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 photos are primarily used in printed advertisements, brochures, magazines, and websites, though there are many other ways stock pictures can be used.
Stock photography is licensed in several different ways. The two most popular are Rights Managed, 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 photos 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 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.
Anyone can use it, but in order to do that, understanding of all the legal aspects is critical in order to avoid being sued.
Stock photography has been around for a long time. According to wikipedia.org, H. Armstrong Roberts started the first agency for this type of photography in 1920, and the company is still going strong today under the name RobertStock. For years, photography stock was composed of "outtakes ("seconds") from commercial magazine assignments."
But, in the eighties, it had become unique, and photographers began making photographs just for photo sharing. Today several online photography stock houses exist, but before being used, the legal terms and aspects must be completely understood in order to avoid being sued.
One type of stock photography is royalty-free. This does not mean that the photograph can be used for free. What royalty-free means is that in order to use a specific picture, a photo buyer pays a one time fee to use the picture many times for a multitude of purposes within certain guidelines. Usually a time limit does not exist as to when the image can be used.
However, a royalty-free image does have a limit on exactly how many times the photograph can be reproduced. All of these restrictions will depend exactly on the contract that is decided upon.
One thing to consider with stock photography regarding royalty-free is that exclusive rights are non-existent. If a publication wants to be unique from the others, than royalty-free images are not the way to go. The best bet for uniqueness is to have an photographer on staff.
Stock photography has another kind called rights-managed that is sometimes difficult to understand. Rights-managed photography stock is when an image is negotiated exclusively for a certain allotted time frame.
During this time frame, no one else will be able to use that particular image for any reason. How long that this will go on will depend on the contract negotiations that are made for the image.
Because of online photography sharing, it has become readily accessible for all to use. Some agencies allow for images to be used for free, and others are based on contracts for their photography gallery.
Photojournalism uses it regularly, but the in's and outs of the business must be fully understood to take advantage of all of the images that are flooding the market.
Whether or not to use rights-managed or royalty-free images will depend on what can be negotiated within a contract, and the legalities can get sticky.
Before using stock photography, make sure that research is done in order to avoid any lawsuits that will ultimately take away from any profit of the images used.
Both Kathy Burns-millyard & Mike Selvon are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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