Big Stock Agencies

The obvious places to start are the big mainstream picture agencies – Getty, Alamy, Rex, Shutterstock and Camera Press. For editorial use, picture editors usually opt for royalty free licenses because they are affordable (a one-use fee). Prices vary depending on circulation, distribution, size of image and the agency but it is usually possible find a good shot for around £150.

Smaller Stock Agencies

Picture editors also use smaller, specialist stock agencies, such as Gap Photos for garden and plant photography, Robert Harding World Imagery for travel and nature, Lickerish and Loupe Images for lifestyle, Millennium Images for contemporary photography, Science Photo Library for science and medicine, Stock Food for food photography, Trevellion for creative images and Stocktrek Images for astronomy, dinosaurs, medical, military, ocean life and sci-fi(!)

Free Stock Agencies

Alternatively, the newer free stock libraries, such as Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay and Skitterphoto can be a good bet but photographers share their photos on these platforms for free to get visibility for their work so remember to credit them.

However, the real secret to finding unique photos is to avoid stock agencies altogether. Stock can lack spontaneity and emotion, which are vital if you want your readers to connect with the story (and your brand). Here are my go-to libraries for eye-catching and original shots:

Public Domain

There are also some picture libraries dedicated to historical public domain photos. The British Library released one million images into the public domain in 2013. Scanned from the pages of books from the 17th, 18th and 19th century, the collection is hosted on Flickr. The Public Domain Review is a curated selection of public domain photos, illustrations, art, audio, films and texts. It’s particularly good for weird and quirky old images. Viintage has thousands of creative public domain images from the past, including art posters and adverts and Old Book Illustrations is a collection of public domain illustrations scanned from old books.

When using a free public domain image it’s important to double-check the terms of the license to ensure it is free to use in the country you are in (the laws regarding public domain images can be different in different countries) and that the license covers the usage you are planning. If in doubt, call and talk to one of the agents at the library. Every case is unique, things can go wrong and you don’t want to be caught out.

Press Archives

Press archives can be a fantastic resource. The TopFoto archive is made up of millions of original negatives and hardcopy prints from a number of thriving 20th century historic British press agencies from the glory days of Fleet Street (c. 1905 – 1969). They cover a vast range of topics and are usually willing to digitise images. Mirrorpix is one of the largest intact historical and contemporary British photographic press collections. A vast amount of images have not been scanned digitally so it is always worth asking the archivists to look through their prints and negatives. The BBC also has an amazing image library as does The New York Times.

News Agencies

The Press Association, Associated Press, Reuters and the European Press Photo Agency are a great bet for editorial and breaking news shots.

Museums and Galleries

There are many other organisations with extensive collections of photos. The Imperial War Museum archive is particularly well regarded as are the National Army Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A and National Maritime Museum image libraries. However, it does take time and patience to research and order images. The National Trust and Historic England also have great collections.

Reverse Image Searches

Sometimes people find images on Google that they want to use. You can click on the image but the place it is published may well not be its licensable home and it can be a minefield trying to work out where it originated from. The reverse image search engine Tin-Eye is helpful in these instances.

Remember you may need to use different pictures for the thumbnail and main banner image at the top of the piece because a lot of images just don’t work when they are very small. The thumbnail image is really important: it’s the shot that will entice people to click and read the story. Simple and grabby usually works best.

There are millions of images out there. It seems simple at first but you can be bamboozled by so much choice and it takes practice to find the right images.