Have you ever seen generic-looking photos on a website or promotional material? Maybe a scientist using a microscope for a research website, or your typical smiling businessman on the front of a corporate brochure? What you’re seeing is most likely a stock photo.
According to Wikipedia, “stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses”. In other words, stock photos are images and photos that can be purchased online to fulfill the needs of design projects for creative professionals. If you don’t have something to take a picture of, or if you don’t want to hire a photographer, stock images will be your most probably solution to tackling your dilemma. And it’s a great solution.
So, what’s so special about these stock photos? Aren’t they just normal images? Well, they are, but they are professional photographs of common places, landmarks, events, or even people that are available on an online database and sold on a royalty-free basis after purchasing a license. These licenses can be sold to be used on a personal basis, or on a commercial basis (usually more expensive depending on how often and in what manner you are using the stock image).
There are actually three classes of stock photography. The first is macrostock, which is expensive and exclusive stock photography. The second is midstock, and the third is microstock, which is cheaper and the more common type of stock photography available in online databases.
A lot of stock images are royalty-free (RF), which refers to the right to use copyrighted material of intellectual property without the need to pay a royalty for every time you use the image. When you go on stock image databases, you can purchase a royalty-free license, download the image, and use that image as many times as you want under the conditions stated in the license.
If you’re ever in need of stock photos, check out www.123RF.com, www.gettyimages.ca, www.shutterstock.com, and www.istockphoto.com for popular examples of stock photo databases.
