Need photographic images that can be shared, remixed or reused but do not want to fall foul of copyright laws? Have a look at these websites – they will help you source the images for which you are searching.
If you are working on your latest online article or blog and you include photographs you have sourced from the internet, the very last thing you want is an angry email from the owner of the photograph demanding you take it off your article. Even worse, there is the possibility in these litigious days that you may even receive a cease and desist letter from their attorney. So where are the best places to get free photographic images on the internet?
Do not despair, however. Many photographers get, quite rightly, angry at the abuse, misuse and sheer straightforward appropriation of their work. Imagine how you would feel if another online writer were to simply copy and paste your work on to their own site. Outlines below are the sources that I regularly use. This is not an exhaustive list but you are very likely to be able to source high quality, free and legal photographic images from these sites without incurring the wrath of the copyright owner. In fact, I have had quite a number of people emailing me and thanking for the use of their image which has led to traffic to their own sites. Courtesy is king.
Flickr
I may well be wrong but Flickr must be the largest repository of images on the internet. There are over sixty million images on Flickr and so virtually anything you type in their search engine will lead to a plethora of results. However, beware!
Five sixths of the photos on Flickr are copyrighted to the respective photographer who either took or uploaded them to the site. You may find the image you want but the likelihood is that you will be unable to legally use them. Many photographers do not take kindly to their carefully posed and poised portraits of their feliene friends suddenly appearing as the latest lolcat!
Flickr Creative Commons
Screen Shot by author
However, Flickr has a Creative Commons section. This is when the owners of the images allow others to use them. There are a variety of ways that images can be used, including derivative works. Most of the owners are happy to let you use their images (over twelve million of them) as long as you give them credit for the work. Be very careful here, though. Do not make derivative works if the license does not allow it. Also, if there is a dollar sign with a line through it that means you can use it, but not for commercial purposes. So, if you rely on google ads or adbrite for revenue, then forget about using these images.
Creative Commons
Screen Shot by author
If you want to restrict your self to only images with a creative commons license then that will save you a great deal of time. Although a lot of the images on Flickr are fabulous, not being able to use them only makes one feel hard done by! So, restricting yourself to Creative Commons is a good idea – that way you only see what you can actually use. Creative Commons is excellent for picking up work that can be shared, remixed and reused on Flickr.
One word of advice, though. Many assume that the search on CC for Yahoo and Google images means that the results there can be used without issue. This quite likely will not be the case. If you are publishing through a third party such as Triond or Bukisa then you may be disappointed that they do not allow the images you chose. So, my best advice here is to just do a Flickr search – and make sure to tick the boxes that let you look for work that can be used for commercial purposes or those which you can freely adapt.
Comfight
Screen Shot by author
I do like Flickr and Creative Commons but the interface only allows for a certain amount of images in a search. Compfight allows you do to an identical search to Creative Commons but shows you almost a hundred image results at the same time as thumb nails. This makes the searching faster – if you have a high spec PC and good eyes. Always be careful to flick on the ‘commercial’ search switch and then double check the license before you use any of the images.
Everystockphoto
This website does not host nearly as many images as the others above but it does have over a million. Should your search for usable images go nowhere elsewhere then this is a good site to try. What is neat about this site is that at the bottom left of each thumb nail (produced in a manner similar to that of comfight) it generates a button that you can click on. This will open a new tab in your browser and show the license for that particular photo.
Wikimedia Commons
Image via Wikipedia
Wikimedia contains over four million free images which are out of copyright and so are in the public domain. It is a particularly good site to get images of pictures and places, and older photographs too. It is used extensively for the images on Wikipedia which means that the photos may have some air of familiarity to them. However, you can find some excellent images here. Simply click on the image search and you are away.
Morgue File
Morgue File may sound a little spooky but this is an old term from the printed media business which is the name for a file that held back issues of the publication. The owners of this site hope to make this in to the world’s largest ‘morgue’ file for images that can be reused in creative ways – and good on them for setting about such a gargantuan task! There seems to be around two hundred thousand pictures available for use, which may not seem many when compared to Flickr, but it could just hold the picture that you want. The search engine facility gives it the same speed of search as the others mentioned here. There is, in addition, a folder system (these guys take their roots seriously!) where you can browse categories rather than typing in a search.
As indicated at the top of this article, this is not an exhaustive overview of the sites on the internet where you can acquire images for use on your web page or blog. However, it is hoped that these will help you on your way to image uses without issues!
April 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Another really good site is http://www.morguefile.com/
I have used a lot of their images. All CreativeCommons, commercial use okay with attribution. And all are excellent.
-thestickman
April 5th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Thank you for this very useful information. I have had problems trying to find images for my photos because I don’t know much about the legal side. I am going to bookmark this.
Christine
April 5th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Useful thanks RJ.
I set up a blog and put pictures for others to use, they are my own so feel free to use them.
http://freepicturecatalogue.blogspot.com/
April 5th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Very useful, thanks. I often have problems finding what I want so I tend to use whatever pics are to hand.
April 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Great stuff sites,thank you.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:42 am
great sites to work with. i’m at ease with Flickr though at times I got my photos from wikemedia common.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:22 am
thanks
April 5th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
This is Interesting!
April 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Great resource! Thank you, thank you!
April 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
This is good info to have! Thanks!
April 5th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Thanks for the info RJ. Bookmarked this article for future reference. Thanks for the Digg and using my article in your blog! Much appreciated!
April 5th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I’m a Flickr and Wikimedia addict.
April 5th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Cool info,I’m recently using more and more pictures,this will be helpful.
April 5th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Thanks for the great info. I’m always looking for photos to go with my articles and there is a limit to what we can find on flickr.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
cool sites,beneficial to writers and contributors
April 5th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Good info.
Thanks,
Clay
April 5th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Thank you for this…very helpful and well organized and explained. This clears up a lot of stuff for me and my friends.
April 5th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Thank you so much. This reference will be very helpful for us.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for tips, RJ. Great article.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Thank you for sharing.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:13 am
this is perfect for me and probably lots more out there mate. Nice.
RJ
April 6th, 2009 at 1:18 am
Very thoughtful of you to post this article. It is very useful to most of us on this forum!
Thanks,
Manya
April 6th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Thanks, thestickman – a section on morgue file will be duly added.
Anyone else know other sites worth mentioning? These can be added on too!
April 6th, 2009 at 6:16 am
thanks!
April 6th, 2009 at 8:20 am
One things for sure there are ways to lock down your photos or anything that you do not want anyone else to take borrow or steal. I personally feel that if it is posted let the poster have the honor of posting it. Unless of course you want that item exposed then it becomes free advertising or for someone else to share it with others. Sharing is cool. Stealing is not if it is posted as not to be used. JC
April 6th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Speaking of pictures, check this one out…
http://www.picable.com/People/Activities/Dance/Magic-Elephants.632699
April 6th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Wow, always helpful RJ. I am bookmarking this.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
excellent! this is very helpful! Bookmarked!
April 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Wow! What a helpful resource. I’m going to link to this at Write and Earn a Living. Thank you for this helpful information.
This one gets a Stumble!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
excellent reference site for when I get better internet than crappy dial up – as it stands searching for images is a painful task at best. Often times I just use my own mediocre shots.
April 18th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Great article and resources. I’ll be saving this for future reference. Thanks.
April 25th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Thanks for the advice on photos. I’ve saved it as a favorite so I can check back when I need a photo.
My best to you,
Momma Tells
May 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Been looking for some enlightening info on using flickr. Thanks a million.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Very useful information. Thankyou.