What is Stock Photography?

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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

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