Finding images without copyright

If you wish to use images in your site, you need to be very careful of copyright. You can’t just use an image you find on internet.

These sources help make sure that the images you use are not bound by copyright. However, you still need to check licence agreement.

Most of the images in the sources below are made available under either a public domain licence (you can use the image however you want, without any conditions) or creative commons (you can use the image, but with conditions – usually you have to credit the author). Crediting the source is also a nice courtesy for public domain images, if you can.

Image sources:

1. Sri Chinmoy Centre Gallery – This is a wonderful collection of photos. They are creative commons, so please credit the photographer when you use the photo in an article. It is also nice to ask photographers permission before use.
2. Pixabay – these images are public domain.
3. Flickr Creative Commons – If you visit advanced search at Flickr You can search through images which are licensed under a creative commons licence. Just click the box ‘search by creative commons’ (N.B. Creative Commons means you need to still acknowledge author, preferably with a link back to the original image.)
4. Wikimedia Commons – If you wish to find an image of a person or place, Wikimedia Commons is a very good source. Most images are available either under public domain or creative commons licences – please check below image for licence terms.
5. Everystock Photo – searches through different free image sources. But, you still need to check licence and rules for each image.
6. Ask Photographer. In exceptional cases, you might wish to ask a photographer directly. Flickr is quite a good source, and a polite request means photographers usually are happy to give use, with credit. Be careful who you ask. A blogger may have copied an image from a newspaper. They can’t give you permission.