by Alex Hinds

Created on: July 14, 2009

Stock photos are pre-exisitng images made available for use to photo buyers such as publishers, designers and businesses, usually in return for a licencing fee. This provides photo buyers with an alternative to commissioning a photographer to shoot images specifically for them. If a suitable stock image can be found this usually works out as a cheaper option for the buyer. For photographers stock offers another channel through which to market their images. For many photographers this will be a sideline to their main photography activity that can build into a useful passive stream of income for their business as they periodically add stock images to their collection in the course of their regular shooting. Some photographers will focus purely on supplying the market for stock photography.

The market is facilitated by stock photography agencies who represent the work of photographers and deal with the 'business side of things', in return for a commission on fees achieved by a photographer's work. The Internet has revolutionised the stock photography industry which is now almost exclusively conducted over the web. Stock photo agencies no longer mail out printed books showcasing their latest imagery but maintain sophisticated web sites with databases of digital images, often available for online purchase and instant download. A quick web search for 'stock photo' will present a plethora of options and it can be daunting for the unseasoned buyer, or potential contributor of images, to know where to start.

In order to start narrowing down options in looking for a stock photo agency to work with it is essential to understand some differences that exist between them and how stock photo licencing works. Stock photography is usually licenced on either a Rights Managed (RM) or Royalty Free (RF) basis. The fee to licence an RM image is calculated based on a number of factors related to its intended use, such as circulation, media, geographic area and industry. A one time usage fee is agreed and any further use requires a new licence to be negotiated. In contrast RF licencing is usually based solely on the file size of the image with little restriction on the future use of the image within the organisation that bought the licence. There are pros and cons to each format for both photographers and photo buyers; a whole seperate article worth of debate!

For both photographers and photo buyers there will usually be an appropriate choice between RM and RF for their work

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>