Stock Photography Images: What is Free Royalty-Free Stock Photography?

Freelance writers, especially Content Producers for Associated Content.com who write AC content, often want images to enhance their articles. Fortunately, the Web offers a handful of very good resources, like 123RF.com, for obtaining free or low priced royalty-free stock photography images. But what is stock photography? And what is free royalty-free stock photography?

Stock photography is a collection of ready-made images of a variety of sundry people, places, and things the rights to which are readily available for purchase. Web based sites dedicated to stock photography have replaced the stock photography libraries of earlier non-electronic eras. Stock photography saves freelance writers or other users from having to take the needed photographs themselves or from having to hire a professional photographer to take photographs on assignment. For AC content freelance writers, the first option may be difficult and the second is inappropriate. Many freelancers or other stock photography users would find this to be true too.

To understand what free royalty-free stock photography is, it is necessary to first know what royalty-free stock photography is. Royalty-free stock photography is stock photography the licensed rights of which permit the rights purchaser use of and repeated use of an image without payment of royalties or additional fees. The other kind of purchasable stock photography is rights-managed. Rights-managed stock photography grants some exclusivity in its rights license. The user purchases the rights to use an image at a negotiated price, usually a high one, and has exclusive use of the image for the licensed purpose and the ability to restrict the use of the image for a similar purpose by another.

Free royalty-free stock photography is royalty-free stock photography that has been donated for use with specifications as to the licensed rights available: e.g., it may be used on the Web; it may not be reproduced for sale on T-shirts; etc. Free royalty-free stock photography images can be downloaded from the Web at no cost. Of course, this category is beneficial to freelance writers, especially AC content writers, because it permits us to easily enhance our content articles with beautiful images.

The trouble is that free royalty-free stock photography is hard to come by, but there is one site on the Web that has an unfailing supply of versatile images that are almost universally unfailinly beautiful. This site is one I've written a series on, 123RF.com . One reason that they have a bountiful supply of around 1,000 free images a day is that they have many contributors who live all over the world. These photographers offer some of their images as donated ones in order to spread their names and to boost their sales, and according to reports they do boost sales between 15% and 200%. Even 15% is quite a boost.

One reason the free royalty-free images are unfailingly beautiful is that 123RF.com has a panel of creative experts who review every submission for quality and artistry. The other popular place to get free images on the Web is at Dreamstime.com, but it is a significantly inferior collection of stock photography and it has a selection that comprises only a dozen or so images per day. Compare that to the 1,000 or so per day at 123RF.com .

Now you know what stock photography is and what the various kinds of stock photography are including free royalty-free stock photography. You even know at least one place where you can get it. Enjoy the wealth of excellent stock photography that is available on the Web and use it to enhance all your freelance writing and especially your AC content.