The royalty free stock photo market is vast, with a growing number of stock photo agencies to choose from when trying to find the perfect image for your graphic design or advertising project. As a photography buyer, be aware that every agency on the market sets their own licensing terms. This determines how you the buyer can use the images you license and download. Before deciding to purchase a particular image, read their licensing terms and make sure that the particular use of your project is covered. It is easier to find images for standard applications such as the use of royalty free photos for advertising and promotional purposes but much more difficult to locate a good image supplier that will allow you to use their images to produce products intended for resale or distribution.
Products intended for resale or distribution can be of electronic nature or non-electronic. For example, electronic products for resale can include video clips, film, multimedia productions, electronic publications, website templates, design templates, greeting card templates, business card templates, software products, and electronic games. Non-electronic items can be stationary items, postcards, calendars, posters, prints, book covers, CD or DVD covers, T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, entertainment goods, framed artwork, and apparel. The standard user license usually obtained when purchasing a royalty-free image will most likely not cover any of the uses listed above.
So before you spend time hunting through hundreds of images on a particular website to find the perfect image for your project, make sure you read the licensing details of the stock photography supplier first. Find out whether extended licensing is offered and make sure that your particular application is covered. Extended licensing is generally much more expensive than standard licensing. Most stock photography agencies offer extended usage rights at a premium of an additional $50 to $125 or more per licensed image. When comparing pricing and terms of use, MediaFocus.com stands out in the crowd of image suppliers. Here extended licenses are offered for image subscriptions as well as for image CD collections bringing down per image costs to as low as $3.32 for a web image and $4.65 for full page size, high resolution image. As an additional bonus, all single images licensed at MediaFocus.com already come with extended usage rights included at no extra charge. In comparison, at istockphoto.com, one of the largest suppliers of royalty free stock, an extended license can be obtained for an additional 125 credits per image. 123rf.com offers extended licensing from 50 to 100 credits per image, and the subscription based supplier shutterstock.com allows enhanced licensing downloads starting at 2 subscription downloads for $199.00.
Using royalty-free images for advertising, design, and products for resale is a cost-effective way to produce appealing and great looking projects. Compare licensing details and costs before making your purchasing decision, and make sure you understand all usage restrictions. Find a stock photography supplier where the licensing terms cover your particular application to protect yourself, your company, and your client.
Written by Scarlet Strapko, photos by sxc.hu.
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July 21, 2009 at 5:18 am
Muy buen blog de diseño! great blog! thanks from Argentina.
August 5, 2009 at 12:44 pm
really useful post, thanks
when reading some of the agreements from places such as istock, there seems to be a very fine line as to how the image can and cannot be used. When I am using stock images on a clients website, I transfer the licence over to them and never reuse the image anywhere else. So this then means that the client has purchased the image for their website and for their own personal or business use.
August 25, 2009 at 3:19 pm
charming post. simply one unimportant where I bicker with it. I am emailing you in detail.