iStockPhoto - Find all the images you want

All of us look for good images/icons on the web for our college projects, work projects, case studies, and so on. Most of us go through pages and pages of Google Images or other without finding what we are looking for (this happens a lot to me). This is where iStockPhoto comes quite in handy.

What is it?

iStockPhoto as a huge database of photos, animations, icons, videos, audio, illustrations and flash.
What started in 2000 with Bruce Livingstone as an alternative way of putting his photos in the market and selling it, quickly moved into a space where anyone can upload his/her high quality images and sell them.

It works by keywords allowing to mix and match whichever you want and filter it by what you want (just illustrations, for example), as well as for price range (in terms of credits - explained further in this article).

How does it work?

Well, as most online websites/applications you have to register yourself at no cost.
If you are looking to buy some images you have to buy credits (which is the site's currency) and then start buying.

You have different options here, either a pay-as-you-go (if you just buy images once in a while) or a subscription (if you buy them frequently). After you topped up you account with credits it's just a matter of selecting the images you want and buy them.
You'll immediately be given a link to download those images to your desktop. Quite easy.

If you are looking to sell your own images it's a matter of applying to be a Contributor. You'll then take a quiz and submit 3 samples of your work to be accepted.
It might take a while, but I believe it is worth the time.

Last Thoughts

Basically, iStockPhoto is an image market, with high quality material that really helps getting the job done.
It is quite flexible in terms of pricing which allows it be a good tool not only for designers.

Ever tried it? What's you opinion?