Stock Photos of China - Stock Exposures

Do I have to register to view images?

No, please feel free to browse through our online library. To view larger versions of the images, just click on the thumbnail. Although all the larger images are watermarked to protect the work of our photographers and artists, downloaded images are free of any watermarkings, copyrights etc.

Do I have to pay to register?

No, it's free to register. As a registered member you'll have the added benefit of being able to use a lightbox feature to save and view images for future use, and you can email your lightbox to share with friends, family, colleagues and clients.

How do I register with Stock Exposures?

Just visit our signup page and fill in the required fields.

You don't appear to have many images, how often do you add new ones?

We are a new site and we are adding new images on a daily basis, but at the same time we are only accepting the highest quality images, so creating a large database will take some time. We ask that you bear with us and keep returning to see what new images are available.

Are my credit card/PayPal details safe with you?

We don't ask for any credit card details or PayPal information. When you checkout you are automatically transferred to PayPal's secure servers and the payment side of the business is done there. Once PayPal has confirmed your transaction, you will automatically be transferred back to Stock Exposures so that you can download your image/s.

What do I do if I forget my password?

If you forget your password it's no problem. Passwords are kept securely encrypted on our server so if you forget it at any time, just click here and you can request for your password to be sent to you.

Can I buy a subscription package?

No, we don't offer subscription packages. When designing this website we looked at other stock photo websites and saw all the different subscription and credit packages available and found that many sites had so many different packages that it was overwhelming. We decided to keep it simple and let customers purchase however many images they wanted, whenever they wanted, without having to think about when their subscription expires, renews and how many images they have left to download etc.

Can I download the images I purchase straight away?

Yes, as soon as Paypal records the status of your transaction as "completed", you will automatically be redirected back to the site where the images you've purchased will be ready for you to download in your "My orders" section.

Will the images I purchase be watermarked?

No, our images are only watermarked on screen to protect our photographer's work from illegal copying and usage. Apart from our free comp images, which are watermarked, all the images you download will be clean and without watermarks, copyright notices, frames etc.

What different sizes do you offer for download?

We offer four different image sizesunder our Standard Royalty-Free license, plus we also offer an Extended Royalty-Free license and an Editorial license for the largest sizes of images:

Thumbnail - 200 pixels
Medium - 600 pixels
High - 1024 pixels
Original resolution - varies - Standard Royalty-Free license
Original resolution - varies - Extended Royalty-Free license
Original resolution - varies - Editorial license

Why don't you offer lower resolutions at 300dpi?

Due to server software restraints and the way our system works, we can only currently offer lower resolution images at 72dpi, however these sizes are ideal for web viewing and for making smaller prints. For larger prints we recommend downloading the original version of images, which will be at the highest resolution originally uploaded and at 300dpi. In the near future we hope to implement a new system with a lot more features, which will enable the downloading of smaller-sized images at 300dpi.

Do you have any free images?

No, we don’t currently offer any free images.

I downloaded the wrong size, can I upgrade it?

We can't offer upgrades, but if you contact us we can invoice you for the difference and send you the larger image.

I have changed my mind about my purchase, can I have a refund?

Due to the nature of offering images for sale, which can be download instantly to customers' hard-drives, I'm afraid we are unable to offer refunds in this case. We can only offer a refund if the original image downloaded has somehow slipped through our quality control process and is found to be defective.

Do you offer refunds?

We can only offer a refund when the original image downloaded is found to be defective. By defective, we mean that is has slipped through our strict quality control process and is found to contain dust spots / scratches / excessive blur / excessive under-exposure or over-exposure / obviously incorrect white balance / excessive post-processing, and cannot be repaired or restored to a usable state using Photoshop or any other imaging software.

What are Royalty Free images?

Royalty free images and the royalty free license means that you just pay to download images once and you can use them for as long as you like and pretty much however you like. The only restrictions are that you don’t use them for commercial purposes or for commercial gain, you don't resell the images or post them on the internet in a way that others could download and sell the images, and that you don’t use them in any way that is defamatory, pornographic, libellous or humiliating to any recognizable person in the image.

The benefits of Stock Exposures’ Royalty free images are numerous:
1) They are available in a variety of sizes to suit your design needs and budget.
2) The process is simple. Just signup, browse and select the images and sizes you want, add them to your shopping cart, checkout and then download them.
3) You can buy images 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and download them instantly.
4) The price you see is the price you pay. There are no hidden costs, no complicated rights restrictions and no time-consuming negotiations.
5) Our Royalty free stock images are priced at a level where they won’t saturate and dilute the royalty free market, yet are still affordable and cheaper than rights-managed images, so the chances of somebody else, in the same business, in the same area, at the same time, having the same image as you, is pretty slim.
6) Our photographers have only ever displayed their images on Chinese websites before. This is the first time that they have ever been offered to any other countries in the world, on an English website. Be the first to download one of their images and you’ll have the next best thing to exclusivity, at a fraction of the price!
7) Do you need an exclusive, attention-grabbing main image? Instead of going to the expense of paying for one single exclusive, rights-managed or rights-protected image, a lot of designers these days are creating just as powerful center-stage images by combining a selection of royalty-free images and producing a unique, one of a kind image that creates an impact and assures them exclusivity that way. What would be the odds of someone else downloading the same images as you and creating the exact same, eye-catching image from them as you?
8) If you do have one main, rights-managed or rights-protected image, then royalty free images make great support images to add that little bit extra to your advertising or marketing campaign, or whatever your design requirements.

Why would I need an Extended Royalty-Free license?

Our Standard Royalty-Free license only permits the use of images for personal use, whether that is for personal pleasure, or for personal business use. If you want to use the image to make physical or digital merchandise, share it with other people in your company or make large print runs, then you will need an Extended license.

The benefits of Stock Exposures’ Extended Royalty-free license are:
1) Printed items for resale - You can use the image on merchandise that you sell such as posters, greeting cards, prints, postcards etc. up to a maximum of 10,000 copies.
2) Digital items for resale - You may use the image on digital merchandise for resale such as website templates, e-cards, document templates, screensavers, or similar products up to a maximum of 10,000 items.
3) Multi-seat usage - You can share the image with an unlimited number of persons WITHIN your organisation.
4) Large print runs - up to a maximum of 500,000 copies.

Full details of our Extended Royalty-Free license can be found here

Why would I need an Editorial license?

Editorial images are used in direct connection with current event stories, news and political stories, social and cultural scenes. Although a model release or a property release is not needed with editorial images, images bought with an Editorial license cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Stock Exposures’ Full Editorial license can be used as:
1) Editorial illustration in printed magazines and newspapers, or other periodicals.
2) Editorial illustration in online news articles, blogs or newsletters.
3) Materials for Personal, Non-Commercial, Non-Editorial use and Test or sample use.

Full details of our Full Editorial license can be found here

Why do I have to buy the Extended RF license or the Editorial license seperately?

This is purely the way our system is set up. In the future it will be redesigned so that all image sizes and all types of licenses can be bought as one unit.

Why don't you sell Rights-Managed licenses?

Purely because our system doesn't have the support for that at present. We could do it, but it wouldn't be a very smooth procedure for customers. We are planning on implementing a new system in the future, which will incorporate full search and pricing functionality for rights-managed licenses.

Why don't you sell cheap CDs with lots of images on them?

We may sell CDs in the future, but they won't be cheap as ours will contain 100% high quality, usable images.

Do I need a model release?

Only you can decide if you need a model release because you will be using the image and it really depends on how you’re going to use the image. This is a grey area as there are so many inclusions for when you do need one and so many exclusions when you don’t need one. At the end of the day, the person/company/organization publishing the image is the one who assumes all responsibility for obtaining a license if one is needed, and we will help you as much as we can. We make templates for model releases accessible to all of our photographers and we ask that they include a signed model release with every image they send us that includes the recognizable face of a person. Sometimes that’s just not possible for them to do. All of our images are clearly keyworded “model released” if they do have a signed model release.

If you find an image you like, that isn’t marked as having a model release and you feel that you may need one, then just let us know and we will get in touch with the photographer and see if we can get one for you.

Do I need a property release?

A property release is only needed if the building or property is copyrighted or trademarked, in which case a signed property release would be required from the copyright or trademark owner. We make templates for property releases accessible to all of our photographers and we ask that they include a signed property release with every image they send us that includes a property that is copyrighted or trademarked. Sometimes that's just not possible for them to do. All of our images are clearly keyworded “property released” if they do have a signed property release.

Why don't you sell all kinds of images like other stock photo sites?

When designing the site, it would have been easy to go down the same road as so many other stock photo and microstock sites out there, but we decided to focus on one area and try and create the very best niche site we could, specializing in stock photos of China.

Can I make a request for images?

Please do. If there is anything in particular you are looking for that you can't find, just post a message in our forum or contact us and we will let our photographers know. They will do their best to find a suitable image for you.