Prior to the rise of the internet and the development of digital photography in the 1990s, if you were a company or organization wanting to use high-quality photographs in your marketing materials your options were: 1) hire a professional photographer to shoot specific images for you; 2) license photos from a stock photo agency. Neither of these options were inexpensive. In the case of a professional photographer, in addition to fees charged for taking the photos, there would be fees for film development and processing. Licensing terms (how, when, where the photos could be used) might include additional fees if an image was used more than once or on a repeated basis. For stock photo agencies, licensing fees were predicated on when, where the photo would be used and how many impressions it potentially could receive. For example, the fee for a photo to be used in a magazine advertisement would be based on how many magazines were to be printed and where the magazines were to be distributed. These fees could easily reach several thousand dollars for a single image and typically only covered a one-time usage. Each repeated use of the image would generate additional fees.
Royalty-Free Stock Photography
While digital photography eliminated the need for processing and developing, each subsequent advancement in the technology increased not only the quality of images, but the quantity of such images. The concurrent development of the internet then made it possible to easily access and distribute the images. Thus, with supply overwhelming demand, the cost of stock photography dropped drastically. To maintain some form of profitability, stock photo agencies began offering royalty-free licensing options for their catalogs of photos, illustrations, videos, and clip art. In essence, a royalty-free image can be purchased for a flat fee — typically, anywhere from $5 – $20 per image — and used widely and repeatedly without incurring any additional charges or fees. However, some restrictions may apply and each stock agency provides guidelines on how their images can be used.
Free Stock Photography
In addition to royalty-free stock photography, there are now online stock photo agencies/services offering images for free. While the free images are not necessarily lacking in quality, they’re not usually applicable or geared for commercial usage. The free images are usually offered as an enticement to explore the agency’s collection of royalty-free images.
If you have any questions about these Stock Photography, give us a call at 330-597-8560. We’re happy to help you get the most out of your printing project.
Photo by Amador Loureiro.
