Stock photography is used all the time and you probably don't even notice it.  You probably saw some today and did not pay attention.  If you looked at a magizine, browsed the web, saw a billboard, or even watched the news you probably saw some stock photography.

I have gotten hooked on taking stock photos and love my new hobby.  My hobby actually makes me a small amount of money each month (enough for me to make my payment on my new CANON 30D). 

    (stock photo)

What is Stock Photography

Stock photography is images that can be used in a general way, and are not photographed for a specific client or use.  Theses images can be of common landmarks, concepts, and events that can be used and reused for commercial design purposes.  They are usually catalogued by different stock photography agencies and can be viewed and purchased for use in different creative design assignments.  Publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, film makers, web designers, graphic artists, corporate groups, and many other individuals and companies rely on stock photography.

For instance a magazine might be talking about golf lessons or the sport of golf.  They could buy an image and pay a professional photographer BIG Bucks to take a specialty photo or they could buy from a stock web site and get the STOCK photo they need to dress up there article for a whole lot less $$.  Here is one of my stock photos relating to Golf.

This photo was used a banner to a Frisbee golf web site.

A designer purchased this image and did some editing with a computer program to get exactly the effect that he/she wanted.  A stock photo in most cases can be edited by the end user.  The copyright remains with the original photographer but the image can be manipulated by the designer.  This is another reason stock photos are usually plain.  They are intended to be a starting point in a design, brochure, web, billboard or other media outlet.

Here are my guides on Copyright Awareness that can related to photography in general. 
You may see stock photos on business web banners.  You may think that the people in the photos are the actual people that work for the company-they may actual people that work for the company-they may not be.  The web banner may be loaded with stock images like this one of mine.

Why do we need stock photos?

Well, hopefully some of the above examples have helped answer that question.  The biggest need of stock photography is that it is AFFORDABLE.  It is very expensive to hire a photographer to take a specific photo.  Yes, hiring a photographer is needed in a lot of circumstances. A photo of the CEO, a specific story line, a news story on location, and hundreds of other examples are where stock just would not work.

But in the scheme of things, stock photos are used a great deal.  Open any magazine and start looking at the photos.  There will be a credit underneath the image, along the side of the image, and sometimes even in the bind seam of the magazine.  Once you start to notice these credits you will see many different stock agency names.  You will also see credit from specific professional photographers.  It is amazing what you see when you look at the details.

Please read my other guides on photography and let me know what you think.  Please vote if this guide has been helpful to you!  I would love to here your comments.  Post any comments in my blog here.  Thanks for reading.