“Influence is about being genuine.”
-Johnny Hunt
One of the most important elements that make-up a successful website is images. Yet, it can be one of the trickiest things to place and properly use on a website, because you have to make sure that you aren’t using someone else’s work, photograph, or media without their consent. The reason we can’t just take or use other people’s work on the web, is because they own the rights to that work, and you would be stealing from them if you used it without that person’s or organization’s permission.
So what are some ways or places that we can find “free-to-use” images or work? Let me start off by explaining Creative Commons, or “CC.” Creative Commons is a set of licenses that allow for people to freely use other’s creative works. This helps more people create without having to make, produce, or come up with personal work every time they want to show something. Creative Commons can include photos, illustrations, graphics, videos, sound, music, and any other form of creative media. Some sites that use CC licensing include: Wikipedia, YouTube, SoundCloud, Flickr, and more.
Here are some quick websites that offer free images for your website:
Using “free” media sites make it easier to quickly use images, or sound, that otherwise would be hard to create on our own. A downside however, is that other’s could quickly find the same exact work and use it on their site as well, which doesn’t give users an “authentic” experience. Some “paid” options that would be a little harder to find, and could even be of better quality, include shutterstock.com , istockphoto.com, and gettyimages.com; you could always hire a professional photographer, designer, or pay a copy righted sources too.
Images add a sense of visual communication that words couldn’t ever describe, which makes it almost essential to a modern website. While the web has many photos and creative works, not all of them are free to use. Making sure that our work, is allowed to be called “our work” will make things between you, your website, the creators, and the user’s experience much more friendly.
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