Licensing photos is the livelihood of any thriving photography business. Profits generated from image licensing allow photographers to have control over the image and to retain intellectual property rights. A solid understanding of photography licensing is key to success as a photographer.

Photography licensing education and training courses provide the photographic license information you need to make wise decisions for your career and business. When you consider education and training for licensing photographs, you should:

1. Understand photo licensing background information to decide which types of licensing are right for your unique business needs.

2. Know how to determine photography license fees to ensure you make the profits you deserve.

3. Learn how to write a photography license to protect your intellectual property.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Understand photo licensing fundamentals through courses and online tools

A firm grasp of photo licensing information is essential to make the best image licensing agreements for your business. Take courses, attend seminars and use resources and publications to increase your knowledge of photography licensing.

I recommend: The American Society of Media Photographers offers courses that cover topics related to photo licensing. Join the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) to stay up-to-date on trends in licensing photos and for resources such as a photo license generator and a picture licensing glossary.

Educate yourself about determining photo licensing fees

Understand how to determine photographer licensing fees to ensure you receive the best price for your photographs and images. The size of the image, the circulation of the photo, the length of time the image is to be used are all important factors to determine a fair licensing fee.

I recommend: Take advantage of the licensing fee tools offered by Featurepics. Criteria such as the size of the image, the media it'll be used in and the length of time it's to be used are considered when a photo licensing fee is determined. Photographersindex.com offers a free stock photo licensing fee calculator. The calculator uses four basic criteria to offer a range of prices for specific types of photographs.

Learn about your rights as a photographer to help you write a photography license

A photography license is a legal, binding agreement between you and your client. Learn how to effectively write an image license to protect your intellectual property from unwarranted and illegal use.

I recommend: For a small fee, LawGuru Forms offers a photograph licensing form that you can use in your business. The form offers an in-depth explanation of each provision in the agreement to ensure you understand your rights as the photographer. Find photo licensing form models at docstoc.com that are specific to your unique needs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Hire an intellectual property lawyer to ensure your photography license is legal and binding.
• •  Update photography licensing fee agreements regularly to ensure your images are protected.

When you come across a photograph or graphic you want to use for your materials, be sure to obtain image licensing to avoid any copyright violations. Licensing photos is often more cost effective and definitely more convenient than creating customized ad creatives. One good source for images and photos is a stock photo site that provides its own photo licensing agreement. Most agreements grant nonexclusive, nontransferable right to copy, reproduce, transmit and display images as many times as you need for various media.

Many stock image agencies have millions of high-resolution jpegs and other types of image files for advertisements, brochures and other marketing materials, some of which are royalty-free. Many of these sites offer subscription service as well. Get great graphics and photos by doing the following:

1. Compare sites that provide photographic licensing from publishers offering hi-res photos and images to use in your marketing materials.

2. Consider royalty-free images as an alternative.

3. Subscribe to a photographic license site to get discounted prices on graphics.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get photography licensing from sites that offer stock photos for your marketing needs

Many stock image sites provide photography licensing from top stock image publishers. Find a site with an extensive library of rights-managed images so you have more options to choose from. Also consider photo galleries that might not have as many images but offer more customized shots.

I recommend: Fotosearch offers photographer licensing for thousands of stock photos provided by top stock image publishers. You have the option of signing an agreement with any publisher that lets you license images you can then change, manipulate or transmit. Note that many publishers will not allow you to sub-license the images. Individual photo galleries like Moore Photography & Design also offer stock images you can license.

Consider downloading royalty-free images as an alternative to getting a photography license

Find royalty-free images as an alternative to photo licensing. All you do is pay a flat fee, then download any image you can use for a lifetime.

I recommend: iStockphoto offers thousand of royalty-free photos, illustrations and flash you can download for as little as $1. Get lo-res, med-res and hi-res images, depending on your particular needs. Corbis offers featured collections of royalty-free images as well as royalty-free CDs.

Subscribe to a photographic license site for discounted rates

Subscriptions to stock image sites allow you several downloads per day or month for monthly or annual fees. Some offer licenses for more commercial uses and even some merchandising use.

I recommend: Shutterstock offers subscription rates for one month, three months, six months and a year. A subscription can save you hundreds of dollars for 25 downloads per day. The standard license provides limited merchandising, and an enhanced license allows unlimited merchandising use and high-viewership commercial uses. A subscription with Photos To Go gives you access to thousands of royalty-free images from around the world, although all of the images are 2MB.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you just need a generic photo for very limited use, browse sites that offer free stock images online instead of paying a fee.

A photography license is a vital legal document used to protect photographs in the commercial, editorial and retail industries. As pieces of intellectual property, photographs are legally protected if a photography license is maintained.

From copyrighted stock photos to personal photographs, licensing fees vary based on copyright and exclusivity rights. As you prepare to license your photos, familiarize yourself with these key terms.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Intellectual property

Intellectual property consists of material and non-material creations that originate from ideas. From photography and music to inventions and methodologies, intellectual property is protected under the law in the form of patents, trademarks and copyrights.

I recommend: The World Intellectual Property Organization offers extensive insight into intellectual property and a handbook that you can download for free.

Copyright

A copyright is a legal way a person can protect intellectual property such as a photograph. A copyright on a photograph or series of images allows the owner of the photographs the right to use the images as he deems fit. The owner can create terms of use for the photographs and set fees for use by others.

I recommend: The Copyright Office of the United States offers in-depth information on copyright laws and how to copyright intellectual property.

Stock photographs

Stock photographs are generic, general images that appeal to a wide range of industries. Stock photo fees depend on how the image is used and the time frame in which the image is used. Usually, a one-time fee is charged for stock photograph use, although many stock photographs are free of charge with proper citation.

I recommend: Natural Art Images delves further into general and specific terms related to stock photography.

Exclusivity

In photography licensing, exclusivity is a clause within an image license that gives one party sole rights to use an image so that competitors are excluded from its use.

I recommend: TobinPhoto.com offers an in-depth look at exclusivity in photography licensing.

Rights-managed photography

A rights-managed photograph, usually a stock photograph, is a piece of intellectual property in which the image usage fee is calculated based on the specific use of the photograph. A higher fee is charged for rights-managed photographs and is calculated based on the type of media in which the image is used, the length of time the photograph is needed and how widespread the image will be.

I recommend: PhotoShelter offers an overview of rights-managed photography with examples of rights-managed photography scenarios.

Royalty-free

A royalty-free clause is written into a licensing agreement to allow images to be used multiple times based on a one-time fee.

I recommend: PunchStock further explains how to use royalty-free photography to your benefit.