You've written the content for your blog or design project, now where to find the perfect image to match your awesome content? You need images that won't take too long to find and that will capture exactly what you want to say without looking too "Stocky".There are several sites around that offer stock photography. Here's is a sampler list of our favourite stock sites with a cross-section of images, with variations in single-use and extended licenses.

Inexpensive

Bigstock

Finding the perfect image to match your set of keywords is easy on Bigstock with its efficient search. Photographer contributions are reviewed pretty fast, you can find new and unique images in its 19 million plus collection of photos and illustrations. Even images found on other premium sites are priced lower on Bigstock. Free trials and one-month paid subscription plans similar to its mother company, Shutterstock, enable new users to try out a few at a time.Eventually you may purchase plans based on a system of credits. A good deal is the $79 plan, to download 5 photos a day for a month. The more credits you purchase, the less you will end up paying for each image. Bigstock is perfect for those who need several high-res images at a time. The choice of a single-use license or extended license enables you to pay only for the uses you need. For a bite-size preview, you can avail of Bigstock's 1 free image a month trial!

Dollar Photo Club

Did someone say $1 photos?

The appeal of the site's $1 per photo subscription plan has become popular with many bloggers and designers. After your application is reviewed and approved, you may download 10 photos for a month, for $10. After that, you may download any photo or vector, each at high-res 300 dpi, priced at $1 for a standard license. There's a varied mix of images to suit any style or theme.

Photo Dune*

A diamond in the rough.

Now you need to be prepared to look through a lot of crappy stock - but some gems can be found here. Stock photos start at $1 and priced according to size/megapixels and type of license. Though many items look similar to stock you've already seen, the site's search and filters yield surprising finds. It has the advantage of being one of the marketplaces of the Envato group, with a growing collection and . You can both buy and sell items without having to sign up for long-term subscription plans.

Death To Stock

David Sherry and Allison Lehman teamed up their branding, blogging and photography expertise to fill a huge gap. For those who find pricing plans steep and the usual microstock sites predictable, this site is a breath of fresh air. Once you sign up, a package of 10 high-resolution photos is dropped into your email inbox every month. Absolutely free. Like a box of goodies waiting for what spark you wish to add to it. You may use it on your blogs, design projects, social media posts. Images are high-quality and thoughtfully-composed.

Unsplash

Another amazing site to buck the trend of aggressive marketing, this website releases 10 beautiful high-resolution photos FREE every 10 days. You may visit the site and download each new collection. The images are made available under the Creative Commons license. You may give back by attributing to the photographer or the Unsplash site. They recently made their archives available to download and use, and this has added to their rich store of landscapes, vignettes, life details, and photographs as art.

Mid-Range

Creative Market

A popular marketplace known for design resources like vectors and templates, it has only recently opened up its photo site. Their generous policy of allowing sellers to keep 70% of all sales motivates contributors to post their best items on their individual shops. The $3-$50 selection isn't limited by exclusivity or any review process. Range and quality of photos are as varied as there are photographic styles. Those who are great at spotting a rare find at a fair, or a farmer's market, will surely have their pick from their collection.

Stocksy

** OUR FAVOURITE** Even a first look at their collection shows photos that have heart. There's texture and creative touches that make the images relatable instead of high-gloss and distant. If you're a designer looking for images that evoke specific meaning, you'll always find the right graphic from this site. This creativity is best suited for design projects, as images start from $10.

Shutterstock

This site has been a consistent leader since the pioneering days of the microstock industry. If you need to source several new photos regularly, then Shutterstock is for you. Their 25-a-day subscription plan regularly provides hundreds of new photos from their 40 million-plus collection at $249, or only $0.33 each. They also have $49 on-demand options for those who with smaller but varied needs for images.

Premium

Getty Images

At the very high end of the stock industry, Getty Images offers every kind of media for every usage, each with its own type of license. They have multi-lingual searches and filters which help you find the precise image, perhaps even better than what you had in mind. Their royalty-free images are suited for anyone looking for graphics that communicate concepts with a global reach. More interestingly, they now allow their images to be embedded on blogs and websites for free, with just the Getty logo and a linkback to the site as a tradeoff. This has caught on with the bloggers and social media.