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Stock photography refers to the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses such as magazine publishing or pamphlet-making. According to The New York Times, as of 2005, "most" book cover designers prefer stock photography agencies over photographers in efforts to save costs. Publishers can then purchase photographs on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis.
Established models of stock photography include:
  1. Macrostock: High-priced and exclusive stock photography, also known as traditional stock photography
  2. Midstock: Stock photography priced between micro stock and macro stock which is often used online
  3. Microstock: Low-priced and inclusive stock photography. In competition to traditional agencies, microstock photography is a relatively new model of stock photography which is available through agencies that sell images for lower prices but in greater volume.
According to The New York Times, conventional stock agencies charge from several hundred to several thousands American dollars per image, and "base fees on the published size of an image, circulation and other factors." Microstock photos may sell for as little as USD 25 cents. Professional stock photographers traditionally place their images with one or more stock agencies on a contractual basis, with a defined commission basis and specified contract term. The industry standard is purportedly 30 to 50 percent to the photographer, although at the start of the stock photography industry, fees were typically cut half and half between the agency and artist. Other stock agencies may accept the high-quality photos of amateur photographers through online submission.
Some online photo websites have created unique software to search for fitting stock photos, for example searching for complicated keyword combinations, color, shapes, and "moods." Other search engines may seek to quantify the best photos by looking for elements as diverse as "bright lights," "evidence of emotional connections between people," and the tilt of faces.

Styles and trends

Traditional stock photo agencies have large catalogues that may include press archives and works by notable photographers such as Bert Hardy, Bill Brandt, Weegee and Ernst Haas. More recent trends in microstock photography include "lifestyle" photographs of people "at work and play," food, sports, and fashion. Other stock photo themes may include stereotypes, expressing common emotions and gesticulations, pets, and images related to travel and tourism.
In the early 1990s, the stock industry focused on "conceptual images," which could encapsulate themes such as "global communication, success, and teamwork." After the consolidation of many stock photo agencies in the 1990s and early 2000s, new companies began focusing in "niche collections" including "medical, science, minorities, gay and lesbian lifestyles, aviation, maps, panoramic, historical, sports, and celebrity homes." Opined Megan Garber of The Atlantic in 2012, "one of the more wacky/wondrous elements of stock photos is the manner in which, as a genre, they've developed a unifying editorial sensibility. To see a stock image is, Potter Stewart-style, to know you're seeing a stock image. And while stock images' stockiness may be in part due to the common visual tropes that give them their easy, cheesy impact - prettiness, preciousness, pose-iness - there's part of it that's more ephemeral, too. Though they have little in common, shots of a German Shepherd typing on a laptop and a man contemplating the sunset can both be, in their special way, stocky."

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