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Help! I have noticed that some images of books are selling as editorial only and others are okay for commercial use. Can someone explain why? I don't want to submit my images incorrectly.

Hi I’ve been wrestling with this editorial/commercial question for some time and wonder if anyone here can clarify. I’m aware this may show some fundamental mis-understandings of editorial/commercial licensing on my part – but I’ve asked around and done my googling, and still don’t feel I know the answer… Say, for example, a commercial company is producing a brochure that is being distributed for free / is for educational or public information purposes only. Could they use ‘editorial only’ images within that particular brochure, or – even though the brochure itself is not commercial (in fact is being produced at cost to the company), as the company is commercial by nature – would they still need a commercial license for images, and couldn’t use editorial licensing/ ‘editorial only’ images? Or is it that, even though the brochure is being distributed free, it could still be argued, is still in some ways promotion for a commercial company… so images shouldn’t be ‘editorial only’ and a commercial license would be needed? Or… (bear with me!) have I understood it completely wrong… and it’s nothing to do with whether the company using the image is itself a profit-making company, but is solely down to the particular context of how an image is being used? EG, an article within their brochure about ‘benches’ could feature an ‘editorial only’ generic picture of a random bench – but if the article was about a particular bench – and required a picture of that one particular, exact bench – then the image no longer becomes editorial, and a commercial license would have to be bought? Thanks in advance! And over to you…

Hey all, Out of curiosity, has anybody here come across situations when their model-released images were used in situations that may potentially cause the models potential embarrassment (in the best case scenario)? I've recently come across two of my pics which were licensed, not on here, which perhaps a model could take offence and wrote about it on my blog I realise that Alamy's clients are predominately editorial so would probably not apply, but for those that shoot commercial model-released, is it something that potentially worries you and do you notify the client that there's a small risk that the images may be used for "sensitive usage"? Is the small risk enough for some on here avoid commercial model-released altogether? I looked into Alamy's contributor contract and the wording is relatively wide: Unfortunately there's no such definition of what would be "defamatory" within the agreement. Best regards Alex

Hey all, Is there any merit in removing people and cloning out trademarks so images can be licensed on here commercially? I would think yes because commercial images have less restrictions but can you think of any situations of when clients would prefer identifiable places and people in the image? Does it's make sense to upload two versions of the same image - one with identifiable people and places (editorial) and another without (commercial)? thanks Nut

Commercial photography can mean any kind of photography that’s monetised in anyway, so in theory all Stock Photography is commercial… but wait… within the world of Stock Photography there are two categories of commercial photography; Commercial and Editorial. Read more...

Hi, Was looking for some opinion on this one, it's an intensely personal question. I recently had a kid, and now when I track him with the camera, I can see such a lot of different poses that are stock worthy (even if they would have been done by others); kid in cot, kid getting a massage, etc. Do folks take photos of their own kids and post them as stock photos ?

Hello everybody, My name is Mirco Vacca and just started to send to Alamy. I have many RF images also on microstock agencies but since i am doing more street photography i think Alamy is a better place for me. I see people making not much sales here but aslo others with 1600 photos selling 20 licences per month. Off course it depends on the quality of your images. I want to give it a try. Feel free to check my portfolio. I am happy to get opinion about it. For sure i can learn something from you. Thank you very much . Mirco