blog.bjorkoy.com

I was recently given the opportunity to try out a new stock photography site for free, Crestock.com. I was also asked to review it, which I agreed to do. In the spirit of fairness, I’ve also visited a few other stock sites. Here’s what I found out.

As stock sites come and go, Crestock seems to place it self in the middle. It’s not as exclusive or drool-esque as Veer, but at the same time many leagues better than free ones like Stock Exchange or Stock vault, that it’s fully justifiable paying for it.

About the content

The content is as one would expect from a site like this - you have the compulsory hand shakes, the surprisingly happy support-women and also lots of flowery flowers. Their photographers seem to be top notch, and browsing the forums gives the impression that they are quite picky on what they publish.

One feature I particularly liked was their category “Isolated & white background”, which consists of photographs on white backgrounds, making them great to spice up web designs. Their collection of illustrations was also very nice. The billboard designers out there might want to check out the Super High Res category.

So should I use them?

Well, yes, and no. Point is, some of the sites I’ve come across, like iStockPhoto, also offers each photograph at a lower resolution and a lower price. Images at Crestock typically start at 1500×1500px and $5, while iStockphoto offers smaller images, typically 800×600 or so, for $1.

So if you need medium to large sized photography for a reasonable cost, I’d definitely point you to Crestock, and also if you have a thing for white backgrounds. However, if the web is all you’re using them for, there’s lots of less expensive sites to seek out.

(By the way, if I had the money, I’d buy everything Veer has to offer.)