Articles
Everything You Need to Know About Stock Photography
By Cyndi Nguyen
A picture is worth a thousand words or $149.99
Photography is a critical ingredient that can make or break a design project. While some companies have the time and budget to set-up photo shoots to produce completely original shots, the rest of us rely on stock photography. There are 2 basic types of stock photos that you should know about:
Royalty-free photography – Unfortunately, royalty-free does not mean free, but what it does mean is that you can purchase and use these photos for as long and as often as you like without having to pay on-going royalties. For a one-time charge between $50-500 dollars (depending on resolution), you can obtain the rights to use this type of photo for as many design projects as you need.
Rights-Managed photography – Rights-managed photography is usually controlled by the photography house or photographer and must be licensed per use, which will require you to renew your license if you do another print run or keep a photo on your website beyond a predetermined amount of time. These photos tend to of higher quality and style than their royalty-free counterparts. While often not the best option for websites, rights-managed photos can bring a more original and high-end look to your design pieces.
Here are some other helpful tips when evaluating photography:
1. Think ahead. Are you purchasing an image only for your website? If there is a chance you may want to re-use an image for a print ad or brochure, be sure to obtain the high resolution version (usually 300 dpi). Web browsers only require photos that are 72 dpi, which are usually significantly cheaper, but may require you to spend more money if you want to use it for print. You can always scale something down in resolution, but not the opposite.
2. Keep a consistent style. Your designer will help you select photos that work best for your project, but if you’re purchasing photos yourself, select photos that are of a consistent style, lighting, and theme. You want to avoid mismatched look on your website, which may hurt the credibility of your presentation. One way to make this easier is if you find a photo whose style you like, do a search on the photographer’s name and that will likely pull up related photos shot at the same time.
3. Buy in bulk. Many royalty-free photo sites offer CD collections of 50-200 photos in a similar theme. These are a great way to save money (they usually run $300-$800 per CD, compared to $50-$400 per photo if purchased individually, AND you get the high-resolution versions) and save you time in having to seek out individual shots since they are already grouped by theme. Better still, they help solve the “mismatch style” problem from Tip #2.
4. Go for homepage glamour. If you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford to buy individual shots for each page of your website, consider paying more money for the perfect homepage shot and using your designer’s stock collection for the rest of your website. The first impression is what counts the most and is definitely an area where you shouldn’t skimp.
At Gravitate, we subscribe to photo services so that we can offer our customers quality, stock photography as part of their web or print project. Oftentimes, we turn to outside stock collections to locate that perfect photo or illustration.
