what is the best source to buy pictures for mobile applications

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what is the best source to buy pictures for mobile applications

Hi,

I am writing a slide-show like application for android phone which I am going to sell. it will target very narrow audience and I do not think I will sell more than 1000 copies of it. I was going to buy pictures for it from microstock agencies like istockphoto but it turned out that they require purchase of "extended license" if you want to put their images into apps. And guess what? extended license runs from $70-100 per image!

so my question for you, where did you get images for your apps you want to sell?

You can search at creativecommons.org for images you can use "for commercial purposes".

ShadowGod 2010-10-12 19:39:04

interesting...do you know how it works exactly? most of the images under CC are hosted on Flickr.com and most of them I saw in the category I need look like just private family pictures (and most of them are not good in quality). Does it mean I can just take any of these pictures and put it in my app and sell it and do not tell them a think that I am doing that? i do not think these people realize that their family pictures may end up somewhere :)

mishkin 2010-10-12 20:46:18

As I understand it, yes you can use those pictures in your paid app, as long as they don't fall under the one "non-commercial" CC license. See http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/. You don't *have* to ask them, but you can as a courtesy. If they put the images out there under the CC license, you have the license to use them, you aren't doing anything wrong. You can always remove them later if they request it.

ShadowGod 2010-10-12 21:06:51

yep, I read that and I was like why on the earth these people want to give away their family pictures so somebody can use them and sell them? Anyway, I did not find there pictures I was looking for in a nice quality, so I am back to microstock agency

mishkin 2010-10-13 21:01:51

I'd recommend odesk.com. I used to look for stock art, both free and paid. Then I figured out that you can outsource and hire an artist for very little money. Depending on your needs, you can go cheap and find someone under $5 / hr that can do basic work. I currently employ a team at $18 / hr and it's worth every penny I spend given the quality of the work, and their ability to create themes from scratch and operate with only minimal oversight.

Alternatively, you can put out a bid for a fixed-price contract to create the icons for your app.

I've had better luck with posting positions, interviewing and hiring. I'd recommend putting up a basic description of the type of person you are looking for, and then have an interview question to screen candidates with. I typically do a "compensated interview" whereby any legitimate submission gets a minimum amount of money whether I hire the person or not. I've had great luck with this recruiting artists that have paid off many times over.

ddopson 2010-10-12 23:42:26

thanks for the idea, I was going to try vworker.com (former rentacoder) for my other application to design a logo, theme and everything and you encouraged me to do so. Unfortunately for this project, I need people's pictures and it is more difficult because you need model's release and pro kind pictures. I found what I need on microstock sites, but there is a catch - all pictures come with so called standard royalty free license, which does not give you a right to resell your product using their images and they make you but extend. one which runs from $50 per picture

mishkin 2010-10-13 21:00:07

ansaurus

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what is the best source to buy pictures for mobile applications

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