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Royalty-Free, Copyright-Safe Photography for Your Projects

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In case you haven't heard, clip art is avoided in presentations that aim to be taken seriously. The revolution in digital photography and its proliferation on the Internet have made the acquisition of quality photography easy, cheap and safe. The result is a new expectation for contemporary presentations--

Exceptional photography that gives presentations a visual impact that cannot be achieved with even the cutest, cleverest clip art.

Yes, there are still justifiable uses of clip art--times when only it will do. These exceptions will be obvious and justified by the specific effect they achieve. But the exceptions prove the rule.

Why the Emphasis on Photography in Presentations?

First, it's a matter of connection. Our human audiences can connect more quickly and deeply with photography of other humans in a shared world. This connection has the ability to generate interest and even excitement in our viewers. Although clip art can be clever and even artistically refined, it does not provide the engaging realism of photography.

Second, a photograph captures a moment in time. This single moment can be paired with a single slide to produce a classic teachable moment, putting into play one of the most important principles of successful presentations: segmentation. Humans learn best through discrete chunks that do not overload short-term memory. A single photograph with a single concept on a single slide provides an optimum chunk for learning in our presentations.

Finally, photography helps humanize our presentations rather than letting them become a recitation of facts with little chance of being meaningfully absorbed. Photography allows us to communicate our feelings about the facts, to tell a story about them, helping to make the material more engaging and personally relevant for the audience.

OK. So Where Can I Get Some Great Photography--Free and Legal?
You will be surprised at the number of sites on the Internet that have collections of public domain photography, photography that has been made available through Creative Commons licensing, non-profit organizations that make their photography available to the public, and the many photo-sharing sites where contributors can decide what rights, if any, they wish to assign to their work.

The first place most tend to visit is the Internet's default home page, Google. But any image on Google Images warns, "Copyright restrictions may apply."

A serious legal statement. So the trick is to find images in the Google database (largest in the world) where copyright restrictions are not a problem. This can be done with Google's Advanced Image Search feature.

Google Advanced Image Search
1. Click on "Images" in the Google homepage tool bar.
2. Type image description in the search box and search.
3. On the results page, click on far right "cog" or tool icon and select "Advanced search" from the drop down menu.
4. On the Advanced Image Search page, scroll down to "usage rights." From the pull down menu, select "free to use or share" or "free to use, share or modify."
5. Click on Advanced Search button.

Flickr, the world's largest repository of Creative Commons licensed images, has over 200,000 images available through CC licensing. (The terms of CC licensing can be found here.) However, two other Flickr databases offer images with no copyright restrictions at all.

Flickr's "The Commons" and "US Government Works" Image Search
1. On Flickr's home page, type image description in the search box and click "Image Search."
2. On the results page, on the left side under the word "Search" is a drop down menu that begins with "Everyone's Uploads."
3. Use the drop down menu to select either "The Commons" or "US Government Works" and click on the blue SEARCH button.
4. Click on a photo you are interested in.
5. In the licensing section on the bottom right of the page you will normally see "No known copyright restrictions."

Flickr's Advanced Image Search (Creative Commons Licenses)
1. On Flickr's home page, type an image description in the search box and click "Image Search."
2. On the results page, click on "Advanced Search" next to the blue SEARCH tab on the right.
3. Scroll to bottom of page and place a check mark in box next to "Only search within Creative-Commons-licensed content."
4. Click "Search." Creative Commons licensing information can be found in the bottom right area of the photo's page.

morgueFile is a family affair. This repository of 275,421 free images (and counting) was first conceived by Michael Connors as a college student in 1996, and is now run by Michael, his brother Kevin, and friend Johannes Seemann. These free images have virtually no restriction on their use. Don't believe it? Here is the morgueFile license summary:
morguefile_license

Although attribution is not required, attribution is expected and required in academic and professional work. Often overlooked in the praise of this resource, the morgueFile search engine is as powerful as ones found on high-profile sites like iStockphoto.

More Free Image Sites--Some With Caveats
There are a number of non-profit sites like morgueFile that collect amateur and professional photography for free use. Lately the big for-profit houses like Getty Images have gotten in the game, buying and using the non-profit sites as advertisement vehicles and gateways to their for-sale databases. Sometimes the for-sale images are cleverly mixed with the free ones. Here are a dozen more popular free image sites.

	http://www.sxc.hu With over 400,000 free images, Stock.XCHNG has been acquired by Getty Images. Top results (called "Premium Results") in your searches will be for-pay iStockphotos. Scroll down for results from SXC.hu's free image database.
	http://www.freerangestock.com After registering, you can search and download free stock photography (2400x1600 resolution) with no copyright restrictions, Membership also gives you access to the Lightbox feature and other goodies.
	http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com Offers all of its free stock photography under the Creative Commons license, which in this case means a credit to pixelperfectdigital.com.
	http://www.freestockphotos.biz Free photos in the public domain (no copyright restrictions) or Creative Commons license. Site now owned by Shutterstock, whose for-pay images may show up in searches but are clearly watermarked.
	http://www.imageafter.com Although small, the Image*After database contains some excellent works (photos and textures) that are free with no copyright restrictions. Supported by advertisements from for-pay sites.
	http://openphoto.net Developed in 1998 for artists, developers, teachers and students, the free photos are offered under Creative Commons licenses.
	http://deviantart.com At the world's largest community of artists, you'll find all forms of art, including photography. Most photos are free with no copyright restriction. On home page, click on "Photography" under "Category." If you seek the strikingly unusual, you'll likely find it here.
	http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Images/FreeImages Quality of the free images here is worth the price of admission: registration. Add free photos to your shopping cart in the regular way, but at checkout all you'll see are some lovely zeros for price.
	http://kaboompics.com Karolina Grabowska, a web designer from Poland, has uploaded 550+ high-resolution photos (240-300dpi ) that you can use for all kind of projects included commercial ones. The photos are arranged in categories and tags or you can use the search box to quickly find images on various subjects.
	http://nos.twnsnd.co/ A real gem: New Old Stock is a curated archive of public domain photos from yesteryear free of any know copyright restrictions. Wish it were searchable.
	http://www.pixabay.com Another excellent Creative Commons site, similar to Flickr. Almost 300,000 photos. Searchable categories
	http://www.publicdomainpictures.net The title says it all: free, public domain photos without copyright restriction unless you intend to use them commercially, when a model or property release may be required. Registration required.
	http://www.public-domain-photos.com Small selection but the price is right (free) as well as the usage (no restrictions). Registration not required and resolutions large enough for quality work.
	http://www.freephotosbank.com Another site acquired by Dreamstime, whose for-pay photos will be at top of every results page. Scroll down for the free images. No copyright restrictions.
	http://www.stockfreeimages.com Large database (nearly 700,000) of quality work that can be used in any manner. Now owned and operated by Dreamstime, you must register with your email. Searches will return mixture of free and for-pay stock.
OTHERS	https://unsplash.com Small database and unsorted, not searchable. http://picjumbo.com Another bait and swich. There are a few free photos. To get more, you must subscribe..