Stock photos

[mandy]

Hi everyone!
I have a question about stock photo licenses.

I am using my own photography for client's web and graphics design, but since it's rather limited I need to purchase more from stock photography sites.

I though of using istockphoto with their prices being low ($1 per 1 low resolution image for example). But after looking closer into their licenses, I found out that in order for me to resell web graphics to a customer if I used their phot, I'd have to pay over $75 per photo for proper resell license.

How can a designer justify a cost of the end product with such expensive licenses for stock photography??

Can some one please enlighten me where to get reasonable priced photography sources?

Thank you very much for your time and help!
mandy

[urstwile]

$75 is not a lot to pay. Have you checked out the prices on Getty? That should give you a clue as to what's out there. Getty is on the high end, a lot higher than $75.

I'm not clear on why you're considering these resells.

[mandy]

$75 for a low res. photo for 1 time use I consider very high!

How can you keep competitive prices for your designs with such high stock prices?

Maybe there are good collections on CD's out there somewhere?

[urstwile]

I edited your post to remove the pricing information, as we are not allowed to discuss pricing on this forum.

I'm afraid you're going to have a hard time finding quality photos in your price range.

[mandy]

Sorry about mentioning prices, I just meant as a very rough example...

But thank you for your replies and help!!

[urstwile]

This forum tends to be rather slow on the weekends. You might want to come back on Monday and bump your post so that others with more knowledge can chime in.

I'm not sure why you're considering the iStock photo purchases as reselling, unless you're providing the final photography files to the client? I haven't read into the finer print of iStock's EULA's.

I myself don't do a lot of photography purchasing, so I might not be the best source of knowledge.

[PrintDriver]

I use Getty images all the time. Mostly the "Royalty Free" images which can cost anywhere from $45 to $225. The Rights Managed ones are more expensive.

Corbis holds my all time record for high prices. I've paid them $750 per image per use a lot of times.

Everything is relative.

I also tend to shy away from Microstocks because I need a hard copy piece of paper most times that specifies the image I bought and that it was licensed. These point sites or subscription sites tend to be a little gray in that area.

Call iStock. They are really cool on the phone and very helpful. They may be able to tell you if what you are doing is really reselling or not. I do believe the EULA means for using as a web template, not a specific site. In fact it says a permitted use can be for a website at less than 800x600 pixels in size. You can't make a web template you would be reselling and you can't host the images on-line to re-license or resell.

You could rig your gig to be a purchasing agent for your client therefore you would not be reselling. I tend to work that way anyway so if the client decides to lift the image and do something else with it without relicensing, their name is on the agreement not mine. :D

[urstwile]

PD, you're precisely the person I was hoping would come along. Mandy, listen to PD, he knows of what he speaks. :)

[mandy]

Sure, I will check back later for more replies.

Here's what I found on iStock site:
"Allowed use:
For advertising and promotional projects, including printed materials, product packaging, presentations, film and video presentations, commercials, catalogues, brochures, promotional greeting cards and promotional postcards (ie. not for resale or license);

For prints, posters (i.e. a hardcopy) and other reproductions for personal use or promotional purposes specified in (1) above, but not for resale, license or other distribution; and any other uses approved in writing by iStockphoto. "

That's their standard license. For the projects with intent of resell you should use an extended license with much higher prices.

May be I misunderstood their policies....

[PrintDriver]

I wasn't really too clear about it.
The EULA on iStock allows web use to 800x600 pixels. I think they would kick if the designer buying the stock photo were to make several different sites for several different clients using the same image. It's one thing to be buying the images for 'personal' use (yours or your single client), it's quite another to buy once and resell over and over... You do have to by a resell license for that, I believe. Doesn't hurt to call.

Also, as far as justifying the cost? That can be difficult. Especially for a website where just about any microstock photo will work as far as resolution goes. I'm a little more leery of micros because people tend to hide behind screen names and there is always that little bit of uncertainty whether it is really their photo. That, and model/property releases are hard to come by. That is why I stick to the bigger sites. The smaller ones are coming around to the release end of things and are taking a tighter rein on the photogs who post. Some of them...

Larger format stuff, even something as small as a magazine spread requires resolutions that knock a lot of the Micro digital stock off the map. Resolution is a good selling point for cost when going larger. But like I said, with a website it is really hard to justify unless you are going for that one-of-a-kind image. There are some things, especially historical images that may only exist on the high-cost sites. While I give major kudos for Corbis rescuing old archives and photo libraries like the Bettman Archives, I gotta say I don't like paying their fees on images that used to be the $30 cost of a print.

[PrintDriver]

You are taking things out of context.
Here are the Standards allowed and Prohibited:
http://www.istockphoto.com/license.php

There is a really big difference between Section 3C3 and Section 4A1,2,3.

You can display the image on a single website at 800x600 or under. You can't use it in multiple websites for multiple clients (falls under the Template rules). You can't offer it for a pay on demand promotional print, poster, etc (ie you can't put it on a site offering resale of the image printed on other things) but you can use it for promotional or resell items of a limited run as described in 3C1. You can't offer it on a 'build your own ___' site or any kind of template driven site.

If in doubt. Call.

[mandy]

PrintDriver, your replies were very very helpful. I emailed them about that a while ago, but did not get an answer yet. I will call them for sure on Monday!! Again, thank you very much for your time and help!!

[budafist]

Purchasing an piece of royalty free stock photography for use on 1 client's design is not called reselling. You shoud be ok.

Purchasing a piece of royalty free stock photography and selling on your website in the form of posters or webdesign templates is called reselling.

[jamodu]

Getty IS expensive, but compare the content to the cheaper sites and you see why - you really do get what you pay for. To justify the costs to a client, try to put across how much that gorgeous image would cost to take the models, photographer, art director, makeup artists, lighting tech, equipment etc on location - it suddenly seems like quite a cost effective option to purchase from Getty. Obviously there will always be client's who are tighter than a gnat's chuff so have a look at some of these...

www.stockxpert.com
www.sxc.hu (free)
www.dreamstime.com
www.istockphoto.com
http://www.jupiterimages.com
www.photos.com

If you're planning to source lots of images it might be wise to signup for a year's membership where you can download to your heart's content. :)

[PrintDriver]

I've actually seen poor images on Getty. Some that photographers thought adding noise or grain would be artistic. You can't really see it in the thumbs but when you get the larger res image it can be very disappointing.

As far as the subscription/unlimited download sites go, do your homework. There are cases in the printing industry where you will need an actual release for each image you use. Model and Property releases are hard to come by too.
CYA.