Stock Photography Part One

Murray Edwards asked:


What is stock photography? Simply put, it’s taking a group of images, placing them in a library in hopes that at sometime in the future, the image or many others will be purchased or licensed by someone. Here is your challenge as a photographer, what subject matter? Who knows? I’ve licensed images that I thought would never be of interest to anyone and ones I thought would have never been viewed or licensed.

Puzzling, my advice, you must have an intensive library or database of stock images on topics that you are familiar. My current library exceeds 60,000 of images of the Southern United States. After twenty years in the business, publications that I have worked with know that this is my specialty. I get emails almost daily from various publications seeking images of travel locations, events or the nature that call the south home.

What does this mean to you? Specialize, if you do not, you will get lost in the millions of other generic images that are found anywhere on the World Wide Web!

Here are a few more questions you will need to address. Are you going to shoot for the commercial, editorial marketplace or both? Do you plan to offer your images as Royalty-Free or Rights-Managed? How’s your workflow? How are you going to market?

Specialization – Is there a subject matter that you consider yourself an expert or that you have a good deal or knowledge? If so, then maybe this is the area that you should focus. Go to your local book store and scour through the magazines, check the ones that correspond with your interest. Can you provide the type of images found in the pages? If not, then work on your style or composition.

Commercial – If you plan to provide images for the commercial marketplace, then you be required to have the proper releases. Personal or property releases are necessity. Carry pocket releases with you. You can’t be bashful, you will find that most people, once you explain what you do for a living are more than willing to sign a release. To date, I have never had anyone refuse to sign one. You might offer them a copy of the picture as some form of compensation.

By the way public places are a sort of no man’s land. There is really no right to privacy while taking shots in a public location. Walking down a street, large public events, where the multitudes gather, fill free to shoot. But should you stop in front of a restaurant and take a photograph of the people sitting inside, then guess what, you will need a release.

Editorial – Since editorial images are basically used to tell a story, inform, used in textbooks and other publications of that nature, releases are seldom required. I’ve only had a couple of situations where a publication has asked for a release. 

Best advice, if you are out taking photographs have an understanding of who you plan to offer the image.