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If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...
...then it's worth spending some time looking for the right image for your article! Visual reminders, illustrations and occasional 'eye' candy can break up large segments of text and help drive home the message. It can transform the most mundane message into something your visitors will want to read. So where can you find these images? We've compiled a list of some of the most useful resources:
Free Resources
Creative Commons Images
Creative Commons is an alternative to copyright which allows people to use images free of charge under certain conditions. The most common of thse conditions are:
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You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit. |
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You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but for noncommercial purposes only. |
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You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it. |
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You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work. |
You can find creative commons licensed images from a number of different web sites including:
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Flickr is perhaps one of the most popular photo sharing web sites in the world (owned by Yahoo). You can search the creative commons licensed images using the advanced search tool. |
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Open Photo is less well known but contains only creative commons licensed images. |
Other free image resources
There are also a number of web sites which make images freely available for use for both commercial and non-commercial use:
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Stock Xchng is a site based in hungary which contains over 200,000 images from more than 15,000 amateur photographers. Some images require the permission of the contributor before they can be used commercially. |
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Another source of free images imageafter also contains a selection of textures for graphic design use. |
Low Cost Image Resources
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With over 1,000,000 images and almost 1,000,000 members istockphoto is the largest stock photography community in the world. Images start at only $1 (adequate for web use) rising to $40 an image for huge double page-spread press quality images. |
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Fotolia is a more recent low cost stock photo web site run along similar lines to istockphoto. Low resolution images for web use cost around $1 (although the UK site is more expensive). |
Using Search Engines
It's important to note that, while it's tempting to use search engines such as Google's image search, to illustrate your articles many of these images are copyright and you should ensure that these are never used by you or your contributors.
One church using Endis has already been contacted by GettyImages with an invoice demanding payment for unauthorised use of one of their images, don't be caught out in the same way!
If you have other image reccommendations why not post them below? |
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