Tuesday 11 November 2014

Where to find ~ Images, Clip Art and Graphics for Your Blog...

Taking great photos is not something I'm good at, but I keep reading how the right photo will enhance a blog post. As I'm a visual person, I understand this totally. My eye is drawn first to an image and if it appeals to me, the text comes next. Does that mean I only read blogs with outstanding photos - heck, no!!! But, as I'm scrolling through my RSS reader, it's definitely the images and graphics that I notice first.

Where to find FREE images and clip art for your blog ~ Threading My Way


Whilst I am working on improving my photos, for me, progress is slow - a bit hit and miss. So, I decided to look elsewhere for a source free of images. I have no intention of relying on someone else's images for all my blog posts; just the odd picture here and there.

The clip art in the graphic above, is one such example. Others include the picture at the top of the following posts:

Open Clip Art is a great source of computerised graphic art and where I obtained these pictures. Here's an excerpt from the Open Clip Art License:
We try to make it clear that you may use all clipart from Openclipart even for unlimited commercial use. We believe that giving away our images is a great way to share with the world our talents and that will come back around in a better form.

Pretty good, isn't it - Free clip art which can be used on your blog. So far, I've only used clip art from Open Clip Art, but there's a couple more sites I've found which I want to check out fully...



Edited to add:
Open Clip Art is no longer has fully functional - there is no way to search for images.

ClipSafari is a new site that has reconstructed a lot of the clip art images (100,000 so far) that were previously hosted on Open Clip Art. Licensing is clearly stated next to each individual image. At present, all images are shared under Creative Commens (CC0):
Image License: CC0 No Rights Reserved
You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.


The Graphics Fairy
Terms and Copyright excerpt- Most of the images I post were created before 1923, because it is my understanding that the majority of images that were published or created before that date are in the public domain.

morgueFile
morgueFile License excerpt- You are free: Remix - to adapt the work. Commercial - to use this work for commercial purposes. Without Attribution - to use without attributing the original author.

I've included excerpts from the licenses, but to understand them fully, read them in their entirety. It is most important to understand and abide by the terms and conditions under which images and clip art can (or cannot) be used.

Read the experience of one blogger who was involved in a case regarding a photo she used on her blog... Blogger Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Photos You Don't Own on Your Blog

While searching for free images, I came across the following blog posts. Whilst many of them include links to free sources, some of them are to paid sites...
Have you ever used pictures other than your own on your blog? If you are aware of another source of free images and clip art, leave a link in the comments.

... Pam

16 comments:

  1. Hi, Pam, an excellently useful post for us bloggers, again. Thanks! And the timing is just perfect - I do have one more free images' source to add: it's PIXABAY. They have a free-off-charge, no-attribution-needed policy for their pics. I like the site (but not in any way associated with them, just to be clear!) and intend to use the photos from it in my future posts (already made and scheduled to go live, actually ;) I hope this will be useful to some of your readers. Stay well, Damjana

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  2. Thanks Pam! I haven't used any but my own (often poor) attempts at photography because I wasn't sure of all the implications. Thanks for providing such great info as usual! :)

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  3. I'm with you images are important. I find taking photos of people scenery flowers etc fine but taking pictures of things I've made to put into my blog sometimes problematic especially paper craft stuff like scrap book pages. The photos I take never seem to do the items justice as I can never get the lighting focus etc just right, so I know where youre coming from. I guess we just have to keep trying.

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    1. I think paper projects would be especially hard to photograph, Dawn. For me, anything inside is so much harder than outside. Practise makes perfect, I suppose.

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  4. Great post Pam. Thanks! I am not positive, but I think Photobucket is another place to find images. Not sure if they are free?

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  5. Great tips! Thank you! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures

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  6. What a great post full of tips. It is, I find, very important to use eye-catching images in my blog posts as it helps to get the readers involved in what's happening.

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  7. Great info in your post Pam! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Thank you for sharing this! This is a great help.

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    1. Glad it's useful to you. Have fun exploring the links.

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  9. great share! appreciate it as we are always looking for images and you never know if you can really use them or will you get sued! Saving, bookmarking, pinning and sharing just to be sure I can find these again!

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  10. I Have totally Fallen in love with Morgefile, Pixabay and Unsplash, I Also love Death toStock Im Off to check out The open Clip art Now THANK YOU!! :)

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    1. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of more sites, Tara!!!

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  11. Pam, thank you for great list. I can recommend you http://www.cannypic.com/ if you are looking for free vectors and icons. And this is very good way to find new sources - reading blog comments :)

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