Stock Photography consists of photographs that can be licensed for specific uses, and have been taken without a specific brief. They are stored on databases by agencies and categorised for review. They are available to be licensed for commercial use by creative professionals such as graphic artists, publishers and advertising agencies, that are in need of ready made images that illustrate a specific scene or mood etc, to fulfill creative assignments.
There are two types of stock photography agency – Macrostock and Microstock agencies.
Macrostock
Macrostock agencies are the original type of stock agency and are large well established agencies, examples of these are Getty Images, and Corbis. They charge premium rates of $100′s or more for photographs with exclusive rights, and are very hard to get into so they have smaller numbers of professional photographers that contribute to them. Compared to microstock agencies that use large numbers of photographers to source their images. Although internet based they also use other ways to promote their images like catalogues.
Microstock
Microstock (micro payment stock photography) is easier to get into and these agencies which are completely internet based, accept the hobbyist/amateur photographer. The photographs are sold for a lot less than macrostock, selling for between $0.20 – $3 (on average) each, of which the photographer can get paid up to 50% of the revenue per download. The images are sold as royalty free images. And examples of microstock agencies are Shutterstock, iStockphoto and Fotolia.
Microstock agencies are a well debated part of photography and how they have affected and do affect stock photography. Looking into and trying out Microstock photography will be an interesting challenge for me and one I am looking forward to.
Mandy
Hi, my name is Mandy Jones and I created the Photographer blog to help DSLR Beginners improve their photography, and get to know their camera better.
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Hi! I was looking for information about stock photography and this post proved useful. I used the names of the agencies frm your post to look for more information and after I read more about them at http://infostockphoto.com and after visiting their websites I deided to give Shutterstock, and Fotolia a try. Thanks!
Hi Andrew,
I’m glad this post was of some help to you. Thanks for the link I’ve not been to that site before and it looks really good, full of information. Good luck with Shutterstock and fotolia!