Can I Sell This Photo?

Photos You Can't Sell

Or Submit To A Stock Agency

By Andrew Hudson

"I have a great photo of (something). Can I submit it to a stock photo agency?"

Stock agencies and buyers are keen to see your photos. But your picture needs to be legal, of sufficient quality, and interesting. Let's review those qualities.

1. Legal

While you can take a photo, it can be illegal to publish that photo. This mainly involves copyright and people.

Copyright

It's Your Photo

You must own the copyright to your photo. Did you take the photo, for yourself? If so, you're OK.

If someone else took the photo, then you don't own the copyright and you can't license the image. This includes pictures that you asked someone to take for you, and pictures you found in the public domain. Also the photo should not be a result of "work-for-hire". If someone paid you take a photo, they may claim that the agreement transferred the copyright to the hirer.

Artwork

Does your photo include artwork? Pictures that feature recognizable artistic things such as paintings, murals, photos, logos, sculptures, advertisements and cartoon characters have an underlying copyright. Since artwork is copyrighted material, you would need a written release from the copyright owner to sell the image for commercial purposes. Editorial and other fair use purposes may be OK, and sometimes you can submit a photo for editorial purposes only. But generally stock agencies don't want to be limited by a photo's application. Logos are more restrictive, as they are protected by trademark law and companies are unlikely to grant usage.

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Copyright

Photography Law

People

Model Releases

Stock agencies and photo buyers often like people in a photo. But for any identifiable person in your picture, you'll need a signed model release. Some agencies only accept digital releases, not faxed, mailed or hard copy releases.

Children

Children require a model release signed by that minor's parent or legal guardian. This includes family snapshots or other portraits.

Nudity

Some agencies don't accept sexual images or anything involving nudity (including keywords such as "sexy" or "nude"). If they do, models must look at least 25 years of age and a photo ID of the model must accompany the image.

Offensive

A stock agency would generally reject an image that could offend a reasonable person. For example, subjects or depictions that are abusive, degrading, defamatory, hateful, illegal, obscene, slanderous, threatening, or vulgar.

Celebrities and Sports Teams

Famous people can prevent commercial usage of their image with the "Right of Publicity." Sports teams, associations and events generally don't permit unauthorized commercial usage of their players, stadiums, sponsors and events. They can use trademark law (for logos and names) and invasion of privacy (if people paid admission to get in).

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Privacy

2. Quality

Stock agencies and photo buyers often require a minimum quality both of the picture image and the digital file.

Image

The picture must be good enough to print. An agency would reject images that are:

Blurry (not sharp, out of focus) due to camera shake (use a tripod) or lens focusing
Over- or under-exposed
Dark, muddy, have poor contrast, heavy shadows
Noisy, or contain dust or scratches
Upsized or downsized (images must be the original full size)

File

The digital file must have certain qualities:

Size

Agencies have minimum file size requirements. For example, pictures should be at least 5 megapixels. Printed photos are reproduced at approximately 300 dpi, so an 8"x10" shot would need to be 2400 pixels x 3000 pixels, or around 7.2 mega-pixels.

Keywords

Keywords are required for searching. Keywords should be in English only. Plants and animals should be labeled with their scientific names. Don't use suggestive or sexual keywords such as "teen", "nude", or "sexy".

Don't Enhance

Don't add your own information, such as a watermark, date stamp, website name, or copyright notice. Stock photo agencies embed their own information. Don't add frames. Don't upsize or downsize the image.

3. Interesting

This is subjective, so I don't have much to say here. Photos that sell are simple, powerful, unique, and eye-catching. Agencies like variety so edit tightly. Don't send different angles of the same view, or different versions of the same shot (e.g. a black-and-white, a sepia, a cool blue, different filters), just one version each of your very best work. Visual portrayals of abstract themes are popular.

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Photo tips

Copyright 2006 Andrew Hudson for Photo Tour Books, Inc. You may reproduce this article for personal, educational, non-commercial and non-Internet use, such as in a local photo club newsletter or school project. No Internet publishing is permitted. For commercial use, please email me for permission.
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