Image Rights

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   shon1121posted 6 years ago

   HubPages Query-
   
   I did not own a camera for years and recently got a phone with a camera.  In my Hubs I have used filtered from Google Images book covers that are labeled free for reuse.
   
   I have taken all my Hubs down at the moment until I can take some new photographs.  Would Hubbers recommend I used entirely my own images?
   
   Any help will be appreciated.

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   1. 97

      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      No, I wouldn't. You can use any appropriately licensed image. I use a mix of own photos, Creative Commons and PD images.
      
      And why have you unpublished your hubs? You've now taken them out of Google's sight, meaning that when you republish, they'll be starting from scratch. You've lost the benefit of 'age'.

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         wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         And if they've been stolen (copied) you have virtually lost any ownership claim as well.

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   2. 85

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      As ragged edge said, you can use any photos that are licensed for reuse "with modification" or you can also use your own.
      
      Two sites that have great free public domain photos are Morguefile.com and Pixabay.com.  If you use a photo editing program, you can enhance these photos in all sorts of great ways.  I mostly use photos from these sites because I'm terrible with photography.
      
      I used to recommend Picmonkey.com as an editing program that was free, but recently they decided to charge $3.99 per month for their basic program.  However, BeFunky.com is also a good site and is totally free to use, so you may want to give that one a try.
      
      Good Luck...and please republish those hubs asap.  You can always change out photos when in editing mode if you're not happy with the ones you have.

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   3. 93

      sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I use only my images but it really depends on your subject and whether you are any good at photography.

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   4. 0

      promisemposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I take many of my own photos, but I will use a great image from another source (if I can get the rights) instead of a bad image that I take on the same subject.
      
      Good images keep readers engaged and help trigger positive responses to an article. Visual appeal makes a big difference in the quality of an article. A great set of images may even trigger more social shares.
      
      That said, if two images have nearly the same quality, it's always best to use your own.

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2. 94

   Sustainable Sueposted 6 years ago

   I use my own images as often as possible. Sometimes I just don't have any for the topic at hand, so I go to Wikipedia, search for the topic, and see what photos they have (Wikimedia Commons). If it's a topic that I know the government is interested in, I'll do a search for a government image, but that takes longer. I didn't know about Pixabay and BeFunky. I'll have to try them.

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   1. 92

      Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Flickr Creative Commons has a great variety of free to use photos also.

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