Royalty Free Images? Beat Getty Images!

Pictures! I’ve touched on the subject before when I posted regarding Flickr and Creative Commons some time ago. The photo on the left above was embedded from Getty Images, and although Creative Commons has a wealth of public domain or free images to tap, Getty Images is getting my attention because of the ease with which their royalty free images can be embedded to your blog. Of course, with any site that offers royalty free images, there are details in the small print, which should not be over-looked for copyright details. Most simply want simple attribution. I chose that doggy picture because it reminded me so much of my own little puppy (now ten years old). In the meantime, I’ve found numerous free image sites. Most want sign-ups or subscriptions at the least.

So whom have I been playing with lately? These are my top six go to sites for Royalty Free pictures:

1)  Getty – http://www.gettyimages.com/ – Easy to find designated royalty free pictures and LOTS of info on embedding them into your website or blog.

2)  Flicker.com/CreativeCommons – http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons or creativecommons.org.  Easy to read the different licenses and decide which one is appropriate for your use.

3)  Pixabay – http://pixabay.com/ – Easy to sign up and most of the images do not need credit for the source. “All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.” Does it get any easier? Or better?

4)  Shutterstock – www.shutterstock.com – While it says I’m current browsing a free account, the website keeps prompting me to choose a package.

5)  Google Images –  http://www.google.com/imghp – In images, search for the item you want. The problem I have with this site is copyright clarification. Even after I’ve designated “labeled for reuse” (under search tools and usage rights at the top), it still warns there may be copyrights, but I don’t see how they want credit.

6)  Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/ – You can search for content by category, but you’ll need to fill a license requirement before you can reuse any photo.

There’s another called Death to the Stock Photo – deathtothestockphoto.com. Somewhat out of the box, they send you new photos periodically that will NOT look stock. I’ve just signed up and do not have experience with it yet, but it sounded interesting and I liked their Facebook header!

Obviously, I’ve a ways to go, but pictures are exciting. Bazillions of them. Some want your pictures as well–no problem–I love sharing. Let me know if you have a favorite go to free picture site. Will it beat Getty Images? ©2016 Virginia Williams