- Use high-quality images.
- Avoid using blurred or pixelated images.
- Use photos that are relevant to your content.
- Modify the images when necessary and allowed.
- Use stock photos that are relatable to your target audience.
Can you freely use stock images?
But are stock images free to use? A big and resounding NO. The photographer or author of a stock photo makes it available for licensing, meaning you can pay a fee to get the right to use it in your designs legally.
How can I legally use stock photos?
In order to legally use stock in your advertising, marketing materials, presentation, product, or really anything intended to generate revenue for your business, you need to make sure it is licensed it for commercial use by the original copyright owner or a distributor who has the right to grant a license on behalf of ...
Can you use stock images on merchandise?
To use a stock photo, you must purchase an editorial-only license, a commercial license, or if the photo is only for personal use, a retail license. The license may be Royalty Free, RM or Commissioned.
Why you shouldn't use stock images?
Corporate Stock Images Can Look Contrived and Unnatural Corporate images in particular can look very unconvincing if used to promote a business. As such images are composed to be as widely used as possible, they often have an unnatural feel. The above image showcases what is possible using a professional photographer.
Can I edit stock photos and sell them?
The most useful answer to whether or not you can edit a stock photo is – most of the time. This means, in general, most stock photo agencies, including Stock Photo Secrets, allow you to alter or do professional photo retouching to your downloaded, and fully licensed stock images.
Can I put stock photos on my website?
Stock photos for commercial use can be placed on websites and in marketing materials and editorial work – in fact, some stock photos can be used only for editorial purposes. The only real limit is that they cannot be used in materials related to illegal or morally sensitive areas, nor can they be resold or distributed.
Can I legally use Shutterstock images?
A Standard License lets you use Shutterstock images: On websites, online advertising, social media, mobile advertising, mobile apps, software, e-cards, e-books, email marketing, and other online media, with no limit on viewers or distribution.
Why use stock photos?
Using stock photos to drive user engagement. Based on the stats that people are more drawn to online posts that have visual content, more and more organizations are using stock photos to drive engagement . The problem with this is that some stock images used are generic and have nothing to do with the story.
What is stock photography?
Stock photography, in general, is an archive of ready-made photos which can be licensed commercially. Getting online images from a stock photo agency is one of the best ways to legally use photos for your project. All the more when they have great potential to be high-converting images.
What is fair use in copyright?
Coming from the US copyright law, the term “Fair Use” means that brief excerpts of copyrighted materials may be quoted verbatim, under certain circumstances, for purposes such as in a parody, new technologies, commentary, criticism, and other transformative uses, without payment or implied permission from the copyright holder (creator).
What is editorial use license?
Editorial use license allows the image to be used only to illustrate a point in an article and not for selling. On the contrary, in a commercial use license, the image is used to sell something.
Can you access millions of photos on Google?
Sourcing visual content, with the help of the internet, should be super-easy with just the click of a button. You can easily access and download millions of photos and videos on Google. But just like many things in life, rules have been put in place to control the procurement of content.
Does stock photography hurt your brand?
Using stock photos won't hurt your brand's image providing that it works for you. When using stock photos, it is important to note that the image should match your content and be relevant to your business, or appeals to your target audience.
Who is involved in stock photography?
In stock photography, there are usually two participants involved: the consumer and the photographer. You (the consumer) do the browsing and downloading of the images, while the photographer (image creator) submits and gets paid a percentage once their photos get licensed and downloaded.
What is royalty free license?
Royalty-Free. The benefits of choosing a Royalty-Free license is that it allows the licensee (you) unlimited and multiple uses of an asset, with restrictions depending on the licensing agreement you pay for. This is assuming that you're being compliant with the number of users accessing the file to create the project.
What is a licensee fee?
The licensee pays a fee in order to use the asset, and the fee is based on usage. For instance, an image can be used as a print ad, billboard or printed on a tee shirt, but the licensee agrees to pay for the intended use. In this scenario, the licensee also has the ability to pay for exclusive rights for the asset so that no one else has access to those files.
What is a standard license agreement?
A standard licensing agreement allows for a single user to access and use the file that you license. This is why it's critical that you're aware of where you're licensing your files and what their licenses allow.
Why is a photographer's license non-exclusive?
However, this is why the license is non-exclusive. The photographer is able to disperse the cost of creating the file over several licensees in order to recover their investment. This is why content creators are extremely protective of their rights.
Why is compliance important?
Compliance makes sure that your hard-earned money stays in your pocket, or better yet reinvested, not squandered in an avoidable legal dispute. As companies spend more and more time creating content-marketing strategies to reach their customers, sourcing the assets they use becomes more and more important. It's easy to think that stock assets would ...
Can you use a creative team for more than one person?
If your creative team is larger than one person, you'll need to buy the right licensing agreement. At the very basic level, most licenses allow you to pay a one-time license for perpetual use of the assets you're licensing, be it a photo, video or a template. This is a non-exclusive contract.
Do I need an extended license to redistribute?
Then, you'll probably need an extended license to do so. Redistribution: You are not allowed to resell, redistribute the product without authorization. If you want to do so, you'll need an extended license or you'll need to pay a premium depending on where you choose to license your assets.
The stock images conundrum
Stock photography is basically a vast library of public domain images that come with varying licenses. It’s been around for a long time, a very long time. Ages before Instagram or Google ads were even a thing.
Unstock your images
Now that you know how to pick the right image, you’re one step towards creating a more authentic design output with the help of stock images.
Authenticity
When it comes to stock images, authenticity matters. You want people to think that you did all of this hard work yourself when in reality, the only thing you really did was find a good photo in the stock library!
Whimsy is the new cool
It is not enough for this image to make sense; it also has to be appealing. You don't have to create the best image in the world at this point. What you need to do is to be engaging.
You're building an experience not a product
In corporate talk, the phrase 'build an experience, not a product' gets bandied around quite often. Building an experience is more intangible than building a product. Most of what we do with design falls into the category of ' experiences .'
Avoid getting sued
We’re serious. There is a very high possibility of getting sued, if you are careless with how you use stock images in your design. When it comes to stock photography, it’s very important that you play by the rules. Once you’ve bumped into the photo that’s perfect for your design, make sure that you thoroughly check the copyright and the compliance.
Make stock photos work with Picmaker
The world is visual. The internet is visual. So it's no surprise that visual content is taking the world by storm, turning Instagram users into celebrities and letting us all share and celebrate our stories and journeys in ways we never could before.
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Adobe Stock’s filters and features help you to find content easier and faster.
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Royalty-Free vs. Rights-Managed
Royalty-Free
- The benefits of choosing a Royalty-Free license is that it allows the licensee (you) unlimited and multiple uses of an asset, with restrictions depending on the licensing agreement you pay for. This is assuming that you're being compliant with the number of users accessing the file to create the project. If your creative team is larger than one person, you'll need to buy the right licensing a…
Rights-Managed
- The licensee pays a fee in order to use the asset, and the fee is based on usage. For instance, an image can be used as a print ad, billboard or printed on a tee shirt, but the licensee agrees to pay for the intended use. In this scenario, the licensee also has the ability to pay for exclusive rights for the asset so that no one else has access to ...
Why Stock Isn't Always The Cheaper option.
- It's important to look at content creation like any other product. Whether it be photo, video or a graphic; marketing template, content creators are selling a product. With every asset produced, there's still a combination of time, equipment, production and uniqueness that goes into every single file. Even if you choose to avoid hiring a photographer yourself and choose to use a stock …
Factors That Contribute to pricing.
- Pricing for the asset you choose will vary depending on the quality of the asset, the type of asset you're licensing and where that license will be used. Pricing can also vary wildly depending on where you're sourcing your asset from. For example, the pricing on Shutterstock, Adobe Stock and Getty Images can vary from site to site, but you'll want to be sure that the licensing agreements …
Selecting The Right License For you.
- In order to make it easier for the consumer market, stock agencies have divided their licensing into separate categories -- Standard and Extended. Which license you choose is determinant on what you need the assets for. Every stock agency will have different terms with regards to personal use vs. commercial use that describe the number of projects you're able to use the ass…
Professional, Team and Enterprise Packages
- In the event, you're going to regularly be buying and licensing stock images consider investing in a professional, team or enterprise package -- they may provide you with the valuable coverage that you're looking for. For example, Adobe Stock and Getty images both offer flexible plans that include unlimited print runs, users, sharing and indemnification for their enterprise contracts. Th…