Free Pictures for Fancy Topics: What Can Webmasters Do?
Many webmasters do not only report on fixed topics, but also present other areas. This means that even more unusual topics can be found on the page, which in turn require more specific treatment. The articles are often enhanced with pictures, but a webmaster usually orientates himself on his main topics, so he can of course not reuse these pictures for other areas. But where can webmasters find good images and what rules must be observed?
Stock Photo exchanges as a first port of call
Stock photo exchanges are often the absolute point of contact for webmasters, site operators or bloggers. There are two variants of these exchanges:
- Free offers - the use of the photos and graphics is not subject to a fee per se. The amount of pictures is enormous, because ultimately anyone can create an account and upload photos. Depending on the portal, however, there are minimum standards that the hiring users must comply with.
- Paid portals - the use of these images is chargeable. Ultimately, everyone can register here and provide photos, but the quality standards are generally higher.
The free exchanges in particular have a serious disadvantage: Since the images are free, private individuals like to use them and are therefore generally well known. However, this aspect also applies to some of the paid stock photos. Images by popular photographers, photos relating to a trend or specially edited photos are often sold in a wide variety of ways.
Anyone who uses stock photos must ultimately always expect not to choose a unique item. In order not to choose the image, which can already be found umpteen times on all websites and blogs, it is advisable to approach the search more unnaturally, to use cross-links and also to take a closer look at the back pages of the search results. Many users do not have the desire or time to spend long searching for images and only look at the first few pages.
Special pages help with special topics
Stock photo exchanges are often the absolute point of contact for webmasters, site operators or bloggers. There are two variants of these exchanges:
- Free offers - the use of the photos and graphics is not subject to a fee per se. The amount of pictures is enormous, because ultimately anyone can create an account and upload photos. Depending on the portal, however, there are minimum standards that the hiring users must comply with.
- Paid portals - the use of these images is chargeable. Ultimately, everyone can register here and provide photos, but the quality standards are generally higher.
Images for special and not perfectly conventional subjects are generally complicated. Optionally, there are photos that are so common that the text is not upgraded but becomes a visual decal of all the posts that have been provided with this image. Or, even after the most catchy searches and with all their creativity, webmasters cannot find a suitable and usable image on the topic. And now?
Sometimes an old saying applies: if you ask, you will be helped. There are always specialist pages on special topics that of course have to struggle with the imaging problem themselves - and found a solution:
- Core competency - The online casinos can be used as an example. It is difficult to find a suitable image on a photo page after all, because the usual casinos are shown, the contents are massively promotional or they cannot be associated with the digital version. Portals that revolve purely about online casinos recognized the problem and made high-quality photos available free of charge. So let yourself many different casino pictures Find. There are similar models from other areas.
- Companies ask - of course it always depends on the textual content and the topic. But usually it is at least possible to ask experts or a company itself for pictures on specific topics.
Finally, there is a very simple option: use a photographer. For simpler work it is conceivable that a picture can be created free of charge. In return, of course, the photographer is named. If you want unique pictures more often, you can ask around in the regional environment. Maybe there is a still unknown photographer who would be happy about the media attention?
What should be considered legally when using photos?
The legal regulations are extremely important, because if a picture is used without permission, there is a risk of warnings. There are basically two licenses offered by stock photo agencies:
- Licensed / RM - This license can hardly be found on the photo pages, as it is project-related and defines the exact scope of use, distribution, etc.
- Royalty-free / RF - These images are also licensed, but this is user-specific. The number of uses is not specified, but these images are often only allowed to be used by a specified number of users.
In addition, there is the license that is common on the free stock photos pages: the CC license. The publisher of the images decides how they can be used. This means that you have to look carefully here too, because sometimes private, but not commercial use is permitted. It is also determined whether the picture or the graphic can be edited.
The publisher of the picture also determines whether the picture must be labeled. In general, however, out of respect for the provider, it has become common practice to name the image source including the author.
Unfortunately, like everywhere else on the Internet, not all that glitters is gold on the stock pages. Some users go and steal photos themselves or edit them to display them as their property on the stock pages. This leads to problems:
- Warning - sometimes the webmaster is warned because he is using a picture without authorization and is violating copyright law. It depends on the originator how this matter ends and whether it can be settled free of charge.
- Overtime - an unauthorized image must of course be removed. This and the subsequent photo search takes time.
Basically, it is advisable to google the user of the stock photos page and the image once. Plagiarism cannot be found one hundred percent via the image search, but the webmaster has at least taken care. And if plagiarism is found, the notification to the photographer could even mean that the desired image is available as a reward.
Conclusion - always pay attention to the license
There are many picture pages on the Internet. Among them there are a number of free portals that offer wonderful pictures. Everyone should just pay attention to the usage rights, because violating the copyright is not only annoying. Sometimes it is also worth turning to special portals or even photographers directly. It is not uncommon for free images to be found that are not yet to be found in large numbers on the Internet.