Where do you get your Stock photos from?

[Eric Polsinelli]

Hello Everyone!

I have been looking for stock photography for using as "additional backgrounds", etc on the pictures I work on. I can't afford some of the collection CD's I see on the internet, but I did notice one product from Hemera called Photo-Objects 50,000, but I don't know what type of scenery shots it includes...

Does anyone have any suggestions???

Thanks all!

Visit me at:
Perfect Picture Imaging
www.PERFECTPICTUREIMAGING.ca

[Doug Nelson]

I like using .mil and .gov sites, since the images there are (usually) in the public domain (you still should give a credit, though, and read their specific rules).

Google image search lets you search by keyword, limit by file type and size, and limit to domains (such as .gov).

[d_kendal]

Hi Eric,
Welcome to RetouchPro!! Check out this thread here
If what you need is atmosphere backgrounds, you could try out
Terragen it's a great program for creating landscapes etc. which are very usefull for using with other 2D work. If you want to see some results from the program, here's a link to that thread: Terragen
hope that's some help to you.

- David

[Eric Polsinelli]

That Terragen looks pretty amazing, but is it easy to use... easy for someone who knows a thing or two about Photoshop

[d_kendal]

It's not too hard, just takes some experimentation to understand how it really works. I think you'll be surprised by what you can do by just messing around with some random settings quickly.

- David

P.S. Nice site! you've done some impressive work.

[Leah]

Hi Eric,

This is what Steve Caplin has to say about Hemera Photo-Objects in his book How to cheat in Photoshop (of which I keep intending to write a review...)

"Finding images of rare or even everyday objects used to be one of the hardest tasks of all ... 100 images per disk can barely hope to supply everything we need. Now, however, Canadian publisher Hemera has produced two sets of images in the Hemera Photo-Objects 50,000 collections. The lightning-fast visual search engine produces results even before you've finished typing the name of the object you're looking for, and it's a fair bet that almost any object you need will be found among the hundred thousand on offer. (When I first got the collection I asked everyone walking past to think of an object to look for: I thought I'd found their weak spot when someone suggested 'Hubble space telescope'. I searched, and there were seven images.) ... There is, of course, a downside: the images are of uniformly low resolution, supplied up to a maximum of 1200x1200 pixels. But when used as small elements in a larger montage, there's no better starter kit."

Hope this is of some use - I've also seen another review in one of my magazines (of course, can't remember which one now) that reached broadly the same conclusions.

For royalty-free cutout people Caplin recommends the sets from PhotoDisc ("...tend to feature glossy models who look like they've just walked out of a hairspray commercial, with the exception of one or two discs - their In Character CD, for example, is a collection of 100 people in a variety of costumes from medieval wizards to lion tamers. It's a CD I've used dozens of times, and it's saved me from having to clutter up my wardrobe with leopardskin thongs, deerstalkers and clown costumes.") and Stockbyte ("produce a range of a dozen CDs in their Busy People series that feature everyday men, women, teenagers and children in a huge variety of poses. The people here are often old, ugly and badly dressed - in other words, just the sort of people you see on the streets.")

[Eric Polsinelli]

Wow, I can't believe how much help you guys have been! I might just pick up the Hemera package (Photo-Objects)...

[Andrew B.]

Here are some free sky backgrounds:

http://art.net/~jeremy/photo/public_texture/index.html

[CJ Swartz]

Andrew -- your link looks promising -- thanks for sharing. Looks like you could create a bunch of new environments with those images.