If you’ve spent any time in the creative world, you’ve probably heard of stock photography. But what is it, exactly? How does it work? Should you use it for your business, or hire a professional photographer to create custom images for you? Here are a few facts to get you started.
P.S. This content has been generated by AI.
What is stock photography?
Stock photography is a form of stock footage. It is an industry that provides photos, illustrations, audio, video files, and other stock media content to publishers, advertising agencies, marketing firms, and other businesses.
Stock photos are very popular today and provide a timely, affordable source of competitive images for a variety of marketing needs. Identifying products that are in high demand is a task for both marketing and advertising professionals, as nearly every marketer will admit.
Modern-day brands and companies rely on stock photos in order to convey a specific feeling in their advertisements and marketing materials.
Stock photos have become popular with businesses due to the level of flexibility and cost efficiency they offer. Businesses in Mauritius can hire a stock agency to develop and produce their images, and use them for design purposes and product photography. Brands can wholesale their photos for other publications, such as social media, which doesn’t require the same level of time and effort.
But sometimes, finding photos for your business can be a bit overwhelming.
Many photographers will share their own experiences about trying to find the perfect, defacto photos for you and your company. In a way, it’s kind of cute to share your own failures with others, don’t you think? However, this type of behavior sets up a negative stereotype about photographers…many who only create work for clients they are interested in (and maybe pay them something), not realizing others can use their work as well.
Probably the most misunderstood and interesting fact about using stock photos in your own business is that they’re not exactly free marketing.
A high-quality image that generates great exposure does require some investment. Your team will probably need to find creative ways to present your content in order to drive higher engagement and website traffic through social media and other marketing channels. Then you’ll need to advertise your new efforts — perhaps even on your website or your marketing communications.
How does stock photography work?
Stock photography is a business of selling photos to other people, in the same way that a stock market is a business of buying and selling shares. When you’re looking to sell your photos, you’re essentially trying to “sell stock.” When you’re looking to buy photos, you’re trying to “buy stock.” Stock photographers basically charge a flat fee per photo, rather than a percentage of the sale.
Stock photography has been an integral part of the art and business industries for decades. Artists in Mauritius use stock photos as a means to connect with potential clients and help build their portfolios. Stock photos can be used for everything from product packaging to art.
Basically, the idea is that when you’re creating pictures based on someone else’s work, you don’t have to worry about plagiarism, since they’re exactly the same people behind the pics.
Stock photography has generally gained more popularity in the past ten years, especially in the creative world. It’s also something that the average professional has a difficult time finding the time to properly capitalize on because most photographers don’t inherently understand the concept.
The following are 5 key things you need to know about stock photography, to better understand why you might want to use it in your business or project.
- A photographer can easily charge 5 times more for a photo based on its quality, akin to a Rs. 2,000 per photo compared to a Rs. 400 per photo.
- Depending on the type of work, that’s not a small difference, but lines the difference between a hobbyist and a full-time professional.
- More recently, companies have begun utilizing stock photography as a bargaining tool.
- What they do is essentially see how much stock they can get away with in one shot, before someone else has the chance to shop around to see how they can undercut them.
- Stock photography is becoming more and more popular, especially with freelancers and small businesses.
What should you look for when buying stock photos?
When you're choosing stock photos, you want to make sure that you're getting images that aren't too similar to each other. You don't want to end up with a bunch of images that look like they’re from the same family. Also, make sure you check the license for each image. Some may require that you provide attribution, and give a license to use the image in different ways.
According to Content Marketing pillar, 30% of people use photos to enrich their personal lives. If you’re a brand trying to get noticed online, a good image can go a long way. Image licensing is a common strategy for businesses, but it’s vital to know how much you’ll need to invest in getting started.
So, you’ve purchased images from a stock photography site, but what now? If you’re looking to hire a professional photo consultant, this is how it works.
Photographer: A professional stock photographer will take a bunch of pictures of your product or service and then find a few stock photo sites that use those images for their business. A similar image may get a few cents, or you may pay a premium based on where the image is being used.
Updates: As stock photo prices have gone up, so have copyright issues with images. Many sites now require you to license images for commercial use before you can use them.
Stock photos are commonly available from dozens of sites. You can probably find a popular site if you look online for “stock images.” Companies like Unsplash and Pexels may also have some curated collections for a smaller set of keywords.
Search for keywords associated with your product or service, as well as industry standards. Some popular search terms include:
How to choose a camera: When choosing a camera, make sure that the image you get is in focus and your subject is in frame.
What are the benefits of using stock photos?
People will look at a photo and make an instant judgement of the quality of your business. If your website looks unprofessional, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. Be deliberate with your use of stock photos. You do not have to use every single photo on the Internet — the most creative ones are the ones you don’t use. Here’s what you should and shouldn’t put into your portfolio.
As clever as ‘stockphoto’ is, it has its downsides. For example, a designer with thousands of social media followers and an unprofessional website could look up top-rated photos and call them their own. If they get bad reviews for the same product, can you really blame them or be true to your brand?
Another issue is copyright infringement. When you use someone else’s photos without their permission, there is a chance the owner could sue for copyright infringement. And with lawsuits, not to mention the backlash from your customers, that could really ruin your reputation. Better safe than sorry.
Stock photos are great for websites and social media because the results are immediate. Instead of paying for officially taken photos, you can take a few images from across the Internet and put them on your website or social media page specially in Mauritius.
It’s worth it to invest some time and money into learning how to get the best results. Finding the perfect stock photo is a never-ending task.
If you’re trying to make one of your products into an actual product, then you can have a designer create great custom designs. A couple of testimonials from customers can really make the difference.
But if you’re mainly using stock photos to promote your business, you’ll get more support from customers who see your products in action.
What are the stock photography websites in Mauritius?
Unfortunately, we haven’t found any other website that is exclusively dedicated to Mauritius at the time we are writing this article. May be Mauritius is a too small market and quite a lot of Big stock photos website do contain thousands of photos.
Is it worth hiring a Mauritian professional photographer to create custom images for your business?
If you’re on a tight budget, it may be better to spend your money on a professional photographer to create custom images for your business rather than on stock images. You can either pay a photographer to create custom images from scratch or you can hire them to take beautiful product photos of your existing inventory. Stock photos are images that are licensed from a professional photographer. To get started, many photographers charge anywhere from Rs. 200 – Rs. 2,000 per photo and longer rentals. You can decorate them for social media posts and podcasts, but if you sell products that are a focal point of the image, they may not work. You may get great reviews and a lot of views for a few pictures, but the more images you have on your page, the more reviews you’d get, but the more quality you lose.
On the whole, these images are the equivalent of ad images — especially for ads. The audience is imagined and crafted from scratch, and experienced in customers anticipating product purchases. So much of an ad’s success depends on the ad’s set price, brand, and time of day. Using stock images won’t provide that experience. Nor will it increase your ad’s click-through rates (CTR). You can make conversions through unique images, the right messaging, and your energy. Build an audience, seek customers, and convert them with great content. That’s professional stock photography.
To break down stock photography into its most basic element — its image file format — we have to understand file formats first.
Stock images are usually taken in RAW (or DNG) format, which looks like a PICTURE file. When the camera uses these photos, it extracts detail from the image, and exploits its mathematical properties to create more complex mathematical features. These include curves, gradients, and text.
In this case, the human eye has a specific trick for recognizing art: it sees shapes within the image. People see colors and contours.
Why use a free stock photo website ?
Expora is a Free stock photo download website dedicated to Mauritius. It contains hundreds and soon thousands of photos in HD. These photos are available in original sizes and/or in 1080px wallpapers. Photos are nicely tagged and can be searched easily. You can easily download by using your Facebook / Google logins. Free HD landscapes photos of Mauritius available for download. Login with Google or Facebook and start downloading. Or better share the website using the Facebook button at the right of the website. Photographers can as well upload their work and thus providing the first photographers platform in Mauritius.
