I come across so many individuals and teams of people who either knowingly or unknowingly do this one thing. They use copyrighted images without the proper license. Most people doing this are just not aware and use any image of their choice from Google. You cannot do this, and there are many reasons why. I want to share with you ways in which you can use these images legally or use similar images of equal quality.
The reason why you do not want to be doing this is firstly you lose credibility. You have to use images with proper attribution or purchase a license to be trusted by your audience.
What is bothering is when people use images that still have watermarks on them. Never make that mistake, if you want to use pictures of the highest quality on your projects then have a look at the different websites below.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock dominates the web when it comes to stock photos and videos, you have so many options to choose from, and the quality is superb. You’ll often notice bigger companies and studios making significant use of the website. The only downside is the cost, especially if you are an individual or smaller business looking for a few images from time to time. So, in summary, it makes sense to use Shutterstock if you are going to need high-quality images very frequently.
Pexels
Not many know about Pexels, but it seems like more people are starting to know about it each day. What makes Pexels so unique is that it gathers all free to use images into one place. All the photos on the site are under the CC0 license. What does this mean? It means that you can use these images or modify them however you like without any attribution or licensing fee. You can basically use it for anything. While attribution is encouraged, you do not have if you don’t want to.
The CC0 license allows you to have way more freedom with the images compared to other alternative websites.
So say you’re after a picture of a boat, search it at pexels.com and download the image you want. That’s how easy it is. It makes way more sense to use Pexels if you are a Designer or Studio with a limited budget for stock photos.
If you liked this post, then make sure to read my post about the importance of Google Plus
