The most commonly used sources of still images are any of the hundreds of commercial image providers located around the country. These agencies--such as Corbis, Picture Network International (PNI), Comstock, Image Bank, and MP©A to name a few--make it their business to find and sell you the image you need. Some, like Corbis, PNI, and Comstock, are large companies with hundreds of thousands of general interest images. Other agencies are smaller and may carry only specialized subjects such as animals or wooden boats or news photographs. MP©A (Media Photographers Copyright Association) is unique in that it is owned and operated by a collective of some of the world’s most renowned photographers. In addition to these commercial providers, still images can be found all over the world in private, corporate, and public collections and institutions. (A listing of image providers is included in Resources.) Still images exist in a variety of forms including prints, negatives, slides or half-toned reproductions. More and more still images are being stored digitally.

Browsing through the plethora of images and finding the right ones for your project can be both tedious and rewarding. This process often requires using a combination of high-tech tools and old-fashioned “gumshoe” ingenuity. You can actually go to museums, libraries, government and corporate offices and search by hand for the images you need, a low tech-approach. Or you can use a high speed modem to contact any of a number of commercial image providers who have digitized and carefully cataloged their collections of images. You can also purchase and browse CD-ROMs containing thousands of digital images usually organized by topic, such as landscapes or animals.

Depending on your circumstances you might consider hiring a professional to conduct the search for you. These picture editors or picture researchers make it their job to help you estimate and manage picture budgets, find the right images, and select and edit the images for you. (Ways to contact these professionals are listed in Resources.)

The rules

• Know the limitations required by the image provider. Some institutions, for example, will not allow any manipulation of their images. Journalistic or documentary images are also often restricted.

• Avoid working with original slides or prints If you must work with them, return them as soon as you have created a digital file. It will cost you a great deal if you lose or damage original artwork, including negatives and slides.

• Make sure the image provider has the right to sell electronic rights. There are many visual artists whose work resides with commercial agencies who don’t want their work sold in digital form for fear of losing control of the work. (A digital file, after all, can be infinitely duplicated with no loss of quality.)

• Make sure the image provider has model and property releases on file.

Most of the time, when you buy an image from a commercial provider, you are not buying the image or its underlying copyright. You are buying the right to use the image for a particular project. The provider retains the copyright. The scope of these rights is negotiable. Generally, the bigger your project, the wider its dissemination, and the longer duration of time that you want the rights, the more you’ll pay.

Of course a buyout of all rights is possible, but usually only for a large sum of money. Buyouts assure the buyer that no one else will use the image, which may be important for specific uses, such as advertising. In general, however, buyouts are not necessary. Instead, a limited duration exclusivity can be negotiated.

What can you expect to pay for an image when you negotiate with a commercial image provider? It varies depending on specific criteria. When you call an image provider, it is good idea to know the following in order to facilitate the negotiations:

1. The number of CD-ROMs or other delivery systems and range (local, national, or international) of your production. Prices for images used on the Web are usually determined by the placement of the image (for example, home page or linked page), the size of the image, and the length of time you want to keep the image as part of your site. One-year licensing is typical.

2. The scope of the rights you want to purchase. One-time rights? First-time rights? Multiple-production rights?

3. The type of production. Editorial and educational usage is generally less expensive than advertising or corporate usage.

4. The way the image will be used. Rights will be less expensive if the image is part of a fast-moving multimedia sequence, and more expensive if it is used as a large “key” image on a home page on the Web.

Having said all this, keep in mind that there are no “set” fees for stock images. Depending on the usage, they can cost as little as $10 or as much as several hundred dollars. (Most providers charge a nominal “research” fee, which is often waived if you actually buy an image.)

Image providers generally charge what the market will bear, although at this time “new media” is such a new business that there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty about what is a realistic and fair price to charge for digital images. It is therefore important to remember that most providers are willing to negotiate, especially if you are buying more than one image.