• Asked by
• Kyla Price
• |
• July 20, 2011
• |
• Nobody else has this question

Can we use one of your images for free?

Hello Mr. Arcurs

Several months ago our church was looking for a photo of diverse people that would do a good job of representing our church. We found one of your photos online, and at the time, I thought that the photo was royalty free. You entitled the photo, "Closeup portrait of business colleagues holding each other and laughing."

It has been brought to my attention that I need to determine if a license is necessary, because we are unsure if the photo is actually royalty free. I am wondering if you would allow us to use this photo royalty free since we are a small church? If not, could you please advise me as to the lowest-priced licensing option? Today I looked online and found the photo for over $200 but I'm hoping there is a more affordable route for our use of the photo. Thanks!

Kyla Price

• Answered by
• Yuri
• |
• July 20, 2011
• |
• 1 person likes this

Thank you for taking an interest in my images.

I just need to clarify something first: "Royalty free" does not mean "free". "Royalty free" means that you buy it for a set price, and then you do not pay any further royalties for each use or volume sold containing the image. In the old days, you would have to pay a specific percentage to the artist (in this case, the photographer) each time you sold a coffee mug displaying his picture on the side. With royalty free images, you buy the image for a specific usage, and then there are no further costs.

If you are using one of my images without being in possession of a license agreement, you are violating the law. I completely understand that you are on a tight budget and that 200 USD is a lot of money, but you might be facing legal actions from the stock agency selling the image, and this can potentially come to a lot more than 200 USD. I hope you understand this.

I would love to give away images to charity and good causes. But after having done this several times in the past, we have come to find out that this is a very time consuming thing to do compared to what we stand to gain from it. So for now, I am sorry to say that we do not do this anymore. The time spent on accepting, rejecting and following up on free projects was simply too high. But the prices on this site is very low, so I hope you will be able to purchase the image in question here instead of going to another agency (you can buy images for as little as 1USD on this site). If not, I would suggest you found a sponsor who would be able to purchase the image to you. :)

Sorry, but as of now, this is the only way of doing it.

Best Regards
Yuri Arcurs