The Rights Managed Stock Photography Model - The Business of Photography by Brad Rickerby

If you have just read my blog post on Stock Photography Then you are no doubt anxious to head off and look for a stock photo agent to market your images. I would urge you, however, to stick around and go over some of the options you will have in that search so that you can better maximize your revenue. A little more knowledge here is a lot more power.

It is important to know how a stock agency will license your image. Not as in how they will market or sell your image, but rather, as in what usage rights will be given and for what fee with each license model. There are basically two license models, Rights Managed (RM) and Royalty Free (RF). Today we are going to take on RM.

Please remember that when your stock photo agent makes a sale for you, they are not actually selling your image. What they are doing is licensing the use of your image. This is the way Bill Gates (of Microsoft) got rich. When you buy a Windows computer you are not actually buying the Windows software it comes with. Rather you are paying to use that software. Microsoft owns it, you pay to use it.

It is the same with your images. You retain ownership at all times (if someone wants to structure a deal with you where you give up ownership, walk away), and people pay you for the right to use the image. Which is great, because you can resell the same image over and over and over again.

The RM license model was the only license model available from the beginning of stock photography until just a few years ago.  The RM model manages the image on a license by license basis, so that in theory, you know exactly who has used the image and for what. The license for the image will specify the number of times it can be used (usually one), where it will be used, the size of use, the industry it will be used in (trucking, banking, entertainment, etc), the purpose of its use (whether editorial, advertising or something else) and a number of other particulars.

The fee for the license is based on these factors. Advertising use, for example, will fetch a higher fee than will editorial. All other things being equal, the larger in size or the greater the size of the print run, the higher the fee will be. And so on for many other factors.

Keeping track of who used each image and for what purpose is important for the user of the image. Careful tracking assures that there will be no conflicts in usage from one users to the next. Thus, an image can be used for advertising, say, a bank, with confidence that no other bank has used the same image.

RM licenses almost always used to have higher fees than RF licenses. These days, with special incentives to preferred clients, RM licenses may in fact have a lower fee than an RF license.

From the start of my career in stock photography until roughly 2002, my average RM license was about $1,000 USD with frequent spikes to $5,000 and $10,000. My highest license fee was $26,000. (Please keep in mind that this is the gross license fee and I split that fee with the stock agency.)

From 2002, RM license fees have steadily dropped.

In my next blog post I will cover RF licenses. You may wish to subscribe to my blog (the box on the upper right) to be sure not to miss that and other upcoming posts on the business of photography.

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.

You may also want to subscribe to my newsletter (where I will provide links to old posts in this series and titles of posts to come). Please use the box on the upper right of this page to subscribe.