Glossary of stock photography related terms

Abbreviation for Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera.
See also: DSLR camera.

The written consent of the person or persons in the photo to make commercial licensing of the image possible.
See also: commercial license

One of the photo usages at the Alamy Stock Photography company. It is usually chosen by private individuals because its use is severely limited. Sometimes an image purchased in this way is repurchased by the company because the buyer thought s/he was buying a real product, not just a stock photo of it.
See also: refund

In a broader sense, a stock photography company’s entire library. In a narrower sense, all the photos uploaded by a single photographer.

A service that prints uploaded digital images only when there is a direct demand for it. One of the most popular companies is Fine Art America (FAA).

The written consent of the owner of the property (building, logo, etc.) in the photo to the commercial licensing of the image.
See also: commercial license.

The stock photography company Alamy gives their contributors the opportunity to divide their portfolios into several parts, e.g. by topic or by sales rate / potential. Each part can be labeled with an alias.

Quality Control Rank. Alamy’s multi-factor ranking method that is indicated by 1-5 stars. Each newbie photographer gets 3 stars by default, and if s/he performs well over the years, s/he can get 5 stars. For example, the quality control review time depends on the number of stars, which can range from immediate acceptance (5 stars) to a few days (3 stars) to 1 month (1 star).

At the stock photography company Alamy, the purchased image is sometimes repurchased by the company because the buyer thought s/he was buying a real product, not just the stock photo taken of it. Otherwise, the repurchased image will usually be resold under modified terms (and price).

A license type, that allows the one-time use of the purchased photo as specified by the license. The buyer can use the photo for a limited time and place and in a specific publication for a one-time fee.
See also: royalty-free license

The share of the license fee paid to a photographer. Usually a percentage (net) amount.

By paying a one-time fee, the buyer can use the photo for an unlimited period of time, anywhere in the world and in any publication.
See also: rights-managed license

A stock photo's preferred color coding. Some companies automatically convert photos encoded in a different color space when you upload images. It is recommended that you use sRGB when exporting images to maintain color accuracy.

A stock photo is a special photo that a photographer uploads to the website of a company that specializes in selling photos for the purpose of selling the right to use the image. So a stock photo is not made-to-order (especially in the case of microstock agencies) but on the contrary, it tries to figure out the needs of the customers in advance.

The name itself suggests that ever-growing portfolios act as a kind of online stock that customers can search through.

In the case of traditional (macro- or midstock) agencies, the company sometimes makes a specific request to its contributors on a particular subject, so in practice there is still, if rarely, a specific order.

The subject of a stock photo can be anything and appears on countless types of online and offline products. Newspapers, magazines, book covers, blogs, professional websites, brochures, etc. use them to illustrate their products.

The website of a stock photography agency or photo company that sells the rights to use images uploaded by stock photographers in a searchable system.

Besides the title, entering keywords is the key to ensuring that your stock photos are searchable. Keywords must be descriptive and relevant. Avoid keyword accumulation (lots of unnecessary, irrelevant terms just to appear more often in search results).

The group of potential buyers. When taking a photo, it is a good idea to define the target audience for the image, because without it, there may be no demand for the image.

The process of transferring photos to online the storage of a stock photo company. To sell stock photos, your images must first be uploaded using the user interface of the company’s website or an FTP client.

A measure of the stock photography company Alamy, which shows how many times an image appeared in searches.

A measure of the stock photography company Alamy, which shows how many customers clicked on a photo to enlarge it.
See also: CTR.