What-Do-You-Know-About-Stock-Photography What Do You Know About Stock Photography Stock photography, groups of photographs that people take, grouped and licensed for sellingpurposes.  Instead of taking new pictures every time they need pictures, many people use the stockphotography method.  People that work for magazines, as graphic artists, and advertising agenciessometimes use public pictures instead of hiring photographers for individual projects. Alternate names for stock photography is picture libraries, photo archives or image banks.  Typically,in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee or a purchasing ofusage rights that comes with a fee in order to use the pictures.  Sometimes a membership purchaseallows you to have access to a particular group of stock photography. Saving time and money, stock photography is a great way to enhance newsletters, blogs,advertisements, company brochures and more.  It is obviously less expensive than putting a full timephotographer on staff and takes less time if you need images of something specific.  Many times, it isas easy as using a search engine or checking an email. Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase.  Other times, full rights are limited.  Inthose cases, photographers might be requiring that they receive a certain percentage of sales and orroyalties of usage.  Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees.  With thetechnology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are quicker and easier. The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location theimages will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo willbe distributed to or seen by.  Prices for stock photography can be anywhere from one dollar to twohundred dollars. There are several different pricing arrangements.  Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer touse photographs multiple times in multiple ways.  When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only aone-time charge for unlimited usage.  When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, theagency is able to resell the image to others.  If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiatedprice for each time that it is used. Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images.  In thatcase, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased.  It maycost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales haveto make sure that they are making a profitable sale.  If a photograph would make more money stayingin circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights. Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone.  Differentsubjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images.  Sometimes contributors work for

multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or theysell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around theworld. Stock photography started in the early 1920s.  It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s. Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase.  Stockhouses sprung up in many different places.  By 2000, online stock photography became microstockphotography, which we call photo archives online.  Companies like istock photo and bigstock photooffer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add morecredits for another fee.  Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those thatare sold hard copy.   Websites like www.shutterpoint.com and www.fotolibra.com allow stock photographers to upload andsell their images.  It is a great way to market pictures and earn money with photography.  You canalso purchase images at those websites as well.  With all the stock photography sites available, onemay find pictures you never even heard of before. PPPPP Word Count 650 Best prices on digital cameras