Where did you get that photo?
One of my growing pains with building a website, blog writing, and article writing isn't about SEO ranking or which affiliate companies are better than others (yet!). It's where to find photographs and other images I may use without infringing on anyone's copyrights. I'd like to only use my own photos, but I can't quite do this yet. So, what to do?
Well, I stopped everything last night and gave myself a crash course on copyright definitions and where to find good sources of photos I may use without worry. Plus, I would really like to give credit to all the talented photographers out there. They capture beauty and humor among other things , and you've heard "a picture is worth a thousand words." In other words, they deserve credit!
I thought this may be a hurdle for you. Therefore, I decided to share here what I've found:
After some searching, I found a pretty thorough and really helpful article titled "Finding and Using Images from the Web" at TechSoup.org. You should be able to find that article in a search quickly with the title and domain name. I'd leave the link here, but I think it's a no-no. -Wait! I can do it. Here's a handy link:http://www.techsoup.org/support/articles-and-how-tos/finding-and-using-images-from-the-web
Within the article, you may find definitions of terms and policies that fall under copyright laws. I found it very helpful to understand the differences. For example, I now know the difference between an "copyright free" image and an "open-licensed" image is.
Also within the article (and perhaps the best part) is a "Browsing Free Online Image Banks" section of a long list of places to go!! So far, I've been using MorgueFile (odd name, I know.) and Flickr. Of course, you can browse around all the other sites. It's just that these two have become my first picks since last night, and actually, I probably continue most with the Flickr link from this site. It's easy to follow and gives detailed info.
It's an important enough topic to post here since so many (so many that one could almost say 'everyone') is ripping photos left and right all over the web! Hope this helps you. I know it was bugging me!
* note - that image I used with this blog is used with permission through MorgueFile :)
** another note - images from MorgueFile don't require linking back or the photographer's name
*** noting big-time - I did it completely correctly, and I am a happy camper!
Recent Comments
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aye - I'm thrilled to have found sources to go to - thank you for reading and sharing :)
Hi, good work and well done for doing it, kathyjf1530 is right, I copied a photo years back thinking what the hell it's only little ol me, who will know ? When It put it on my site it had all sorts of stuff linking back to who knows where that came up when you put your mouse over it so I binned it fast!
melaniekaren, thank you for all your hard work on this one. Usually you can fix a typo by clicking on the Actions button and then Edit, fix your typo and you're good to go!
Nice information. My husband is a professional photographer and he sells some of his work through photo stock agencies. The agencies have programs that search the Internet to find where photos are posted to make sure someone is not using them without permission. There is lots of free and low cost stuff out there so it's best to do it right.
If you would care to check out my husband's site, go to www.firakphoto (dot) com
Kathy, your husbands photos are wonderful!! -and there are a lot of food pics too! lol -those are the ones I need the most (nutrition and healthy eating niche). Thank you for sharing.
It's extra important to me to give an artist credit because my father's music is constantly being file-shared, and illegally downloaded, and played on stations, and sold on ebay - he has never seen a penny of it! We talk about it all the time.
Now, I have thoroughly gone through your husband's portfolios, and he is really really good!! (Of course you know this -eheh)
Thanks for your reply, Melanie. And, I passed your comments on to my hubby. He sends a big Thanks.
That is a shame about your dad's music being snatched on the file share sites. You know, people don't think of it but when they are grabbing music illegally they are showing zero respect for the artist that worked to create what they are enjoying.
.
I believe you can also do a Google search for public domain images. Example: public domain images migraine. You can also visit a website called istockphoto, but I think they are a dollar or 2 each for high quality photos.
You may also want to do a Google search for a program called Irfanview. It's a free program that allows you to resize your photos. You want something under 150 KB or less for faster loading times!
hi :) and thank you. It's been so long. I almost forgot about photo loading times. Back when we were all on dial-up that is exactly what I did with images. Thanks for reminding me.
Hey.
It's worth remembering that many Creative Commons (CC) resources, for example Flickr, are not reliable. You will often find that users have uploaded other people's photos to their streams and they aren't in fact the actual copyright holder and have no right to distribute the work under CC.
If you take a look at this example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53558245@N02/ you'll see the user, daily sunny, has uploaded other photographers work and labelled them as available under Creative Commons. She is not the copyright holder and therefore cannot legally release them for other people to use under CC.
You need to be able to discriminate when using CC or else use other more reliable sources. It's also important to avoid using images of people, private property or worst of all *celebrities* as it's highly unlikely that model and property releases have been signed and usually impossible to verify, leaving you wide open to claims for damages or getting your site *smacked* in a future Google update.
Creative Commons is brilliant if you are willing to invest the time and energy in learning how to use it. If not, then stick to public domain images such as http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/ where the legal niceties have been dealt with for you. If you can't find what you're looking for in the public domain then simply purchase pictures from reputable stock libraries for a dollar or so a time.
Rich.
hello Rick, and yes, you are absolutely correct. I've been reading about it more today. Thank you posting this reply. I've bookmarked the microsoft page from you link. -another good source. Thank you so much.
Here on WA there is a published training lesson as well as anothe blog on the topic. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/where-to-find-images-for-your-website and https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/slayton1s/blog/copyright-pictures -see I wasn't alone and probably should have checked here first last night when I went web searching - lol - perhaps, I've added something new to the pot.
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Hey, thanks for this. I've done similar searches and came away needing to understand more. This really helps!
You are very welcome :) I'm glad I was able to help a little more. I can't express enough how glad I am that I took the time to stop everything and go learn the technical terms of copyrighting and where to find good images I may use worry free! I'm glad I took the time to write about here too, because I am (we are) getting good sources and information in the comments as well.