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Photography vocabulary · Copyright & Licensing

Stock photography

Meaning in photography, with examples

nounCommon term

In photography, stock photography means: Ready-made photos that are licensed to many different customers through agencies or websites, instead of being shot for one client.

In Turkish: stok fotoğrafçılık, stok fotoğraf, hazır görsel

How it is used

Photographers become contributors to stock agencies, upload images with keywords and earn a share of each sale. Buyers search stock libraries for images. Stock photo is also used negatively for staged, generic-looking pictures.

Example sentences

  1. We don't have a budget for a shoot, so we'll use stock photography for the brochure.

  2. Good keywords make a big difference to stock photography sales.

Common collocations

  • stock photography agency
  • stock photo
  • sell stock photography
  • stock library
  • royalty-freeLicensed for a single fee and then usable many times, within the license terms, without paying again for each use. It does not mean free of charge.
  • licensePermission from the copyright owner to use a photo in specific ways, for example where, for how long and in which media, usually in return for a fee.
  • model releaseA signed document in which a person who appears in a photo gives permission for the image to be used, especially for commercial purposes.
  • watermarkA logo, name or text placed over a photo, often semi-transparent, to show who owns it and to discourage use without permission.

More terms: Copyright & Licensing

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