royalty free images

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BirderOzzie

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Name
Oscar Dewhurst
Edit My Images
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hi guys,

I am interested in submitting images to alamy and was wondering what a royalty free image is? This is because they said that:

Under this contract Alamy is authorised:

* 1.2.1 to add the Images to one or more of its databases;
* 1.2.2 to license the Images to Customers on the basis of a Royalty Free Licence or Rights Managed Licence. If you sign up to the Novel Use Scheme Alamy will also be authorised to license the Images to Customers on the basis of Novel Use Licences.

It gives me an option of Control whether each Image you submit is displayed as Rights Managed or Royalty Free

If I choose it as right managed, does this mean that I still own the copywrite on the image?

Thanks

Oscar ;)
 
You still own copywrite (so you can use it and do with it as you want) with royalty free but you've also sold the rights to do whatever the buyer wants with it (apart from selling it) and use it as many times as they want.

It's very standard stuff for stock so don't worry.

That's the general basis anyway. Not 100% sure about Rights Managed but I think you have more of a say as to what can be done (though really don't hold me on that).


Just one thing to anyone else replying, lets keep this legal and not opinions on stock (I think we have enough of those ;))
 
Royalty free is not a very good licence to use. It means once the image is sold to a client they can keep using it forever, for whatever they please.
If you go for the normal "licensed" model then you would charge for each separate use of the image. This is what you want, unless you get paid 10x for RF.
 
The Alamy model for RF is not to be compared with the likes of istock,etc. Yes you do give the customer the right to use your image as they please, except for re-selling it on. Say a company is running a campaign that will be using the image on a point of sale board, magazine advertising and web use. With RM, they would have to buy each licence seperatley, with RF they pay once, and use it over the campaign. But - you will be getting far more than you would for an istock image @ $1. RF images sell for more than RM, its a choice you need to make. Most of my Alamy is RM, but the generic "stock" type can be RF as well. I sold one RF image for $375. I don't have a problem with that.
You always retain copyright, if a customer wants to buy your copyright, for a price, Alamy will broker a deal for you. The signing up for RM or RF is just to set you a preference when you upload. You can always change the licence before you put it on sale.
Webby
 
Thanks guys :D

Does anyone here have any experience of alamy?

Thanks again

Oscar ;)
 
I don't personally, but the pro's on another forum have mixed feelings. Like everywhere else, fees have plumetted in recent years, though.

My only actual experience was getting rejected by their quality control. That put me off straight away. Apparently they are VERY strict on your first submission. Bear in mind that it doesn't matter how boring the images are, they just need to be sharp. Scanned trannies are a complete no-go area as well, even though you know they would be perfectly fine when reproduced.

Once accepted, I think you can be a little more "creative".
 
Hi Oscar

All my images with Alamy are Rights Managed and that is what I would generally recommend.

With regard to quality control and the scanned trannies issue mentioned by jerry12953, I supply Alamy with high res flatbed scanned medium format 6x6 and 6x7 transparency images with no problems. My 35mm’s are scanned with a dedicated film scanner and again, almost without exception, they pass Alamy’s QC.
I hope this is of some help.

Sam-D
 
BirderOzzie said:
Thanks guys :D

Does anyone here have any experience of alamy?

Thanks again

Oscar ;)
Click to expand...

I have almost 1,800 images on Alamy with no problems - and fairly regular sales.
The QC is stringent but once you know what they are looking for then you can get every submission passed with little difficulty.
 
I hope my post was not misunderstood....

My first submission was rejected as being "soft or lacking in definition" Out of the 4 images, only one, the digital file, was accepted. The other 3 were scans - all rejected.

What I suspected was that Alamy's QC people just looked at the images at 100%, and if they could see any grain, rejected them. Never mind the content, or the fact that the images would have reproduced perfectly well at normal magnifications.

Anyway, it put me off.....
 
Normaly if they reject one image in a submission then they reject the entire submission - so at the beginning at least best not to upload too many at once just in case. I've had a 'creative shot' rejected for the same reason as Jerry. They don't like noise/grain - even when applied 'creatively'.
 
awp said:
Normaly if they reject one image in a submission then they reject the entire submission - so at the beginning at least best not to upload too many at once just in case. I've had a 'creative shot' rejected for the same reason as Jerry. They don't like noise/grain - even when applied 'creatively'.
Click to expand...

Not noise or grain, or differential focus or creative blur. They just want sharp.

Mind you that was a while ago.
 
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