etc - thus implying 'set-up shot'
  4. the content is just of someone working at a computer and not 'gurning' towards the camera (so seeing their face is not important to us)

So far I have spent hours searching through istockphoto, stockshot and bigstockphoto. All google searches seem to turn up the image libraries with the same type of shots on them.

Can anyone suggest where I should look please?

Or even suggest photographers who shoot this type of thing and might have a suitable shot already.

We don't have a big budget (typical start up I know ;) )

It strikes me there is a gap in the market ?

Thanks!!
 
Golden said:
Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to be asking this question, however since there is a lot of knowledge here, I'm hoping that someone can help me.

With a couple of colleagues I am setting up a new online business. We're in the process of finalising the website design and looking for some images to use on the site.

The style of the site has a large banner shot across the top, with a little text on and the main information below. In fact, it is similar to this website and the standard I am aiming for is what they have achieved with the image of the girl on the home page (takes a while to load and shows black to start off with) http://www.squarespace.com/

The challenge I am having is finding images that fit the following criteria

  1. Are the right dimensions (min 651 x 2560 px)
  2. Look up to date (for example all 'technology' in the image was made recently- important as we are a tech company)
  3. Looks real and does not scream 'cheap stock shot' (one characteristic of most of the stock photos we have looked at is the complete lack of paper / books / magazines / stuff that real offices have etc - thus implying 'set-up shot'
  4. the content is just of someone working at a computer and not 'gurning' towards the camera (so seeing their face is not important to us)

So far I have spent hours searching through istockphoto, stockshot and bigstockphoto. All google searches seem to turn up the image libraries with the same type of shots on them.

Can anyone suggest where I should look please?

Or even suggest photographers who shoot this type of thing and might have a suitable shot already.

We don't have a big budget (typical start up I know ;) )

It strikes me there is a gap in the market ?

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

That description doesn't scream 'gap in the market' it screams 'very specific requirement'.

Unfortunately the shot you're looking for would be rejected by most stock libraries because it'd probably look 'cluttered'. I think the only way you can get such a specific shot is to commission it.
 
Thanks Phil, you might be right.

By niche in the market, I meant stock photography that does not shout 'stock photography'.

You are correct that not many people will be looking for exactly what I am but there are definitely business owners struggling to find quality images for their website (we have 120 customers, a good few of whom have given similar feedback)

Thanks again
 
Imagebrief allows you to submit an outline of the images you want, and then photographers upload images of their own which they think fits the brief.
 
There's a certain irony that most stock companies say they want more shots that look less like like typical stick shots, as that's what their customers want......

.....the proceed to reject any submissions that are not shot perfectly, or don't have perfect light or have anything else that makes them look less like stock shots
 
TheDrift- said:
There's a certain irony that most stock companies say they want more shots that look less like like typical stick shots, as that's what their customers want......

.....the proceed to reject any submissions that are not shot perfectly, or don't have perfect light or have anything else that makes them look less like stock shots
Click to expand...


Must be pretty frustrating and pretty silly on their part to cap their comissions.

Interesting to hear though, thanks
 
Give this link a try ..... it works similar to the ImageBrief but has been going for much longer

http://www.photographersdirect.com

Just sign up, enter your criteria and see what the photographers have in their libraries



Just on the bullet point 1... you will find that that is a crop so I am not sure you need to specifically search for images of that size/ratio.
 
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