Homework 13

1. Read the wikipedia article about stock photography, then discuss the difference between "royalty free," "rights managed" and "microstock."
2. What are the three largest professional stock agencies? Register at each of these sites (free) and download a free non-watermarked "comp" image; attach the images to your post
3. Compare the quality and prices of professional stock images vs. micropayment stock. Which site(s) are your favorites?
4. Write a brief review of your favorite stock photo agency: discuss price, quality of images, search engine features, etc. (be sure make comparisons to the big three)
5. Extra credit: Find a quality stock library not linked to our delicious page? Add a link to your post (no "micropayment" sites, please)
6. Update your blog for the week and post a link to your blog (target=new window); review your team member's blogs (optional: post comments on their blogs)

1. Royalty-Free means that you don't have to pay each time you use the image, but it doesn't mean its free to use however you want without a license. royalty free means you can pay a one time fee and then use the photo many times, but its limited. It does not give you exclusive rights to the image, there is no time limit on when you must use the image, it usually has a limit on how many times you can reproduce it as well.

Rights-Managed means that the value of a license for it is determined by how the image is used, and broken down into very specific details of how it is used.

Microstock sites sell vector art, flash animation, and videos in addition to photography. microstock sites are a part of the stock photography industry, microstock sites source their images exclusively to the internet, they have a wider variety of images etc, and sell royalty free images at a lower rate.

2. Getty images, Corbis, and Photo Researchers.

3. It seems to me that professional stock images cost way more than micropayment stock images. I am a photographer, so I like to use my own images, but if I had to choose I would go with micropyament images because they are cheaper, I can take my own professional images.

4. I liked Corbis the most. It was a lot more easy to navigate through than the other sites. The pricing seemed like it had many different options to go through, and it was easier to understand than the other sites. The images were more unique and the quality seemed better than the other sites as well.