assignment photography resources

Why choose assignment photography over stock photography?

1. First it is important to go over definitions:

"Royalty-free" stock photography means the licensing of a pre-existing image for an unlimited period of time for a set fee that is not based on usage. The client may use the image in any media for any amount of time, subject sometimes to restrictions for sensitive/controversial usage (sexual issues, illness, illegal activities, etc.).

"Rights-protected" stock photography means the licensing of a pre-existing image that is protected for a particular use to ensure that the image is not used in a similar way in the same or related industry during the period of the license.

Assignment photography means hiring a professional photographer to create an image for the client. The licensing of that image can vary as to media, duration, and exclusivity.

2. Why choose assignment photography over stock photography in general?

Get more than what you expected! My job as a professional photographer is to translate your concepts into an image that delivers the client's marketing message. Often this means shooting an image based on your layout or composite. What defines an exceptional photographer is the ability not only to create an image that you think you want, but also to experiment and create variations based on the photographer's own unique visual sense of design.

By choosing assignment photography, you receive not only the image that perfectly fits your concept, but also the "happy accidents," the variations that are often much stronger than the initial image and are created once the "safe" shot is saved to the hard drive. If you choose stock, you are stuck inside the "box" of the pre-existing image you have just licensed from the stock agency that "almost" perfectly fits your concept.

3. Why do some people choose stock and why should they rethink their decision?

Royalty free is cheap. Hard to argue this point. But there are several things to consider. First, your competitor can use the same royalty free image. So much for branding. Secondly, another company in a different industry can use the same royalty free image, detracting from the client's marketing message. What if Viagra decides to use "your" image in their national campaign?

Rights-protected is cheaper than assignment photography. Check the pricing at Corbis and Getty. If you tell them the true usage for a rights-protected image, you will be surprised at the fees. The licensing fees will often be the same or more than the cost of hiring a professional photographer to create a unique image that fits your concept.

You need it now! I shoot with digital equipment. I can deliver an image to you electronically within 24-hours and even sooner with rush processing.

The client loved the layout with a low resolution "comp" stock image so it is easier and safer to just license the stock image than to sell the client on assignment photography. Alexander Gelman (Design Machine, Access Factory, NOVO): "…you know it is really hard to be consistently creative and fresh all the time, and in big industries like advertising and design, people fall into those traps and follow those easy paths, abusing certain methods that guarantee a certain level of success." Be fresh!

And finally, stock can cause Public Relations problems. Gateway published an advertisement in the December 2002 issue of PC Magazine which featured a model playing music on his Apple G4 PowerBook. Gateway blamed the mistake on injudicious use of a stock photo. Arnold Worldwide (NY) ran a campaign for Bermuda's Department of Tourism that first appeared in the February 2003 issues of Travel and Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler and featured stock travel images of models photographed in Hawaii, the Seychelles, and Florida. Arnold Worldwide would not respond for comment when Bermuda's Royal Gazette newspaper reported the issue.