A picture paints a thousand words… but if you’re not careful, buying stock pictures can add up to thousands of dollars!

If you’re a blogger or web designer I’ll bet you spend a lot of time searching for low cost or free stock images to use on your blogs and websites?… I know I do.

It can be very tempting to just jump onto Google images to find what you need and save yourself a few quid, but as innocent an activity as that may seem to some, it constitutes copyright theft and will soon land you in a big pot of hot water with the law.

It’s unethical and it’s against the law, so what are the alternatives?

Well, there are some websites that allow free use of their images for personal and commercial reuse as long as you acknowledge the artist who made it available, in the form of a mention of their name and a link to their portfolio.

An example of this type of website is:-

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

I find the images are generally of a very high quality, however they can be a bit limited in what’s available.

You can also search sites like Flickr, where users allow their work to be reused under a Creative Commons license, but beware, the license arrangements can be quite complicated so make sure you understand what you can and can’t use each image for. (You can read Flickr’s Creative Commons Guide here)

You can now also search for free Creative Commons images using Google’s image search.

It allows you to specify what kind of license you are looking for, for example, “commercial reuse”  then suggests images accordingly.

Simply go to Google > Select Images > Advanced Image Search…

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Fill in the details as shown below, and hit search… easy peasy!

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Admittedly, the images found can vary quite significantly in quality, but it’s definitely worth a look if it can save you a few pennies, right?

And if you find the license filter isn’t available on your Google interface, you can use the following link instead:-

Find Creative Commons Images In Google Search

A quick word of advice to avoid trouble! – When downloading this kind of image for reuse, always err on the side of caution and double check what the license allows.  If in any doubt, either keep browsing for that perfect free image, or bite the bullet and search a reputable paid service like iStock or GettyImages.

Enjoy

www.kompozer.net

•    Gimp is a free image manipulation software program which you can use to edit your photos and also create web graphics.  You’ll find it at:-

www.gimp.org

You’ll also find these links along with lots of other great stuff on the Resources page. Enjoy!