“Stock photography” is one of the most cost effective ways of using high quality, low circulation art work for your advertising needs. However many people have asked how stock photography agencies reach their quotes. Stock photography pricing is based on “one-time, non-exclusive usage rights” with the final price based on the “value” of the image to the client. A simple one page license is constructed for each usage, or multiple specific uses, and specifies how the image will be used. For example – If you want to use an image for a local area, low circulation, full page advertisement, a license would cost less than if the image was used for a full page ad in a national publication such as Time Magazine. The same holds true for brochures, catalogs, etc. – licensing an image for printing 100,000 catalogs would cost more than printing 5,000 (though the cost each drops as print quantities increase). See links below for industry sample pricing.
License fees are based on these “traditional” stock photo guidelines. I’ll be happy to work with you for multiple inserts, multiple uses, etc., where “quantity” discounts might apply. If you want to license an image for unspecified multiple uses please don’t be offended if you’re asked about your company and market size. The intent is not to charge larger companies more, its an attempt to judge the value of the usage to you, the client. If a small local company that wants unlimited one year usage rights for an image they would naturally benefit far less (monetarily) than a large multi-national company also requesting “unlimited one year usage” rights, thus the fee they pay would be less. If a “large” company wishes to license an image for unspecified uses but to a very limited product market the fee might equal that of the small company because they would be reaching a similar number of potential customers. But it is usually preferable to specify the exact uses when possible (rather than “unlimited” usage), multi-use discounts will often bring the price down lower than unlimited usage rights. We use publicly available references for reaching a quote.
All images are available in high resolution digital scans in the format of your choice.
When requesting a license fee quote please specify in detail how the photos will be used. The end result will be a simple one page license agreement (basically a very simple one page contract) that specifies the usage, the fee to be paid, and standard copyright restrictions. You will receive a copy of this license before you make payment. Here are a few examples of the type of information that would be needed to provide a price quote (the quote request form takes care of all of this for you):
- national monthly magazine, 5 million readers, 1/4 page color ad, one month run.
- advertising flier, 10,000 pieces, full color, 1/4 page photo
- national ad campaign, multiple uses including 5 national magazines, 1/4 page ad inside, photo is 1/4th of the ad space. Specify circulation of each magazine and details of other uses.
- Corporate annual report, circulation of 30,000, cover. Specify if there will be any promotional use of the annual report that includes the photo.