The Licensing Models of Microstock Photography

If you are new to microstock photography, you may be confused by the terms license and copyright. As a beginner, you may think that when the buyers purchase your photographs which you uploaded to microstock sites, your will transfer your copyright to the buyers.

However, it is not actually the case. When we are talking about selling photographs on microstock sites, we are actually selling licenses to others. In another word, the buyers pay for the licenses for their use, and you still own the copyright to your photos.

Generally, the licensing model of microstock photography is Royalty Free (RF) Model. That means you sell your photographs with a license that doesn’t specify how many times they can be used in any design and media, with just a few restrictions.

The microstock sites may provide extended license, which is an extension to the standard license allowing buyers to use your photographs on things such as t-shirts, calendars, PC screensavers, e-cards, powerpoint presentations, and so on. As a photographer you normally need to opt-in to selling extended license images.