Contributing Photographer to
iStockphoto.com

Contributing Photographer to
Getty Images

What is Stock Photography?

Stock photography is photography or imagery that is used repeatedly for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Often stock images depict common situations, concepts landmarks, and people.

Stock photography use is very popular with designers, graphic artists, art directors, advertising agencies, and marketing professionals, in magazine ads, websites, and marketing brochures. Instead of hiring a professional photographer to create an image, a buyer licenses an image and the photographer is paid a commission. Photo researchers can save valuable time and money by searching for stock photography through online databases.

Images stored at an agency are licensed on behave of the photographer or artist and the agency retains a percentage of the sale. Stock photography is commonly sold as either rights managed or royalty free. With rights managed, an individual licensing agreement is negotiated for each use of the image and offers exclusive usage rights at a higher price. Royalty Free stock photography offers the buyer unlimited uses under a single license and less expensive fee. Classical agencies have offered rights managed for many years but the more popular trend with buyers today is royalty free.

Stock photography is a cost effective method for customers to purchase high quality images, and is a great way for photographers to earn money from their collection of imagery.