When looking for specific stock
photography images for a project, it’s important to note what
type of image you are going to use. Most stock photography sites will
have a few different types of stock photography
images for usage. The three main types of stock photography images
are released images, rights-managed images and royalty free images.
Here are a few guidelines to help you decide which type of stock photography
image is right for your project:
Released Stock Images
Released stock images include model released and property released stock
images. These are images for which the models or the owner of the property
in the image have signed releases for, therefore making the images available
for licensing through the stock photography
company. It is important to make sure that the stock images you
pick out for your project are released images or you will have to try
to obtain the releases on your own.
Rights-Managed Stock Images
Rights-managed stock images are images for which you need to pay for
every usage of the image for a set period of time. For example, if you
want to use the stock image in a print advertisement campaign and a
printed brochure, that would be two usages. You will need to estimate
the audience size for each advertisement. For the print advertisement,
calculate the circulation of each insertion as the audience size. For
the printed brochure, use the print run as the audience size. Most stock
agencies have a default licensing period of six months to one year,
but there are other options usually available. Be sure to mark your
calendar for a few weeks before the stock image license expires so that
you have time to remind your client and arrange for a renewal or to
ensure that the marketing materials containing the images have been
discontinued.
With rights-managed images, you can often arrange for exclusive use
of the stock images during the licensing period. This means that competitors
won’t be able to use the same stock image in their marketing materials
or that the stock image won’t become over used and/or become less
effective in your marketing
materials.
Royalty-Free Images
Royalty-free stock images are licensed for an indefinite period of time
for as many marketing pieces as desired; they don’t have a per
usage charge. Royalty-free stock images are licensed instead of purchased
because they can still be used by others. By licensing the stock images
you agree not to resell them. An added bonus of royalty-free stock images
is that they are released images, so you already know that all the releases
have been handled.
