Those of us regularly creating content on the internet are always looking for some good quality (and varied) images to re-use. This is a list of some of the sources I have found useful.
Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. This is normally the first place I look for images.
Using Advanced Search you can filter for images that are available to use with Creative Commons licensing. Great source for material to re-use on the web at no cost.
The image I used for this item was produced by Jonas Tana
Not he same volume of material as Flickr - but totally free to use as you want. Creative Commons Zero, you can use, modify, whatever without need to attribute.
Subscribe to their mailing list and you get images distributed via email.
This one is fairly new to me, but can see myself using it more and more.
There are a number of sources of freely licensed and public domain images on the Web. This is a list of sites, some of them in turn index sites, for public domain images.
Takes a little more drilling down but a massive amount of material available.
Need to take note of the exact copyright license on each image as you go - as warned on the site. "The presence of a resource on the list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are freely licensed and/or in the public domain: you are still responsible for checking the copyright status of images"
Wylio is one of a number of tools that use the Flickr API to search and return Creative Commons licensed images.
This tool offers some nice features like asking you what blogging platform you use, then returning the full HTML code to embed and correctly attribute the image. To get this feature you need to subscribe to the service. Very nice way of making the use of CC content quick and easy though.
The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.
You should read the fine print in the license to know how you need to attribute.
Claims to have the World`s largest collection of FREE & royalty-free stock photos. Over 29 million photos, illustrations & vectors.
The service offers a range of free images, with a lot more that are available to purchase (via a credits system) the same as iStock.
Nice feature of this service is they have a plugin for Wordpress that allows you to search (and of course buy) images from within the post you are writing.
Claims large stock base (35 million Royalty Free stock photos, EPS vector art illustrations and HD video footage). This services is owned by Adobe and operates much the same as a number of others who sell credits, which you then use to purchase individual images.
They also offer time-based subscription memberships.
You can integrate this service into Wordpress via a plugin called Microstock Photo.
A free tool that helps bloggers and designers find beautiful photos with Creative Commons licensing. Not only do you have immediate access to download the photos but you also get the correct attribution HTML available to simply copy and paste.
Much of the content is drawn from other sources such as Flickr.
You are also offered some other premium content to match your search, at a cost.
According to the site the term "morgueFile" is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flat. Other uses seem to include a place to keep materials for reference use and an inactive job file.
This site contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use. This is the world wide web's morgueFile.
BEWARE - you need to read the license carefully. This is not the same as many of the other sites, and I intended for creative who want to modify the image, rather than just use it in a blog post.
I am at various times a husband, father, grandfather, writer, speaker and student of many things.
Also compelled to be a consultant and Program Manager to make ends meet.
Ken Simpson
