When you visit stock photo agencies, you will encounter many kinds of licenses. The most common are royalty-free and rights-managed, but there is another – Editorial License. This type of license, as the name implies, can be used for editorial purposes only. It allows the image to be used as a descriptive visual reference such as articles about the photographer or the image service. It cannot be used in commercial purposes.
What is Editorial License? Editorial License allows the usage of images in different publications, digital or print. The images are to be used in the body of blogs, magazines, wallpapers, books and e-books to accompany them or illustrate them. You will know that an image can be used for editorial purposes only as every microstock agency mark it that way. Some of the agencies that are rich in high quality editorial images are Getty Images, Shutterstock and iStock.
What makes an image fall under Editorial License? For an image to be used commercially, the contributor must submit legal documents that secure that no conflict will arise when the image is used profit manners. These documents include property and model releases. The contributor must have these signed by the people that appear in the picture and owners of any private or legally protected property. Without these releases, the photos will be available for editorial use only.
What kind of editorial images can you find? The core topics of editorial images include events, subjects and situations that hold the interest of potential buyers. Most of the images you will find are news from around the world, which include celebrities, sports events, concerts, social meetings, important politics and many more. Photos of a crowd or an unknown person doing nothing is unlikely to fall under the editorial use only category.
How do you know if an image is commercial or editorial? This is pretty simple. Images that are editorial are labeled as editorial, while commercial images are branded as such. You will usually find them in their own image pages. So if you are looking for editorial images, you will find them in the editorial use only page. If you do not see a mark for editorial use only, the image is most likely safe to use for commercial purposes.
Editorial images are usually small in number compared to their commercial counterparts. Some stock photo agencies do not even have editorial images. But with stock sites that do offer them, they are often categorized and organized separately. Others allow you to use the filter option or advanced search option to see Editorial images. In all cases, they are easy to find. As long as you know what type of license to get, you will get photos that fits your creative needs.