Adobe Stock: Overview and First Impression

Adobe, the company behind famous products such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver, has rolled out a new stock photo service. Join me as I present my first impression of Adobe Stock.

Any business owner can testify to the value of stock photos in their marketing strategy. While there not always cheap, these are high definition pictures that allow people to convey just about any marketing message to an audience. Adobe Stock is the newest kid on the block.

Stock photos are everywhere. Every blogger worth his salt utilizes the power of stock photos. Stock Photos is a service that that is often outsourced. They provide a quality that’s hard to get without a professional photographer – for an affordable price as well. Well many individual photos may cost as much is $10, they also offer photo packages that can provide more than enough high-quality photos of your choice at a mere fraction of the price a photographer might charge.

Adobe – the Global Leader behind Digital Creation

welcome to adobe stock

Adobe creates some of the most essential and unique business products that are used today, such as Photoshop and Flash. Photoshop is one of the most versatile and widely used graphic programs. It only makes sense for them to provide stock photos as well.

Adobe is a well-known global company with as many as eight offices in the United States alone. Headquartered in San Jose, California they have offices on every continent except Antarctica. At one point, they even powered the Internet’s dominant video site YouTube, although that’s not the case anymore.

What to Expect/How it Works

In this Adobe Stock review, I’m going to take you through what you can expect from the digital media giant. Adobe Stock is one of their newest services. They offer over 40 million high-quality, royalty-free photos. When you search for a stock photo, it is searchable by subject much like any other stock photo service. The engine is quite intuitive, offering me several pages of photos to choose from for any given search term.

The beautiful thing about Adobe Stock is that it is completely integrated with Photoshop and other Creative Cloud services. This means I can search for a photo on their Adobe Stock website, and manage it directly from within Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, and other Adobe CC desktop programs.

When you visit the Adobe Stock website, you will be introduced with a larger screen size photo in the background and a search bar smack dab in the middle of the screen. They were careful not to over clutter their website, and it paid off. The site is beautiful, simple, and very intuitive. When I enter a search term, it takes me straight to the results.

I searched for “high five.” Within two seconds, I was greeted with over 4000 results. Although most of them were photos, Adobe went to the effort of including illustrations and vector drawings as well. The results were incredibly relevant with anyone from cats and dogs to people in business suits to the silhouette of two people standing in front of a sunset. Needless to say, I was pleased with the results.

Just like any consumer, I like it when things are made quick and easy for me. If there is any measure of difficulty in me searching for photos or finding what I’m looking for, probably wouldn’t use the service.

When I clicked on an image, it created a divide in the results. Within the divide, Adobe placed a larger version of the photo on the right side of the screen and details on the left. Without paying, I can save a preview, purchase the image, or search for other similar images. As expected with any stock photo service, the preview had a watermark on it to prevent people from taking a picture for free. However, the watermark did not get in the way of the photo itself, nor does Adobe diminish the quality in their previews. Adobe even gives me the option of searching for more photos that contain the models in the photo.

The information provided includes the file type, the author, relevant keywords, the category, and even the file number. File numbers are essential because they allow people to choose a photo for the work they turn into their employer. The company turns around and purchases the photo. This allows employees and other people to choose photos while Adobe remains protected from several people having access to these photos without payment.

Buying Advice

Adobe allows a couple of ways to purchase the photos. You are given the freedom to either purchase one photo or buy one of their packages.

pricing

I can choose to either purchase a single photo for $9.99, 10 photos per month for $49.99, or 750 photos per month for $199.99. If I’m a Creative Cloud member, I can jump on the discounted plan of 10 photos per month for $29.99.

Conclusion

In this Adobe Stock Photo review, we took a look at a brand-new service offered by Adobe. Adobe Stock offers an excellent stock photo service. I can honestly say that they offer more than I would expect from your typical stock photo service – such as the ability to search for other photos containing a particular model.