This afternoon, I was trying to explain a bit about copyright and the legal use of images to my students, as they are using publicly available blogs, and otherwise default to using results from Google Image search … which could lead to legal issues (see help with image attribution with this JISC tool). This blogpost from StinkyInkShop explains copyright, fair use and Creative Commons pretty well, whilst this infographic explains Creative Commons a little more! Visuals are important, especially in contemporary digital – in all cases, it’s always good to credit the originating source.
Image Sources
- Stockfresh: A paid image site that I use frequently (pre-buying credits)
- Free stock images for commercial use 20 sites that are 100% free (2015 blogpost)
- Stock photo websites 13 sites, from free to paid (2015 blogpost)
- Buffer: 53+ sources for images (2014 blogpost)
- New York Public Library Public Domain Collections 180,000 out-of-copyright items
- Free Digital Photos Free to download for small sizes, pay for larger ones
- Freeimages.com: Nearly 400,000 royalty free images
- Flickr – Creative Commons: Most call for attribution
- FlickrCC Stampr: Simple Creative Commons search
- Compfight: Searches Creative Commons images
- WikiMedia Commons: Rights cleared or out-of-copyright images
- RGBStock: 100,000+ royalty free images
- Stock up: 14,000+ free stock images
- Unsplash: free high-resolution stock photos, 10 photos every 10 days
- PicJumbo: free photos to use as you wish
- JayMantri: free stock photos, 7 added each Thursday
- Getty Images: embed & non-commercial only – see launch story
- Morguefile: ‘by creatives for creatives’, 350,000+ images
- Photopin: search Creative Commons images easily for bloggers
- Dreamstime: 49 million+ images (payment plans)
- Freerangestock: royalty free images
- Pixabay: 780,000+ free images
- 123rf.com 69 million + images (not free)
- Imagesource.com: royalty free images (not free)
- Search Creative Commons: likely to be Creative Commons, but check
- LIFE photo archive: 1860s-1970s – unclear usage rights
- iStock Photo: Images provided by Getty Images (not free)
- Adobe Stock Images: 55 million+ images (not free)
Note that royalty free doesn’t necessarily mean free to use – check the licensing agreements – and don’t be surprised if a ‘free’ site suddenly takes you to a paid site – it’s often a marketing tactic!
Remember also that you can always use your own photos – and use free software such as PicMonkey to edit, add text, etc.
What sites do you use? What sites have I missed?
Faith Based Images
After several years working on faith-based content, here’s some sites that specifically cater to that need.
- The Worship Cloud: help fund the work of Christian artists and photographers
- CreationSwap: church media shared or sold by thousands of Christian artists
- Cartoon Church: Dave Walker’s excellent cartoons (licence information)
- Stations of the Nativity: (Must credit Maria Makepeace)
- Freebibleimages: Bible story representations
- Bible Cartoons: low-res free, £ for higher-res
- Kevin Frank cartoons: E-mail cartoonist for permission
- Veritasse: free use for non-profits, with attribution
- Goodsalt: religious imagery, around $1 for a single blog post
- See advice on this post from @soonguy.
