Learn more about buying stock photo

If you're about to buy stock photos for the first time you might find a few words you never heard before. Here is some short explanations of the most common terms in buyng stock photo.

CC (creative commons)
This is the name for different licenses which allows photographers to provide their work for free. You can use them commercially but you always have to attribute the photographer where the picture is used. For the photograpoher CC is a great way of promoting themselves.

Editorial Photo
Editorial photos have special license terms and they normally can't be used in advertising and promotopn. Examples of editorial photos are photos of celebrities.

Extended License
With an extended licence the stock photo buyer are allowed to use the photo in more applications that normally are allowed in the basic licence. For example the extended licence can allow the buyer to resell the photo as a framed print, website template or poster. Extended licences are more expensive.

License
The licence is the word for the terms which you agree to when you buy a photo. A common term is you are prohibited to reselling the image. You buy the licence to use the photograpy. The owner rights belongs to the photographer. The main types of licences is RF and RM. Se below.

Microstock
The word for all the Stock photo agencies that allows proffesional as well as amatuer photographers to contribute with their photos. At microstock agencies you can buy photography at various resolutions, vector illustrations and even stock footage (video clips).

PD (Public domain images)
Public domain images is images made available for free use and have no terms attached.

Resolution
The resolution of a photography tells how many pixels are displayed in a defined area. Mostly you refer to the dimesion of a photo (size) when you talk about resolution. The higher resolution the larger prints you can make without loosing quality in the photo.

RF (Royalty Free)
This is the most common licence in stock photography and is often wwhat we really mean with stock photos. Royalty free means that you as a buyer can use the photo unlimited, with some restrictions when it comes to number of prints etc. If the photo is not royalty free you have to pay the owner of the photo for each time you use the photo.

Subscription
You can buy a monthly or annual fee to get a large number of purchases. This is great if you plan to buy a large amount of images. Almost every microstock agency provide subscription plans.