What is Stock Photography - The Business of Photography by Brad Rickerby

Stock photography is a great way to make money by creating photographs.  If you are successful in stock photography you will be able to create wonderful images, travel to beautiful places and have the freedom to create your own schedule, working the hours you want to work.

The industry is extremely competitive now, much much more so than when I started back in the mid 1990's. There are many who will tell you that it is impossible to make a living through stock photo sales. To be sure, it will take drive and determination, but there are plenty of people who make very comfortable livings with their cameras in the field of stock photography.

So what is this great thing called stock photography? Very simply put, you create a beautiful, flawless image. That image gets put on file either in your own file or in the file of a stock photo agency. Buyers then come to either you or the stock photo agency looking for images that will meet their current project needs. When the image you created best meets the needs of a photo buyer, that photo buyer will license, for a fee, the use of that photograph. What could be simpler, right?

To the right are three images that I created while traveling to create images. The first is from Shanghai, China, the second, from Miami Beach, USA and the last from Beijing, China. Each of these images were put in the files of my stock agency, Getty Images, and later used by three different publishers.

Book publishers are not the only ones licensing images. Magazines use stock images all the time, as do web sites, corporations, ad agencies, newspaper, record labels and just about any one else who has a reason to use a photograph.  For example, the top image, taken on Nanjing Road in Shanghai China was also used by a retailer of Chinese language instruction programs. In fact, each of the images you see here has been licensed multiple times and I have been paid for each license.

It is the ability to have your images licensed and then re-licensed that makes stock photography so wonderful. While you sit at home with your family, images in your stock file from last week or from eight years ago can be being licensed for use over and over and over again.

In theory, so long as you continue to update your stock file, and with all other things being equal, your income will continue to grow. And keep in mind that updating your file is not work, it is fun. It is being creative and doing what you love.

Such a simplified explanation as this begs hundreds of other questions. Questions such as, Who are the different stock photo agencies, what makes them different from one another, how do I get to work with them and how much do they charge (and they all charge in one way or another)?

More, What is licensing, what types of licenses are sold, what type is best for me and the style of my work and how does the license type effect my income?

And still more, What type of image sells best, what makes a sellable stock photograph and what kinds of images are agencies more apt to accept? Along the same lines, What are the technical specifications of an acceptable photograph.

Also, How do you find models and photo locations? Do I need to use models? What is a model release?

These are all legitimate and important questions. And I can think of about a hundred more questions the answers to which, are vital to your success as a stock photographer.

I will be posting on these questions and many more. Indeed, I would love to post on your questions. Please feel free to ask questions either in the comments section or by emailing me.

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