It’s not always easy to illustrate a homepage with good quality photos because the right object to photograph or a good camera is not always available. However, there are plenty of resources online where you can get very impressive imagery for your website legally and free of charge. One of the places is the photo-community Flickr.
The problem with using other people’s photos is the license. As a rule of thumb you are not allowed and should never use imagery from other websites, unless it is clearly stated that it is ok to do so. Otherwise you could get into (legal) trouble.
The good news is that you can use for example Flickr to search specifically for content that you are allowed to use in the enormous image database they have. Thereby you get great images for your website, use the photos of many hobby-photographers that proudly accept the use of their work for your purpose, and you avoid any possible copyright problems.
Follow these easy steps to get nice images for your website:
1) Go to http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
2) Type your search terms in the search field
3) Check the box for “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” (and also the boxes for commercial or modification use if that’s the case with your project)
4) Click Search
Flickr will now only display images that are allowed to be used for your purpose.
If you are not sure if a given image can be used for your intent, then you can always read the license details. For this example image you can click on the “CC – Some rights reserved” icon below the image to see the specifics. If there is not icon like that, or it simply says “All rights reserved” you are not allowed to use the image without prior approval from the copyright holder.
11 comments (leave a comment)
What if they revoke the CC lisence after you have used the photo…?
Reply by Jakob Jensen (Servage) on March 31, 2009 at 06:04
That’s a good question. I have never heard of a case like that, and honestly, I don’t know what happens then. Since the user of the image has done nothing wrong in the first place, I assume the copyright holder has to inform the users of the license change.
by HAS on March 30, 2009 at 21:47
Another great photo site with looooads of photos more specific towards stock photography is http://www.sxc.hu and is in my opinion the best free resource out there.
Check it out :)
by Thomas Norsted on March 31, 2009 at 07:14
Another site where you find a lot of beautiful and usable photos is http://www.sxc.hu
Enjoy it.
by Philippe Vincke on April 1, 2009 at 13:52
So nice
by cheap wow gold on April 5, 2009 at 16:01
It isn’t a necessity but it is always nice if you put somewhere the name of the photographer/aritist or a link to their work. As for the question about what happens if they change the CC, you can always post a comment on the photo that your using their image on your site, even though I have no restrictions on some of my photos, it is always nice to know where your photo is.
by Mike on April 10, 2009 at 16:08
Hey Jakob, Thanks for the tip! :)
I was using Google before to search images for my websites.
But i guess, the time i have read this post, i think Flickr will be the best place ;)
by Jesse Manalansan on April 19, 2009 at 07:05
Finally someone who can write a good blog ! . This is the kind of information that is useful to those want to increase their SERP’s.
I loved your post and will be telling others about it. Subscribing to your RSS feed now. Thanks
by Buy Stock Photos on April 25, 2009 at 10:18
very nice site….
by wow gold on September 11, 2009 at 00:16
I was using Google before to search images for my websites.
by cheap wow gold on February 12, 2010 at 03:27
very nice site….
by cheap wow gold on February 12, 2010 at 03:28