Top 10 websites for presentation images


Images form an important part of most visual presentations, with today’s digital technology it is easy to take your own photos or use some of the clipart readily available and quickly place them into a presentation document. However, there comes a time when we need images that are of a professional quality or images of people and locations that would cost too much time and money to justify taking ourselves.

There is an abundance of online resources we can turn to, to find that perfect image for our presentation, and a good or bad image can make or break your presentation. You really don’t want to be walking into that important business meeting with a PowerPoint presentation full of snapshots hastily taken on your mobile phone.

Here are some of the best free and paid photo libraries around.

1. istockphoto

One of the best stock photo libraries around for price versus quality. Images from around 60p ($1). We use this site most.

2. gettyimages

Expensive at £50 – £350 per image ($100 – $600) but has access to some of the best professional photography. We use this sparingly for our corporate clients.

3. google image search

Free images, but you need to obtain permission from the copyright holder.

4. flickr creative commons

restricted rights according to image

5. flickr
A very good selection of amateur images. You need to obtain permission from the copyright holder. We usually find that the owners are really chuffed to be asked.

6. wikipedia

restricted rights according to image

7. corbis

again more expensive than flickr but the quality is generally high

8. fotolia

cheap and cheerful with more images than istockphoto, but let down by slow speeds

stockxpert

Cheap with good range. Navigation is a bit confusing. http://www.stockxpert.com

10. shutterstock

Need to buy a lot of credits to download.

You may also want to check out the following sites

sxc

free images lower quality

morguefile

free images

everystockphoto

free with restrictions

There are places on the web where you can find free images, just make sure you do have the rights to use them. For example on a website like flickr people can upload their own photos and mark them with varying levels of public usage, from none to complete freedom of use using a creative commons license.

Then there are stock image libraries where you purchase rights to use an image. The prices of images on stock photo libraries can vary wildly and you don’t always get better quality photos on the more expensive sites, though they may have that image that suits your needs perfectly. The size and quality of the image will also affect the price. Images are often sold according to pixel dimensions and dpi, and generally you pay more the bigger the image is.

For screen presentations such as PowerPoint slides and websites, you just need to worry about getting the right pixel size; dpi is related to high quality printer output and while you need at least 300dpi for high quality prints, for screen 72dpi is fine. You’ll need to work out which pixel size is right for your presentation. It is best to avoid enlarging images that are too small as this can destroy the quality, though you can get away with shrinking images or cropping them if they are too big.

You’ll also be limited in use of an image according to the licence you buy, and again the more limited the licensing the cheaper the image. The most basic licensing will allow you to keep one copy of the image and to use it in your presentation or web site. Some sites allow you to by the complete rights to an image meaning that only you can use that image from then on, which could stop a rival business using the same image as you.

If you know of any more sites we should add to this list or have any other thoughts about this subject please add your comment below.

 

Published On: 16th Jun 2007

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22 Comments
  1. Deviantart.com – you can find kinda’ of nice pic there too…

    guest 2 Nov at 1:54 pm
  2. images.com is good to

    Anonymous 31 Mar at 5:57 pm
  3. all i can say is WOW!!!

    cindy 12 Sep at 3:01 am
  4. I love to make movies and I wanted to Find some info and some clip art I could use And I knew I could trust this site to do that.

    Jennifer 1 Oct at 1:29 am
  5. it’s so good! I like it!
    thanks

    Johan 17 Dec at 1:51 pm
  6. Got some good photo’s. Thanks for sharing.

    Trevor 13 Apr at 3:57 am
  7. GettyImages DOT com is my favoirte websie

    i24 3 May at 11:34 am
  8. moodboard have some great images from $1 – nice easy site to use, and stores/manages all your images for you

    JamesO 9 Jun at 11:00 pm
  9. […] still images and video that convey more than you can say with words. Sources for power point images and […]

    Powerful Power Point Presentations @ Ask Mary 23 Sep at 7:22 pm
  10. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this list of websites to find decent images. It’s a constant challenge to find good quality images for free or for reasonable prices. Thanks for sharing the info on good sites out there!

    Zephyr 28 Oct at 6:07 am
  11. That seems to be a very diversified list!

    As for Flickr – there is a special section there – Creative Commons licensed photos. Read the terms of use and you can use them.. but be careful – some users may not fully understand all the terms (seen that by myself) so i would ask for a permission any way..

    Denis 11 Apr at 9:35 am
  12. Each of these sites is quite specific to use, especially with free stock images.. on Flickr you have to look for copyright info and on Istock – not to let it become too expensive.

    Inna 6 Jul at 1:35 pm
  13. I use photl but you have to read legal information carefully if you want to use the images. In general the site is god. I like Morguefile as well

    Mariella 19 Jul at 9:09 pm
  14. I use istock all the time. You can’t beat the price. It may take more time finding a high quality image, but they definitely have tons of decent shots to choose from. They might even have several images by the same photographer with a similar look and feel. Very handy for keeping things cohesive in a presentation. I don’t even bother with Getty anymore.

    Janet 22 Aug at 1:47 am
  15. Thanks for sharing, very nice list indeed!

    Daniele Bazzano 18 Feb at 10:16 am
  16. u r greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

    bishoy 3 Jun at 4:31 am
  17. thanks ………….thanks alot

    aman 27 Aug at 4:25 pm
  18. Thanks a lot for your sharing, I like all of those webside. It helps me present and make a presentation more professional and attractive.

    Hazel Nguy?n 1 Oct at 9:47 am
  19. i used to have a budget for images BUT no longer. out of necessity for needing free phottos, i have become a fan of using the stock clip art photos in microsoft office as there is not issues with copyright and there is a surprisingly wide choice of images.

    i put the pictures in power point and save the images as a picture and then can use them easily again and again. not always ideal, but free and easy

    byron wolt 25 Feb at 6:15 pm
  20. Would it be okay to use pictures with attribution in conjunction with stock pictures in presentation?

    Boris 15 Jun at 7:08 am
  21. Hi Boris,

    No unfortunately you would need to purchase your own license to use these images! why not try the free image libraries

    rboynton 17 Jun at 12:13 pm
  22. Great collection of images website. This will help us to use copyright free commercial images. Thanks for sharing valuable information.

    AArti 21 Aug at 4:30 pm