We made the point a couple of months back that not all digital photographs are equal, and that some may even detract from the professional appearance of the site (see "The Perils of Amateur Photography".)
This month, we'd like to share some answers to common questions we hear all the time about the stock images we use.

Question: How do you come up with such great images for our site?

Answer: Well, thanks. Actually, it can be quite challenging. We use a combination of stock photography houses, and perform keyword searches to find the right images. Sometimes the search can be straightforward. It's easy to find some images -- especially business-related ones. The more esoteric the need, however, the more we have to dig. It can be time consuming and frustrating. But it is also an intriguing and creative part of the design process.

Question: What's the difference between rights managed and royalty free?

Answer: A rights managed photo is priced according to use, and is given to you exclusively for a specific period of time. So if you need a photo for a brochure cover, it will be more expensive than one for inside a brochure -- alternatively, a homepage image would be more expensive than one used on a content page. One advantage to using rights managed photos is that they are exclusive -- you won't find them in other people's marketing material. They are also often higher quality images. The disadvantage is that they are so much more expensive, of course.

A royalty free image is much less expensive, and is priced by image size rather than any other concerns. IMA tries to use royalty free images whenever possible, because the cost differential can be considerable.

Question: So how much does IMA mark up the images?

Answer: We just pass through the costs to the client.

Question: Why does an image I want to buy for print cost more than one I want to buy for the web?

Answer: Because you only need a resolution of 72 DPI (dots per inch) on screen -- higher resolutions are wasted online. But for print, you will want a resolution of 300 DPI as a minimum -- and possibly even 600 DPI for truly high quality printing.

Question: Is this why the last time I asked you for an image from my web site to go into my company brochure, you told me I'd need to repurchase it?

Answer: That's exactly why. Let us know when we purchase a royalty free image if you ever intend to use it in print, because we can "dumb down" the resolution for your on-line needs, but we can't sharpen a low resolution image so it prints clearly.

Question: When does it make sense for me to hire a photographer, rather than use stock photos?

Answer: Well, a lot has to do with the image you're trying to project. If you're featuring your own product line, it makes sense to have a photographer take those images. If your business is so unique that it would be difficult to communicate in standard images, then, too, a photographer might make sense.