Who uses Stock Photography

In today’s fast moving world, no one has the time to wait for a photographer, choose the right location, get models, pay them a high price and also wait for months to have a campaign or advertisement start. Most of the companies use Stock Photography Sites to find photos as per their needs and start with the campaign. This works much faster and also saves a huge amount.

But what companies use Stock Photos? Not all companies use Stock Photos. There are specific companies who increase the bar of Stock Photos by buying them, either through Micro Stock Photography Sites or Stock Photography Sites.

Advertising Agencies use stock photography in national consumer ads, which appear in publications circulated among the general public and trade ads, which appear in publications directed at a particular industry. Advertising agencies need to have multiple print runs and therefore, the license they choose for Rights – Managed License. This helps them having a large amount of print run.

Corporations are also the ones who need Stock Photos. They are very particular about what they select as these will be published and sent to their shareholders and Board of Directors. Any wrong photo can hamper the image at large. Corporations use images in creating their annual reports, in brochures, and in internal magazines.

The Editorial Market is probably the biggest and most diverse group of clients, ranging from top magazines such as National Geographic and Sports Illustrated to the thousands of smaller publishing houses which produce regional and special interest magazines. It also includes the publishers of trade books, textbooks, and newspapers. Top houses are ones who usually prefer buying staff photographers, whereas,  the smaller operations are continually revising, updating, and putting together new layouts, new issues, new editions, new publication projects, and new or updated CD-ROMS and Web sites. These projects are largely filled using stock images, licensed with both royalty-free and rights managed contracts. These licenses help them having the benefit of having print runs and less payment.

Last, but not least, there are hundreds of Auxiliary Markets, which use stock photography for any number of purposes, such as in creating calendars, greeting cards, checkbooks, and T-shirts.

There was a time, where Stock Photography was a small industry and not many people preferred buying Stock Photos. Also, there was a time when professional photographers, advertisers and commercial publishers disregarded Stock Photography as a market. But today, everyone who wants to buy photos, are on Stock Photography Sites like Getty Images, Istock, ShutterStock etc.

If today Stock Photography is in market, it is entirely due to the internet that is growing and the various new technologies are coming up every day.

While using a stock image may seem at first to dampen the creative spirit. But, what you get is, the image is ready to be reviewed and used. In addition to this, the quality of images in recent years has increased as professional photographers have embraced the industry. For these reasons, stock photography is an attractive option to photo buyers in any field where an image is needed.