What Is Stock Photography?

Stock photography is simply photos taken "on spec". This means the photographer takes pictures of various objects, people, or situations, and sells them after the pictures have been taken. They are not on a specific photography assignment, instead they are taking photos of subjects they'd like to take pictures of.

Stock photography is primarily used in printed advertisements, brochures, magazines, and websites, though there are many other ways stock photography can be used.

Stock photography is licensed in several different ways. The two most popular are Rights Managed Stock Photography, and Royalty Free Stock Photography.

Rights Managed photography is the use of stock photos that are licensed for a specific, limited time and purpose. If an advertiser for instance, needed a stock photo for one specific ad campaign, they could license a photo for that specific use. And they'd be limited to using the photo only for that campaign. They'd also be charged based on the size of the ad campaign they intended to use the stock photo for.

If they wanted to use the same photo again, they'd have to pay another fee. And that fee might be different, if the campaign use and sizes are different. These recurring fees are called royalties, and with rights managed stock photography they can be quite hefty. Ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars for the limited use of one photograph.

Royalty free stock photography allows you to pay a license fee once, then use the photo multiple times. There are usually limitations on this form of stock photography, however the restrictions are not nearly as narrow as rights managed photography is. A designer or advertiser could license one photo for instance, and use it in hundreds of different ad campaigns, without incurring additional fees. In other words: No royalty fees need to be paid.

Generally royalty free stock photography can be licensed for as little as $50 up to several hundred dollars depending on the licensing source and rights given.

One of the most popular forms of stock photography for small and web based businesses, is royalty free micro stock photography. This is a variation on the royalty free model, but it's referred to as "micro stock" because designers and advertisers pay just a dollar or two per image license.

This type of stock photography has become quite popular with website owners particularly, because it's a very inexpensive way to get top quality photos for use on their websites. Quality stock photos can be licensed for as little as $1 in smaller, web friendly sizes. And prices go up to about $3 or $5 for larger, print quality photo sizes.

Since these photos are royalty free, designers can use them multiple times for that one time low cost. Be sure to check the licensing restrictions though. Royalty free does not automatically mean "public domain" or "copyright free", and each micro stock photography site has their own particular use restrictions on the photos you license.

© 2006, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Want to learn more about Royalty Free Stock Photography? Visit The Free Online Guide to Stock Photography at http://www.Stocktography.com

Free Stock Photography

The term “free” stock photographs does not mean that the photograph or images are free by default. Royalty free stock photography means a customer pays fees only once for a photograph. They don’t have to pay every time they need to use it. A free stock photograph can be used as many times and as long as the customer wishes. However, the copyright remains with the photographer who owns the photograph. When a customer buys free stock photograph, it is theirs to use, but they cannot sell it.

If a customer wants to use royalty free stock photographs on their website, they must make sure that their license permits the right of publication of the image. Many royalty free stock photographs are sold under the license for printing or electronic use only. These photographs are becoming more and more popular and are available on many websites and CD’s. The main drawback of free stock photographs is images can be purchased by anyone and used multiple times. A potential buyer has no way of knowing whether someone else is using the image.

Generally, fees for royalty free stock photographs depend on size and not on usage. A copyright holder can sell a photograph to anyone. However, is a customer is looking for a unique, one-of-a-kind image for a corporate campaign, etc., and then is wiser to hire a professional photographer? The difference between stock photographs and royalty free stock photographs is that a stock photograph can be used only once after licensing. If a customer wants to use it again, he needs another license. Royalty free stock photographs can be used many times over a long period of time.

Stock Photography provides detailed information on Stock Photography, Free Stock Photography, Digital Stock Photography, Nature Stock Photography and more. Stock Photography is affiliated with Black and White Photographs.

Selling Stock Photography

Selling stock photography to a stock image library could be a great option for you if you're more interested in taking pictures than selling them. One of the major problems associated with freelance photography on a part time basis is the lack of time. If you have a separate job that takes your time from Monday to Friday, the only time you have left to take pictures are evenings, weekends and holidays.

If you add up all this time together, it looks okay, but to actually make money from your photography you can't just take pictures, you need to sell them as well. That in it self can be very time and labor intensive. If you have a family, you probably have even less free time, so you need to make best use of what you have.

Many photographers don’t actually know how to sell their photography either. There is very little point in trying to sell pictures to magazines and publishing houses if you don't actually know what they want or when they want it. If you send off pictures to these types of publications, the chances are you will be getting them back again within days; you will have achieved nothing except waste time and money.

A great way to overcome the problem of selling your photography is by storing your work with a stock photo library. With a stock photo library, all the selling is taken care of for you. This gives you a source of income for your photography, and gives you more time to spend on taking pictures.

So, if you want to find out more about transportation stock photography or about motorcycle stock photography or even about nautical stock you should click these links.

Stock Photography, Royalty Free or Exclusive

Acquiring stock photography images can be costly; however, the cost is often worth it. Nevertheless, when do you pay for exclusive rights to an image, and when is it just not worth it? Images can be purchased with different license types, either royalty free, rights managed or protected or exclusive rights.

All stock photography services offer different types of licenses and these licenses are all different from each other-you can even negotiate some licenses. Before purchasing a royalty free image, read through the licensing policy to make sure that their license applies to how you intend to use the image. For 'exclusive rights' or 'rights managed' images, you may have to relate to them the exact intended use before they quote a price.

Royalty Free (RF)
Royalty free images are usually the least expensive choice ranging from as low as $1 to $450/ea. Many stock providers offer a subscription program for RF images that support multiple downloads for $20 to $600 per month. Although RF images are inexpensive to purchase, they do not offer any protected licensing, which means that an unlimited number of that image may be sold to others and used for a variety of applications. Keep in mind it is the buyer's responsibility to check for model releases before using an image. Usually RF images only have to be purchased once to be used multiple times in multiple projects.

Even though RF images do not carry exclusive rights, they are still a wise and budget-friendly choice for many applications. If you need an isolated object image, RF is an excellent choice. Some agencies even offer pre-masked images you can buy for a dollar or two. Object images are usually not the focus of an ad campaign, a picture of a lollipop or a stapler are literally a dime a dozen and there is no need to spend a lot of money on such an image if it is not the center of your project.

Secondary webpages or short-term ads can use RF images. For example, during the holiday season, an image of a wreath or a group of friends celebrating can be purchased for nearly nothing, they add a little spice and timeliness to your projects, yet are still usually not the main focus.

Background images, landscapes or other flora or fauna photos are not usually specific enough to warrant an exclusive license, unless you are using it for an application that requires a license such a greeting card, calendar and so on. For example, a picture of sunset may be used to evoke a mood, yet that mood is related to previous experiences, not that specific image.

Rights Managed or Protected

Rights managed or protected licenses will usually allow you to use a photo for a specific use for a specific amount of time; the stock agency will ask you where you intend to use the image and the duration. However, generally they are not exclusive rights. Some services offer different agreements depending on whether the image is for commercial or editorial use. These types of licenses may start at under $200 for a small image, but for something like a calendar or home page, use may reach $1000.

This is a good choice for home page, magazine or medium to high exposure use. Typically, rights protected images can only be used for one specific application so there are fewer chances that another company will spread the image all over its pages at the same time that you do.

Sometimes these types of licensing will support template use, greeting cards, calendars or posters and so on, but be sure to read or negotiate the terms before you use the image.

Exclusive Rights

'Exclusive rights' restricts others from purchasing the same image. This is necessary if you need an image that is going to represent your brand, logo or for high exposure use, like the front page of your magazine. Images purchased for a large campaign should be exclusive; you do not want to chance that the ad agency across town chooses the same image for its next billboard.

If you hire an assignment photographer or commission work, you will also want to negotiate exclusive rights. Exclusive rights should be secured for book covers, CD jackets and so on.

Exclusive Rights can get costly, but for the rights and protection, they are well worth it.

Overall, make sure that you read over all the terms that a stock agency sets to protect yourself and your image. Diversity is key, you may use a subscription program for isolated images and low exposure RF stills, another for right protected images and another for commissioned work or editorials. Working with several agencies may, in the end, save your time and budget.

Pamela Stevens

Pamela Stevens writes for TopTenREVIEWS.com, a review site that publishes unbaised reviews on a wide range of subjects, including software, online services, hardware, movies and actors.