Yesterday I posted, “Are You Stealing Images?” Today I am going to provide some resources that deal with graphics.
Before you use any images, make sure you read and understand the licensing associated with the image. Some sites include images you can use willy-nilly as you wish and ALSO include images that need you to give credit where credit is due.
Bottom line – read the licensing. The good news here is that the sites I am listing have easy to understand licensing terms. You will know if you have to let the photographer know you are using his/her image, or if you simply need to give credit on the page. It won’t be some legalese that you cannot understand. I have created a list of sources you can use:
Here is a partial list of some great sites that deal with images: http://www.freeimages.com/ – free images – some need attribution, some don’t.
http://morguefile.com/ – free images you can use
http://creativecommons.org/ – some attribution (maybe?) If you are using other sites, leave a comment below. If you are NOT using another site, I am interesting in hearing from your about this list! By the way – today’s nice and wild image came from Morguefile 🙂 (I say that for INFO only purposes to you – I did not need to cite my source!)
I use morguefile.com, and I can usually find what I need. It is a great resource. I look forward to trying some of these others too!
That is certainly one of my go-to sources, Nathana!
Valuable information which I have shared on social media. I didn’t know about any of these sites. Perhaps, now, I don’t need to fear using anything except my photos or photos of friends.
Fear no more, Alana! And thanks for spreading the word!
Hey Paul,
Thank you so much for your two latest posts. It is really good to know all this. I’m going to be more careful from now on.
(but deep inside, I really wish I could draw… )
Hehe
Dani.
I bet you can draw, Dani! Do it! Use YOUR images! I bet they will be great!
That auto-animator mothereffinganimatedgif.com is cool, love animated gifs!
Daja – I nearly marked this as SPAM! LOL! I checked out that site – way cool! I was using Photoshop to animate gifs but this is sooooo much easier! Thanks for sharing!
Hey, you posted it first! I’d never heard of that mothereffinganimatedgif.com site before 🙂
I seriously needed this post. Thank you!!
I am seriously glad I wrote it then, Kandas! Thanks for stopping by! FYI – I love your site! Did you know I have the site All About Gratitude 🙂
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the information. Nice to have free sites. I’ve used 123rf.com for mine just to make sure; but I would love to have the time to make my own! Have a great day!
123rf is a good site – I had/have an account over there. Usually when I am doing work for a client and they need a specific image, I have to resort to purchasing it from a site like that.
Thanks for this, Paul. Your post on stealing images made me sit up and pay attention.
You’re doing a great job with the UBC. Thank you.
Awwww. Thanks Corinne! This is an important subject! Too many people simply do not know!
Great resources, it is lovely to have good images for blog posts, and I certainly don’t want to be unknowingly using images the wrong way. The creative commons and intellectual property can sometimes get a bit blurry. So thank-you for this list of resources I will be checking them out. At the moment I am using Picasa and Picmonkey to alter my own photo’s and pretty them up. It is always good to have a number of options.
Yes, Fran! Options are good – that is why I listed a few different selections. I am going to check out PicMonkey and play around with it – looks interesting!
I love Pixabay and seem to live in there! Gratisography also has some great photos and is updated weekly.
Also check out photopin (there’s a commercial and non-commercial search). Credit is required when using these photos but they give you a handy html to add.
Thanks for these sites, Jan! I love Gratisography! I am going to be there a lot! Photopin is interesting as well. Thank you!
Paul, I want to thank you for your last 2 posts. I have always used my own images before. But I have been lazy and careless lately even though I always give credit.
I’m back to using only my own stuff. I have pretty good photos and I can doodle some neat stuff. Thanks for the sites. It’s tempting but I decided not to.
Thanks for the steering. 🙂
Lily
You are welcome, Lily! You are safe with your own photos for sure! Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you Paul for reminding us of this important issue.
I mostly use pixabay and there are a few that can be used like
gratisography, picography, blogphoto.tv, freerangestock.com, splitshire.com, http://www.lifeofpix.com, jaymantri.com/
Awesome list! Thanks for sharing! I am not familiar with all of them and will be checking the out.
Great blog with valuable resource! This is exactly what I was looking for. I saved it for future use. Downloaded a few free pics from one of the links in your blog.
Glad it helped, Renu!
I read that we should label our images with our website URL so if someone pins it on Pinterest it would show where the photo came from. What is your opinion Paul, could we legally do that on free images we use?
Also, how is everyone’s image of their face showing up on their posts here while mine shows a crazy clipart?
Thanks 🙂
Hey there Crazy Clipart Face –
First let’s address your look, shall we? Here is a link to a post I wrote a while ago that addresses it: WordPress & Gravatars.
Next, it seems to be a great idea to watermark your own images so at any pointin time, people know where they came from (i.e., your site).
Thanks for the list, Paul. I’ll get right on it!
Awesome! Glad you find it useful!
Great article, Paul – with links to free images I hadn’t been introduced to before. I’ve got a new one for you – unsplash dot com. They provide high resolution photos with permission to do with them whatever you please. I notice a lot of bloggers use their images, so there’s that issue … but it’s a good site with an archive that is always growing. Thank you for the valuable tips!
I will go check them out, Susan! Thanks for sharing that one with us!
I take a lot of my own pics or make them on PicMonkey, Canva, or Pixlr. But I also subscribe to Image Monthly from Kelly McCausey and with it you get 25 images every month. I don’t use them all, but most certainly use some of them every month.
Thanks for this! I use mostly my own images, but once in awhile, I don’t have anything that fits, and need something from the web. I didn’t know I couldn’t just use images that pop up. I figured they would have a watermark or something like that if I couldn’t use them. Oops!
Be careful, Doree! Always gets permission before using any images – or go to one of the safe sources!