Website images

Finding website images that are copyright free - or free of heavy charges or usage restrictions - is a key issue for anybody running a website.

It's important to make it clear from the start that you cannot help yourself to any images from the web and use them freely as if they are your own.

You need to take great care - particularly if you are setting up your website as a formal business - to make sure that you only use images which have the correct copyright permissions.

In addition, although Google images is becoming a key factor now in bringing users to websites, it's important that you have a policy for image use on your website and that you make this clear to your users.

Where to find website images

My favourite sources of pictures are:

1) stockxpert.com

2) dreamstime.com

3) stock.xchng.com

4) flickr.com

5) istockphoto.com

In addition to these external sources, you can use screen grabs (as I have done on this page to illustrate the different websites) and your own images.

stockxpert.com

By far my favourite option, this has the best website images available and the most extensive collection.

I usually find what I want on this website, even though I have to pay for the use of the pictures, but the price is fairly negligible for the quality of the images that I obtain.

My view is that if you use poor quality images on your website, people will assume that the content is poor quality too.

Take a flick through the pages of this site and the majority of the images used have come from stockxpert.com.

Their terms of use are straightforward and easy to understand and their prices for images as low as $1.

Finally, they also run an affiliate scheme, so you can take commissions when referring people to their excellent product.

dreamstime.com

If I can't find suitable website images at stockxpert.com, I immediately head over to dreamstime.com.

Although I don't find the range of pictures as extensive, they do have an excellent collection of website images, even if the interface is not as straightforward to use as stockxpert.com.

You can also download free images directly from this website and copyright information can be found on the 'Terms of use' page.

There's an affiliate scheme too and prices for paid images start at about $1 a time, though you purchase packages to allow you to download photos.

stock.xchng.com

Don't be put off my the weird name, this site is a 'must' in your website images toolkit.

This website has limited use in that there are not as many images available and the quality is not always as high as you would like, but the pictures are free and you should always check it out to see if you could be saving a bit of cash.

Every time you do an image search, you also get 'paid-for' recommendations from stockxchange.com, so you can easily see if something better is available for a dollar.

The images that you need to look out for on this website are the ones marked with 'Standard restrictions apply' as you're free to go ahead and use these subject to the normal terms and conditions of the site.

However, do watch out for the note that some photographers add which says '...must be notified and credited when using the photo for any public work.'

This is a bit of a nuisance, as it means that you can't use the images staright away, but then I guess if they were my images, I'd want a credit too!

flickr.com

This is a massive community photographic site, but just because photographers freely post their images to it, doesn't mean you can just help yourself.

Many Flickr users make their work available under what's called a Creative Commons Licence and although that's meant to simplify matters, it does require a bit of close reading.

The Attribution License and Attribution-ShareAlike License are the two types of images you need to be searching for and you just have to give the photographer a credit ... which is fair enough!

Flickr.com is always worth a look for a freebie image, but my personal choice for the type of website that I'm operating is not to make too much use of it.

istockphoto.com

This site is worth a look because it doesn't just sell photos, it also has video, audio, Flash and vector illustrations available too.

It's priced in pounds rather than dollars and allows you to buy packages of website images much like the other commercial photo sites.

It's not a site I have personally made a lot of use of, but it offers excellent resources and is highly regarded elsewhere.

Brace yourself for their terms and conditions which are not nearly as straightforward as the other sites that I have referred to.

Your own photos

A great rule of the web is to 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' ... which in this case means 'Don't pinch stuff from other peoples' websites'.

It's best to have a policy about how people contact you to use photos on your site and the normal procedure is to agree, but ask for a credit or a link back.

Unless you're a brilliant photographer, payment is not normally involved.

My own 'terms and conditions' can be found on my 'About this site' page, but here they are for easy reference:

Copyright

All personal content in this blog is my copyright.

Please contact me if you'd like to reproduce any of the articles as I'll usually be happy with this if a) you run a responsible website b) you credit me.

Use of images from this website

Most of the images used on this website have been purchased from Stockxpert.com, Dreamstime.com or downloaded for free at stock.xchng.com.

The rest are my own pictures or screen grabs.

You are encouraged to check with me first before using images from this site as you may find that you are in violation of the original photographer's rights if you use them for your own purposes.

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