6 Best Resources For Design & Non-Copyrighted Photos

How do I get great images without breaking copyright laws? Non-copyrighted photos – bloggers, businesses, and local industries are always on the look out for them. Things have changed on social media, with the introduction of Pinterest and Instagram, it’s needless to say how important photos are in attracting new readers and customers, and keeping the old ones interested. Colorful and attractive photographs make it easier to read long articles; they also are an aid to those who like and learn from visuals more.

The hardest part, however, among the millions of photos posted in the interweb daily; is not choosing which to post, but finding the ones that are non-copyrighted and are legally okay to be put in other sites. Just to give you an idea of the punishment that can be associated with breaking copyright law in Australia, a person who is guilty may be fined up to $93,500 or imprisoned for up to 5 years. Yikes…

Since we’ve been in your shoes and we know how hard it is to go through different websites to check their copyright disclosures, let me help by giving you 4 easy to use resources to make sure you find that perfect photo you’ve always wanted to include in your post without doing a copyright infringement:

1. CREATE YOUR OWN

Ever wondered where you can “re-use” photos of different word clouds, or how you could add text to your ordinary photos to make them stand out? You do not have to for look/buy one, you can create your own, even without any software. You can use the following online tools to create or edit a photo to make it look awesome!

1A. CANVA

Canva sets the bar in creating awesome images really high. They have pre-loaded layout sfor almost all your social media needs – Facebook cover photo, Twitter cover image, Presentations, Posters, Google plus images, Kindle Book covers, Business card designs, and a lot more! If you’re the artistic kind of person, you can also ignore the pre-loaded layouts and create your own using the hundreds of free icons and texts! It’s also the perfect avenue to find images that can be re-used. Though they have free images, if you’re looking into more specific ones, you can purchase from them at $1 per image! How sweet is that?

1B. WORDLE

Wordle is by far my favorite “create your own word cloud” site. The site asks you to enter the words you want to be included in the cloud, and then creates the cloud for you! They have pretty cool pre-made designs, but you can also create your own by changing the font, color, background, and the form of the cloud. Pretty amazing, right?

1C. PIXLR

Let’s say you want to post a creative photo of a coffee on your Facebook page to increase engagement (Just on that, have you read our article on the best 5 ways to increase your Facebook engagement? You can find it here) or perhaps you’re looking to create a better cover photo? Pixlr is my favourite free to use photo editing and creation resource. It’s a great alternative Photoshop if you can’t afford it.

1D. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is the best friend of bloggers and business owners who find Photoshop and other photo editing software too confusing and costly. PicMonkey lets you add filters, texts, and stickers to your photo to make it look more crisp and lively!

2. MORGUEFILE

Morguefile has thousands of stock, high-resolution photos free for commercial and public use. While all of their photos have individual licenses, most of the owners allow you to use their photo even without attribution.

Here is a sample license for one of their photos: “You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner.”

3. FREE RANGE

Like Morguefile, Free Range offers thousands of free stock photos for personal use. Free Range, however, requires their users to register before being able to download. What’s great about the photos, is that their photos are no less than 2400 x 1600 in size, which is perfect when used as a photo for an article/blog post.

4. GOOGLE

I can almost see your eyebrow raising! Calm down, calm down… We all know that most of the photos that appear in Google when we do a search are copyrighted. But it may come as a surprise to you, that Google included a user-friendly tool which filters your search to non-copyrighted photos only.

Step 1: Let’s say you need a photo of a balloon, go to Google images and type your keyword.

Step 2: Under the search bar, you can see the words “search tools”, click that. Then, click “usage rights”.

I always prefer to use “Labeled for commercial reuse with modification” when I intend to edit the photo (add text).

Looking for non-copyrighted photos is troublesome but is necessary. Photos are a work of art done by talented people and it’s a shame if we do not attribute them or follow their copyright. However, if you want to skip the long process, head over to our resources above and find that one photo you’re wanting and remember if you do find an image you like be sure to credit your source.