Are These Photos Royalty Free, or Not?

[John Mitchell]

"What photographers need to realise is that the client is quite important in this business (it's often overlooked by many) and if you expand your client-base, you may need to alter how you offer them licensing terms."

 

Alamy has certainly tried to address this fact with its flexible "hybrid" RM licenses. I wouldn't have said this a few years ago, but these licenses now seem like a good idea -- and an alternative to total RF -- despite the low fees they have generated. At least they give the photographer some say (albeit not much) in how images might be used. It's definitely a buyer's market out there, but the photographer is still an important part of the equation. Personally, I can't get over the feeling that I'm tossing images to the wind when I mark them as RF.