Royalty Free Vs. Rights Managed - Stock Photography Licenses Explained

Whether you are looking to sell or buy stock photos it is essential you understand the types of photo licenses!

In general photography licensing determines how stock photo buyers are allowed to use photos.

The most common types of licensing are "royalty free" and "rights managed."

Royalty free images are purchased for a flat rate (usually low cost) and the buyer has unlimited use of the image (the keyword there is "use" - as a buyer you don't have the right to turn around and sell a royalty free image).

More rigid than royalty free licensing, rights managed images require the image be purchased every time it will be used, though the buyer gets exclusive use of the image for a specified time period.

There are a wide variety of restrictions which accompany rights managed stock photos including:

- Photographs with models can't be used in any way which would make it look like they were endorsing a product/business, nor in any potentially offensive way without prior consent from the model.

- The images can't be used (in any part) of a logo, trademark, etc.

- Rights to the photo cannot be distributed, transferred, or sublicensed.

The restrictions above are just some of the general restrictions, and every stock photography agency has their own restrictions to add.

Which is better?

Deciding which type of licensing to purchase should be based on the project needs. You may remember the very embarrassing "duplicate photo" marketing campaigns that Gateway and Dell experienced when they both launched a "back to school" campaigns featuring the exact same smiling, female student.

If you are on a budget, royalty free stock photos will usually work well for your project needs. If you're a blogger, in most cases (unless you work for Dell or Gateway) royalty free photos will work fine for your needs.

Rights managed images can be expensive, and aren't feasible for most people's needs. As you can see from just the few examples of restrictions, you need to make sure you know ALL the regulations associated with any rights managed photo you purchase or you could cause yourself (and your clients/employer) a variety of legal issues and negative branding.

With the advent of microstock websites popping up all over the web, savvy stock photo buyers are going directly to professional stock photographers' websites for a variety of unique, royalty free stock photography for sale at reasonable rates. While big stock photo sites such as Shutterstock offer an enormous inventory of cheap images, you run the risk of buying a generic image that doesn't appeal to your audience because they've seen it already (numerous times). There are trends in the images needed, so it is likely many other buyers like/bought the same photo you did. More niche stock image sites can allow you to hand pick from a variety of unique, high quality, royalty free photos.

Wherever you decide to purchase your stock photos from, make sure you know if you are buying royalty free or rights managed images and the difference between those licenses!

Don't want to buy a generic stock photo from the sites everyone else goes to, but don't have the money for the exclusivity of rights managed images? http://www.RedPixelImages.com features unique, high quality, royalty free stock images from professional photographers. Even better, contact us with your specific stock photo needs and we'll share professional images which may not even be downloaded to the site yet, at royalty free prices (yes, we're weird like that - but as professional photographers who have had our images published world wide the photos that weren't chosen for feature articles are better than the majority of stock photos you'll see on the big stock sites, and it is fun side income for us). Visit RedPixelImages.com today!

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