The Tribune

Have you ever heard the term ‘stock photos’ thrown around, especially while interacting with photographers, designers or persons involved with art? If you did, and guessed this referred to photos stashed somewhere waiting to be used, but were not sure what type of images they were, your intuition was not far off.

Stock photography is simply the supply of photographs, which are often licensed, to fulfill the need of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer.

Stock images can be found free online or purchased, and may consist of photos, computer generated graphics, clip-art, vectors and other forms of imagery.

They are one of the most basic components of marketing and advertising, and are completely ubiquitous to the modern world. Businesses of all sizes license stock photos for specific uses, which are used to illustrate concepts, services and situations.

Technically, stock photos (stock photography) are professional photographs of common places, landmarks, nature, events or people that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis, and can be used and reused for commercial design purposes.

The photographer (or stock photography distributor) has ownership of the images, and the commercial designer has some limited usage of the photo (which is set out in the terms of service by the company you purchase the stock photos from).

Climate of Stock photography

Stock photography is a cost-effective method for designers to obtain professional photos and images without the costs of hiring a photographer directly.

Today, stock photos can be purchased through a subscription and downloaded from a stock photography distributor’s web site, or purchased as a CD-ROM collection.

Every time you read a magazine or look at newspapers, billboards, text books, book covers, blogs, brochures, and corporate literature of any type, or even watch TV, you are probably looking at stock photography.

The images that companies use in media (whether it is for marketing, creative or educational purposes) come from basically two sources: Either they hired a photographer to shoot it, or they purchased a pre-existing image.

Potential uses

of Stock Photos

When someone purchases a pre-existing image, they are purchasing stock prohitography. And pictured of almost anything can be called stock photography. Here is a range of potential uses:

• An advertising agency conducting a print campaign that requires a picture of two children brushing their teeth in pyjamas.

• A general interest magazine needs a picture to help illustrate ‘green living.’

• A music magazine needs a picture of Bahamian musicians.

• A travel agency needs a picture of a beautiful beach for a tourist brochure.

• A book publisher needs a vintage photo for a book cover.

• A bank needs 10 pictures to hang on the walls in their new branch.

• A newspaper needs a ‘cut-out’ picture of empty pill bottles for a story on ‘rising drug costs’.

How is stock different than other photography?

There are no hard and fast rules regarding the aesthetics of stock photography, but there are some considerations for the photographer. Commercial stock photography is not photojournalistic in nature, as the goal is to simply make things visually appealing.

Moreover, stock photography is also frequently used with embedded marketing messages, so the experienced stock photographer thinks about composing the shot in such a way that it can appear in an ad or publication.

Stock photography is also used commercially and requires a certain level of production quality. This means that rarely can you just casually take a picture of something or someone and sell it for use in an advertisement. Why? Because of the production requirements.

For instance, the lighting might not be right; the person might not be model-quality; or the expression on someone’s face might not clearly evoke the required emotion. There are so many considerations taken into account when photographers shoot stock.

Who are the buyers?

Stock photography is a near-$2 billion industry, and the types of buyers include:

*Advertising agencies, magazines, publishing houses (fiction, non-fiction, textbook).

• Corporations (in-house communications departments etc.), websites, blogs and graphic designers.

Are qualifications needed to shoot stock?

• An imagination, creative vision, basic photography skills and a professional camera are needed.

• Pursue photography training, magazines or other forms of print media, and start to train your eye on the aesthetics of commercial imagery.

• Understand which images are accepted, rejected and sell. Quite frankly, I think we would all agree that there is nothing cooler than seeing your image run in major magazines or advertisements anywhere in the world.

Stock photos cover almost anything you could think of - from everyday objects to people in every age, colour and situation imaginable; families; business settings; travel; concepts; landscapes; nature; underwater; sports; news; and entertainment. Be sure to find the ones with the best resolutions. Until we meet again, fill your life with memories as opposed to regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

• NB: The columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

ABOUT THE COLUMNIST: Deidre Marie Bastian is a professionally trained graphic designer/marketing coordinator with qualifications of M.Sc., B.Sc., A.Sc. She has trained at institutions such as: Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of the Bahamas, Nova South Eastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas