Finding Good Photos

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   Wendy Rogersposted 13 years ago

   Hello fellow hubbers!  Where can you go to get really beautiful and artistic photos for your hubs??  I have been using google images, but I always do the advanced search and switch it to 'labeled for commercial reuse'.  However, that always leaves me with very limited choices.  I need beautiful photos/artwork that I can use without 'stealing' from someone else.  Does anyone have any good advice on how to find usable photos?

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      Karen Nposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You might try some sites like Dreamstime, some of their photo's are free.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I wrote a Hub about using photos from Flickr.  Use the Advanced search and only use photos that are Creative Commons licensed for commercial use - you'll still find plenty of photos you can use.
      
      I like Flickr because there are so many amateur photographers on there, so you can get some really unusual and oddball shots if you have a bit of patience.

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   TechTrendyposted 13 years ago

   You can also try contacting the owner of the images to see if they will give you permission to use them provided you give them credit.

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   Uninvited Writerposted 13 years ago

   If you do a search of the forums you will find lots of threads that will give you ideas and places to go.

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   simeonvisserposted 13 years ago

   I use Wikimedia Commons and flickr.com - there's plenty of photos that can legally be used there

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      Donna Ferrierposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I actually purchase most of mine from iStockPhoto. If you purchase the X-Small photos, they generally run anywhere from 2-5 credits a piece, and 12 credits costs $18.75. I rarely ever pay more than 2 credits for a photo, though, and many of them I can get for 1. I've only bought two 5-credit photos out of all the hubs I've published, and it was because the photos were so exceptional I knew I'd never find anything better.
      
      iStock will only allow low-res photos for display purposes on a website (no more than 800 x 600 pixels per image), which is good for here because the low-res photos are the cheap ones.
      
      If it's something relatively common that I'm looking for, I go to wikipedia, and get one for free. It's just that most of the time I have an idea in my head of what I'm looking for in a particular photograph, and I know iStock fits most of my needs.

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         simeonvisserposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         What is your experience with that? Should everyone do this or only when you earn enough money online to make this practise sustainable? Of course, if you are passionate about writing online then paying a few bucks for great photos is not a problem. But will every article earn itself back? Or do you use money of articles that earn well for those that earn less?

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   Uninvited Writerposted 13 years ago

   You have to make sure the pictures you use from Wikipedia are truly in the public domain, not all are.

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      Donna Ferrierposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I always look at the Wikipedia credits, and the ones I've used have all been in the public domain. I still cite the photo credit, too -- name of the photographer, title of the photograph, and where it came from.

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         simeonvisserposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         A fundamental problem with Wikimedia Commons is that people can change the license months after uploading the photo. So even when it says that the image has license X, it could be that people are using that image from when it was still licensed under license Y. So you cannot fully rely on it that the image is properly licensed. This is in particular a problem when you create a new image that builds on an existing image.

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   Toby Hansenposted 13 years ago

   I find that old family albums can be useful for photos for hubs. Apart from that I have used clipart, flikr, etc.

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      ssaulposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      for me flickr and istock are the best places for pictures. they have partly everything you may want

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