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There is a lot of noise about stock photography, but many are still unaware of all the possibilities that come with it, even though this term has been with us for quite some time now. What most people are already familiar with is that the term represents images that are uploaded to a stock network.  Every user can easily find these images by a simple search, and of course, since these photos are licensed, the photographer still owns the rights over those images.

Now, since we have settled this, we can spend more time on how to buy stock photos.

Choose the best stock photo site

Once you start the search for the best stock photo, it is impossible not to notice that there are many different websites that offer us this type of photo, and choosing the best one can be pretty challenging. Reading the reviews can be pretty helpful in this situation, especially if you want to download a photo from some less-known website because people are willing to write down their opinions. If some website is not famous like Shutterstock or Flickr, it does not mean that it does not have a great and reliable offer, and giving them a chance can be a win-win situation for both of you.

Know the difference between royalty-free (RF) and rights-managed (RM)

Both of these two terms are used to describe licensing, and while royalty-free ones are much widely accepted, rights-managed ones, on the other hand, are more specific and unique, meaning that not everyone can have the use of them, and, more importantly, you will need to specify for how long you will be using some image. After reading this, you may wonder why anyone would want to use RM images? The reason is simple, and if you want a unique image, the one that's not been downloaded for thousand times and the one you won't find in every possible stock library, the RM licensed images are the way to go.

Use the advantage of free trials

Almost all stock photo websites require a monthly subscription in order to download images. Another option is to pay for one image if you do not need more of them, but it is always more expensive in the end. Paying the monthly subscription can be a huge obligation, and it is not something that many people decide to do without checking the opportunities that the website offers, and that is when free trials jump in. It is a big advantage of these websites, and it literally means that we have some period when we can check the website and its offer and decide if we want to continue using their services. The great thing is that we can choose a few of them, start a free trial, and then decide which one of them we want to continue using.

Learn the file formats and sizes

This may seem like an obvious thing, but choosing a file format that suits your purposes the most is something you should know about. Namely, jpg is a widely accepted format because it's well-optimized. On the other hand, for animations, the GIF file format is what you want, and for more transparency, you should look for PNG. These three are the most popular, and some of the other file formats that you may stumble across are EPSs and SVGs, which are great when you need a vector file format.

As for the size, it all depends on what you need, but images of 200kb are great for websites, as they will not threaten the site's performance. In the end, everything up to 500kb will do the purpose, and everything above this limit will do more harm than good for your website, performance-wise.