Stock versus Assignments (Selling Photos versus Services)

The first and most common division is between those who sell images (“stock” shooters) and those who sell their services (assignment photographers). Stock photographers take photos on their own time and resources, accumulate large libraries of images, and sell the rights to use those images. Assignment photographers, by contrast, are paid to take the specific images that clients need. After the assignment, they may or may not retain rights to those images.

While that’s the basic difference, there remains great diversity within each category of work. For example, stock shooters may sell their images directly to photo buyers at magazines or publishers. They might sell photos through stock agencies. Or they might specialize in selling fine art prints.

Assignment photographers, on the other hand, include those who do fashion or commercial assignment, but also those who shoot weddings and special events. In each of these cases, a client is paying for the services of the photographer, for the process of having photos taken.

Editorial versus Commercial

Another important distinction is between editorial and commercial or creative photography. Editorial images are those used in newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and similar publishers. Commercial or creative images are most often those used for advertising—including, for example, fashion, product, and conceptual photography.

The divide between these categories is clear on most major stock agencies. Go to the sites for Getty Images or Corbis, for example, and they will ask you to select whether you want to search their editorial or creative collections.

Editorial and commercial images are very different in terms of style. Editorial images are often photojournalistic in style, taken to illustrate important news stories or contemporary issues. Conceptual images are generally taken in studios or in other locations with highly controlled lighting.

Most editorial images are published in educational, informational, or news-type publications, and as a result they require much more detailed captions: who did what, where, and when. Commercial images, by contrast, are designed to invoke a mood or idea or give an appealing appearance to a particular product. Neither the location nor the timing nor the identities of people involved are of great importance, so captions can be brief.

One of most important difference between these two types of images lies in the need for model releases. The vast majority of editorial uses do NOT require model releases, while the vast majority of commercial images do. For more on this issue read Model Releases.

Putting these categories together and adding a few others, we can distinguish 7 types of photographers.

7 Types of Photographers

Using the two distinctions above, we can immediate distinguish four categories of photographers.

1. First, there are editorial stock photographers who take their own images and concentrate on selling those images in book, magazine, and similar markets. Two good, well-known examples are John Shaw and Ron Engh.

2. Second, there are editorial assignment photographers. These people are sent on assignment by major magazines and publishers. The classic example is a National Geographhic assignment photographer. As a general trend, such editorial assignments are increasingly rare, limited to the largest (and best funded) magazines and publishers. Most editorial outlets increasingly rely on editorial stock photographers for their images.

3. Third, commercial stock photographers are stock shooters who specialize in creative imagery for advertising. They come up with creative themes and concepts to illustrate with their photography, and often take their images at home or in studios with controlled lighting. They also hire models to shoot “lifestyle” images that capture situations and emotions and relationships in ways that are likely to be useful for advertisers. Most commercial stock photographers work with major stock agencies. A good example here is Lee Frost.

4. Fourth, commercial assignment photographers are those generally hired directly by companies to take specific images for advertising purposes. These assignments may include fashion shoots to advertise beauty products, product shots for catalogues, or architectural shots for corporate brochures. An important sub-category here are those who make a living through their own portrait studios, often working directly with end consumer rather than with corporate buyers.

In addition to these four categories, it might be useful to distinguish four sub-categories of photographers who technically fall into one of the fall categories above, but who represent such a large or unique group that they could be considered separate.

5. There are event photographers, those who shoot weddings and other special events. Event photographers are essentially commercial assignment photographers, but who work with end consumers rather than corporate entities and who constitute such an important industry to be a category in their own right.

6. There are print sellers, who make a living selling prints either online or at art exhibitions or fairs. They are essentially an editorial stock photographers, but rather than selling to magazines and publishers, they sell retail fine art prints to end consumers. An interesting example here is Dan Heller, who has built a successful business with a blend of commercial assignments and online print sales.

7. There are staff photographers who are directly employed as full time photographers for major national magazines and newspapers. Unlike the freelance photographer, they have regular employment with benefits and insurance, and a much more rigid schedule.

8. Finally there are the artists. Artists are less focused on photography as a business. They have often attended photography schools, and either enjoy photography for its own sake or strive to compete for places in the best-known galleries. Here, the approval of art critics is more important than making money, although the two may ultimately go well together. The world of high art photography operates according to its own rules. You should consider studying photography formally, and should try to establish links to art directors and photographers doing the type of work you like.

Combining Models

The distinctions between the business models above are important. But unless you are already a well-established photographer (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this), you will almost certainly need to blend several of the models above. Indeed, even most established professionals do a blend of stock and assignment shooting, and perhaps even a blend of editorial and commercial work. Combining models is crucial because in the competitive world of photography today, you probably can’t make enough revenue to survive from just one type of activity.

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Am I missing any? Let me know in the comments if so.