If you don’t want to worry about how and when you can use a specific stock photo, then a good idea is to look for royalty free images. You will never need to pay a renewal fee or an additional licensing fee to use the photo in another project.
However, the danger of the same image showing up in more than one place is driving interest in rights-managed images. Unlike royalty free images, rights managed photos are licensed for limited use.
You purchase a license for unlimited use of the royalty free images but you do not own the photos. In other words, you cannot resell the photos. The photographer always retains the ownership rights. You also cannot use the images in an inappropriate manner such as pornography. The purchase of the image allows use of the photo(s) as an integral part of products or services that you sell. For example, the royalty free photos can be included in a book or in marketing materials, as a book or CD cover, as graphics in software or training materials, websites, etc.
Listed below are a few of the leading Royalty Free Image Libraries. If you do a web search under the following names, you will quickly locate their website.
Stock Photo
- Banana Stock
- Big Cheese New!
- BlueMoon Stock
- Brand X Pictures
- Classic PIO
- Comstock
- Corbis
- Corel Stock Images
- Creatas
- Diamar
- Digital Juice
- Digital Vision
- DV Archive
- EyeWire (Photodisc)
- Flat Earth
- Goodshoot
- Image Ideas
- Image Source
- image100
- ImageState
- Ingram Publishing
- John Foxx
- Larsh Bristol
- Marlin Studios
- Medio Images
- PhotoAlto
- Photodisc
- PhotoEssentials
- Rubberball
- Stockbyte
- Thinkstock
- Transmission Digital
- Other Stock Images
Stock Illustrations/Stock Art
- Aridi
- Artville (Photodisc)
- Birch Design
- EclectiCollections
- FoodShapes New!
- Illusttank
- Image Club
- ImageZoo
- LifeART
- One Mile Up
- Visual Language
- Wildside Press
Clip Art Graphic Maps
- Digital Wisdom
- GeoAtlas
- Map Resources
Stock Footage Video Clips
- A Luna Blue Motion
- Artbeats
- Creatas Footage
- Digital Hotcakes
- Digital Juice
- Digital Vision Video
- Film Disc
- Flixdisc
- FPS Stock Footage
- Photodisc Film
- Reel House
