Several readers have asked me where and how I find the photos I use with posts on this blog, so I thought I would share some tips and resources to help you find great images for your blog posts. In this post, we are going to talk about where to find photos and other images you can legally use. An upcoming post will discuss how to choose interesting images.
You should never just grab an image from someone else’s website or from a Google image search. Most of the images you discover that way are covered by copyright, and using them without permission is illegal (not to mention unethical).
What images may you legally use? There are many sources for images, including:
Photos you took;
Drawings and illustrations you created;
Images in the public domain;
Licensed images; and
Images the owners permit others to use.
First the easy one: If you took the photo or drew the picture, you own it and may use it any way you choose. There are a few caveats here, though. You may not draw a picture of a copyrighted character, or other image that has legal protection (such as Mickey Mouse or other cartoon characters). If you take a picture of people, you may need a model release to use the photo publicly. And you should never use a picture of a famous person (or anyone, for that matter) in a way that implies they have endorsed your product or service if they have not.
There are millions of images in the public domain. Photos and other images fall into the public domain because (1) the copyright has expired, (2) they were never eligible for copyright protection or (3) the owner has released the work into the public domain.
Copyright law varies from country to country, but in the United States, works created before 1923 are in the public domain. Works created by employees of the Federal government, as part of their duties, are generally not eligible for copyright. And there are people who give up their copyrights and allow their works to enter the public domain.
You can find images from the Federal government by doing a search at http://USA.gov/. Before using any photos or graphics from a government website, check the licensing or rights information on the site. Some images are not government works and are covered by copyrights.
Two sites for images contributed to the public domain are http://www.photos8.com/ and http://www.public-domain-photos.com/.
Licensed images include photos and illustrations from stock photo collections. You may license individual images, buy CDs or DVDs containing image collections, or subscribe to a website such as ClipArt.com. When using licensed images, be sure to read the license. For example, some may not be used in commercial projects. Some may limit the number of images from the collection that may be used in one project.
There are many people who allow use of their photos under certain circumstances. They may require that you give them credit and/or a link, or that you get their permission before using the image. You can do a search of images you may use from flickr.com by doing a search at search.CreativeCommons.org. The terms of Creative Commons licenses vary, so read the license for the photo you want before using it. Make sure you properly attribute the images you use, according to the wishes of the copyright holder.
Images make your blog posts more interesting to readers. In an upcoming article, I will share tips on how to find the images that will grab the attention of your readers.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Johnnie // Nov 9, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Thanks so much for these resources.
2 Unsigned Band Promotion // Nov 10, 2009 at 3:55 am
…just what I was looking for
Thanx.
As a sort of footnote, and I’m sure you must have covered this elsewhere (I didn’t look …sorry), I get quite a number of people copying my work (written). I always email and complain, 99% apologize and remove the article. However, all I really want them to do is attribute the work to me and give me a link but, they don’t seem to want to do that? Odd! Anyway, the last plagiarist replied, “It’s good information, but also extremely generic” – Well it wasn’t when I wrote it, I said! And I think that’s the problem with images, do a search for some images and you get the same one served up manyfold, so it’s hard to resist saying, “it’s extremely generic, no-one will care”.
O.K. now I’m off to join BloggerLinkUp – cheers.
luv
ian
3 Samantha Lern Spiele // Nov 10, 2009 at 4:42 am
Great post! Thanks for the websites, I was looking for some pictures to use in my blog and did have no idea where to find them…
4 Cathy Stucker // Nov 10, 2009 at 7:16 am
I did address the question on what to do about plagiarism in an article on IdeaLady.com. You might want to take a look. http://idealady.com/article/what_to_do_about_plagiarism/
5 Joel Friedlander // Nov 17, 2009 at 12:07 am
Cathy,
Thanks for the links. The government images is an interesting angle. I’ve known entrepreneurs in the past who created entire businesses out of reprinting works originally published by the US Government Printing Office. No authors to deal with, no royalties to pay. Not that many people know that virtually all of the government publications are in the public domain. Thanks for the links to the image sites, I’ll use these.
6 ArtisanontheEdge.com » Sprixi Helps You Find Relevant and Free Images – Creative Commons – Lifehacker // Jan 5, 2010 at 5:14 pm
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