Stock Agencies and Image Collections
Over 200 partners – one platform
Over 10 million images from more than 200 stock agencies – and the number keeps growing! Strandperle offers a huge selection of high-quality collections from the world's best agencies, with a focus on European visual language. On the licensing side, we have access to a very large amount of RF material – royalty-free images. Bought once, usable anytime and anywhere. But we also have a number of high-quality, rights-managed collections, for when things need to be more exclusive. And whatever you can't find on our site, whether from a specialist archive or one of the many microstock agencies, we can source for you too. So that with just one call you get everything from a single source!
Finding the right stock agency
The German stock agency landscape, despite the market dominance of the global players Getty Images and Corbis, is still relatively diverse. The German Federal Association of Professional Image Providers (BVPA) currently counts 83 member agencies, and a distinction should be drawn between press agencies (dpa picture alliance, bullspress, sz-photo etc.) and agencies that primarily offer commercial image material. Unlike the large microstock agencies that also operate globally or are subsidiaries of Getty or Corbis (istockphoto / veer), most German agencies serve the classic price bracket. The high density of agencies easily conceals the problem of identical image material, though. Digital reproducibility has led to photographers hardly signing exclusive contracts anymore. Pros, but also ambitious amateurs, increasingly bet on making the larger cut via distribution across many agencies. A clear profile is thus shown only by few providers. Often these are specialist agencies that have committed to a specific topic or format. As examples: maground (backgrounds, CGI), OKAPIA (wildlife, science), docstock (medicine), dieKleinert (illustrations) and laif (reportage).
A further problem is the widespread internationalisation of image production. The global players, but also some German agencies, select their images to work for the world market. Such productions can then of course not be used for regional campaigns. Fortunately, there are agencies like F1online or Westend61 who have recognised this problem and deliberately focus on a European visual language. In the people area, less is played on multi-ethnicity and more on a "Caucasian" look. Of course, the visual language also encompasses depicted products, places, the context as well as a specific style (less glossy surfaces and natural colour treatment are, for instance, more typically European).
A really good stock agency, however, doesn't just market – it also offers comprehensive customer service. Image research, licensing and rights clearance would be the first things to mention. In addition, the agency of your choice should provide a modern search engine. With innovative search functions such as similarity or colour search, you can locate your desired motif much better than with conventional technologies alone.
There are, incidentally, also cross-agency platforms. In Germany these are my-picturemaxx and Fotofinder. There, the image stock of numerous agencies can be queried at the same time. However, the number of hits displayed is often so high that you easily get lost in the flood of pictures. If you want the full service and additionally want to use the option of negotiating prices directly (e.g. package prices for RF or RM material), you should turn to a service provider like Strandperle, or to a provider whose business model goes beyond providing an online image database – in other words, an agency that employs experienced staff who know about licensing and legal questions and whom you can speak to personally.
Buying royalty-free images – Royalty Free (RF)
All important European stock agencies are on board. Whether it's Ojo or Image-Source from the UK, Johner and Maskot from Sweden, Photo Alto and Onoky from France or Westend61 and fStop from Germany. And besides the better-known, larger agencies, we have a whole range of creative newcomers and niche providers.
What exactly is RF? RF stands for royalty-free, meaning: the image can be used without restriction, regardless of how often, in which media and at what circulation. The term is misleading and not strictly correct, since of course you do acquire a license when purchasing such an image, but it is free of usage declaration. The great advantage of this type of image is the relatively unproblematic use, especially in advertising, because once it is bought, it remains usable again and again. That way you don't have to re-license a motif if the client later wants to use additional media with the motif. But: they also can't acquire it exclusively, so a competitor can run the same image on air.
Rights-managed images – Rights Managed (RM)
You'll also find a wealth of small, refined collections for special projects on our platform, which you can license according to use. Whether for a customer magazine with a smaller circulation or as an exclusive cover motif. For example, the travel images by Robert Harding or Prisma are on our site, as are the architecture archives of Space- and Novarc-Images, as well as the nature images of Alaska-Stock and FLPA and the automotive specialist Drive Images.
And what does RM stand for? It stands for rights-managed, meaning: the price for the image is calculated from several factors, such as distribution area, circulation, reproduction size or type of medium. The basis for pricing, especially with German agencies, is often the MFM = Mittelstandsgemeinschaft Foto-Marketing, otherwise the agency calculates the image price individually. The particular advantage of this licensing: you can acquire an image exclusively for a specific period, for a specific distribution area and for a specific industry, though this of course also significantly raises the price depending on the exclusivity.
Microstock images and image databases
This category includes all stock agencies – or rather image platforms – that only sell their material online and without additional service. They offer it extremely cheaply and don't produce themselves; it's mostly contributed by amateur and professional photographers alike. Well-known, large microstock agencies are iStockphoto, Fotolia and Shutterstock. We are happy to support you with these photos as well, whether in research, cost calculation or purchasing.
A quick word on the term microstock: it comes from micropayment, which means extremely low prices. These agencies offer photos that cost roughly between one and 100 Euros and are bought with so-called credits. If your budget is tight, that's the right solution to still be able to use images. Usually you acquire a simple license, which can, however, be restricted in usage per the agency's terms – be it in frequency of use, circulation or number of users (e.g. multi-seat license for image databases). And not only here do the terms differ considerably, so you should look closely at what you're buying and what exact usage is attached to it. From a business perspective, microstock images are mainly recommended for larger projects as affordable "filler material"; for a big campaign, they are rather not advised.
License stock photos and images with Strandperle
With the abundance of stock agencies in the German-speaking region, the decisive factor when choosing the right agency is often: getting to the image material as easily as possible. At Strandperle we therefore focus on the intuitive usability and accessibility of our image archives. Because it can be frustrating to have a specific motif in mind but simply not find the photos or images that match your imagination.
Strandperle sees itself as a stock agency whose priority is to support your creative process with the image material you need. We take a mediating role between photographers and designers on one side, and end clients looking for the optimal image on the other. Our offering is built so that our image database, on the one hand, is searched by keyword for a fitting image. The presented image selection can then be further narrowed down by additional specifications. Thanks to the many options for combining characteristics, you will intuitively and easily find the right image or photo to suit your purpose at stock agency Strandperle.
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Miriam Callesen
Christiane Nehring
Nicolas Schütz