Model and Property releases

• A model release is a legal document signed by the person(s) appearing in your image. If your image features a recognizable person or people then you will need to get them to sign a model release as this will ensure you have the rights to use the image commercially.

• A person is considered recognizable when they can be identified by themself or by other people who know them. This doesn’t only mean a visible face – it includes being identifiable from a silhouette, tattoo, scar, birthmark or other unique feature.

• A property release is a legal document signed by the owner of a building or private property appearing in your image. By signing the property release the owner is giving you permission to use the image commercially. You will need a signed property release for private homes and buildings, places where businesses are conducted and commercial venues, whether you shoot internally or externally – if they can be recognized. (A generic white wall would not usually require a release).

• You can download model and property releases and find more information here

Releases and Image Upload

• You don’t need to upload releases at the time you upload your images, but you will need to say if you have the relevant releases, or the images will not be considered for commercial use.

• Once your image has been approved, you will need to upload any relevant releases to the RooM website ASAP. Your image will not be offered for sale until this is done and it will be removed from the system and rejected if it is not done in good time.

Image upload size guide

• We select your images because they look great, but all your images do need to be big enough to be offered for commercial sale.

• Very small images lose too much detail and quality when they are sized up and that means we can’t sell them.

• We look at the Megapixel size when we check an image because it gives an indication of the image quality when that image is viewed at different sizes.

• Cropping, zooming and applying certain filters to an image can reduce the file size, so please send us the best version of each image - that is the largest file size, which should be 3MP

Images with recognizable branding on things like clothing, products (including technology) or sports equipment are not permitted for sale, as they are the property of someone else.

Often it is possible to remove small logos and branding quickly and easily - there are a number of options for retouching images.

We recommend the following:

• For computer-based editing - Photoshop (paid) or GIMP (free)
• For editing on your phone - TouchRetouch (free) or Filterstorm (paid)

You must retouch like a Pro though, or your images will be rejected as below par quality – we only accept perfect images, so make sure your retouching is perfect too.

Metadata is very important and will need to be completed before your image can go on sale.

This is an essential requirement; it’s a short description of your image. It should describe the subject and what's happening in the image in ideally 3-8 words.

The caption information is vital because it is one of the main ways that enable image buyers to find your image.

Keywords are individual words that describe your image. You need to add a minimum of four keywords to your image, that cover the obvious elements of your subject but they have to be relevant.

Keywords are important because they are the primary way that image buyers search for images.

Image buyers often need more information about an image before they will buy it. By adding more info to your image you are making it more likely to be found and therefore sell.