Stock photography
Stock Photography is an area of photography in which images on stock ( "to have in stock " - " in store " ) are produced. The opposite of photography is therefore the assignment photography.
The pre-produced recordings are usually distributed and sold through stock agencies.
Species
There are usually two main ways how stock photos are sold:
- As a royalty-free image ( "RF", "royalty free ", " Royalty-free " )
- As a rights-managed image ( "RM ", " rights managed ", " Rights " )
In a rights- recording the price is according to the type of use ( book, magazine, advertising, catalogs, ...), the condition that the area of distribution, among other things determined. In a license-free recording the price is usually set only on the size of the image and the image, the customer may then, sometimes with use restrictions, unlimited.
History
One of the first major photo agencies for Stock Photography was founded in 1920 by H. Armstrong Roberts and is now known under the name of Robert floor. While earlier Stock Photographs were mainly by-products of paid commercial work, since circa 1980 began individual photographers to specialize in the supply of photo agencies. Today, there are photographers or photo producers who work mainly in the production of image series for the Stock Photography.
In the 1990s, a wave of acquisitions of various stock agencies, which led to the emergence formed three major photo agencies began:
From about 2000, several new agencies began to use only the Internet as a distribution platform, and the images much cheaper to sell. These agencies such as iStockphoto or Fotolia are called in the industry " microstock agencies " and sell images for up to ten Euros. " Midstock agencies" sell recordings for about 10-100 euros, while the prices of macro stock agencies from around 100 euros are up.