Shutterstock reached a great momentous milestone today: their library now hosts 100 Million images, between photos, vectors and illustrations.
That's right, now you have 100 million licensable images to choose from and use in your projects. Adding new, fresh images for hundreds of thousands every week, it can only be expected Shutterstock to continue sustaining the massive growth of their collection.
The company shared this happy news with its customers and contributors, and considered this a moment to not only look back at the company's history and long way back, but also to look forward to the future. For this reason, they included an infographic with the 10 hottest trends in the visual field.
100 Million High Quality Stock Images
Shutterstock's stock image library now counts with that gigantic number of photos, vectors and illustrators. All Royalty Free and suitable for commercial use.
Even better? These images are very cheap –you can buy them on demand with image packs or with subscriptions– and they are all reviewed for technical quality, production value and commercial potential. Read more about this in our full Shutterstock review.
According to the agency, these huge pool of content is sourced from 140,000 contributors across 100 countries.
As they keep pushing over 800,000 new images every week, you can only expect their stock photo library to keep growing.
Shutterstock's Top 10 Visual Trends in Stock Imagery for the Future
By loading the video, you agree to Vimeo's privacy policy.
Learn more
Accompanying the milestone announcement, Shutterstock shared a list of what they think are the most relevant trends that will “shape the future of imagery”. Their curators, designers and reviewers gave their opinion, and the company collected them in a top 10 that includes well established styles as well as new and rising concepts. These are the themes and subjects they feel will define the visual world in the coming days:
At top of the list: mobile imagery. So it seems the explosion of smartphone photography is far from slowing down, with the new iPhone 7 boosting up the quality of photos taken with mobile. The 2nd place is for mobile photojournalism, highlighting the potential in editorial images that are snapped and available for license almost instantaneously.
Next are images connected with new technology: drone photography, which takes aerials to a whole new level and makes it more accessible at the same time; daily stories, the style of visual diaries popularized by social networking applications like Instagram and Snapchat; and 360° images that enable a fully immersive visual experience.
The list continues with “authentic” imagery: spontaneous staging, modern concepts and amateur models; hand-drawn style for illustrations; and also sharper definition in low-light compositions.
The last can be a bit more surprising: hypereality, surreal creations that represent imagination; and finally, street photography, a style that doesn't lose in popularity since decades.
In addition, Shutterstock also created a curated selection leveraging images from their library that represent the listed trends.
So now you know, one of the biggest players in stock imagery believes these 10 are the trends to follow. It might well be worth to listen to them! Visit Shutterstock to find great, trending images in a library of 100 million files.
