Saving Money on Stock Photo Agencies

Understand stock photography contracts and save a bundle

There are many ways of saving money on stock photo agency products. Stock images can be costly, running into thousands of dollars for a single image. Unless your circumstances are unusual, there's no reason your business needs to spend that much on stock photo services. Before you can cut costs, you must know what you will use the image for and whether or not you require exclusive use of it.

Once you've determined these things, consider the following:

1. Do you really need to pay a membership fee for the use of a stock image agency?

2. How exclusive does the photography agency image need to be?

3. Is it appropriate to use free or nearly free services from a stock photography agency?

 

Avoid stock photo service membership fees

Some stock photography agencies charge a monthly or yearly fee for the privilege of browsing through their images, then charge additional fees for the actual use of their photographs. There's little reason to pay for "membership" to a stock photo site, however, since there are hundreds of sites that allow you to browse their photos for free. An exception may be an agency that allows you to download a certain number of images per year for free if you pay for membership -- but be sure the membership fee isn't higher than the cost of paying for individual images elsewhere.
Try: TamingTheBeast.net offers advice on using stock photographs and finding membership-free sources. Scroll down to "Cutting the costs of stock photography" for more information. WebPlaces.com provides a short list of stock photo agencies that don't charge membership fees.

Limit the use of "limited use" photography agencies

Stock photos listed as "rights-managed" may be purchased with a level of exclusivity. For example, a corporation might buy 100 percent exclusive rights to use a photo, or a book publisher might buy the right to be the only book publisher using the image. Unless you really need such an agreement, you'll save a bundle by avoiding rights-managed photos.
Try: StockPhotography.com explains the difference between rights-managed images and royalty-free images. Click on the links (for example, "The Basics" or "Definitions") for detailed information. For information about when it is and is not appropriate to use rights-managed images, see the American Society of Media Photographers' website.

Use stock image agencies' free or royalty-free products

Truly free photos (often called "public domain" photos) are available on the Internet. You may generally use them any way you like and you don't need to pay for them. For a greater variety of images (and sometimes higher quality images), try royalty-free photos. For these, you pay a small fee (often a few dollars) and may use the image nearly any way you like. Each stock photo agency has different terms, so read them carefully before buying and using images.
Try: First Point Marketing explains exactly what royalty-free photographs are. For a list of online stock photo agencies, including those with royalty-free images, see Photo Secrets.

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