Finding the perfect photo

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Millions of photos exist on the web -- free for you to use and share.
Everyone loves dogs. Or cats. Here is your task: Find a photo of a dog. Or a cat. Or a catdog. An animal!
  • Find an openly licensed photo,
  • Tell us where and how you found it, how it is licensed and
  • post the link as a comment below.
 
What kinds of photos should I be looking for?
 
That's a great question. Public domain images are definitely in -- they have no copyright at all, which means that anyone can use them however they want to, without asking for permission from anyone. Photos licensed under most CC licenses are also in, but people disagree on how "open" a particular license is. As we work through this course together we can come back to the question. For now, if it comes with a CC license or is in the public domain, it's good to go!
 
Where to search?
 
Here are some places where you can find photos in the public domain or under open licenses:
 
The web has so much content available, but what are you allowed to use? Search for photos that are in the public domain or shared under open licenses. When doing your search, keep in mind what you will be using the image for, as you may want to revise your search to reflect the permissions you need. For example, if you are planning to sell your resulting work, you will need to find a photo that allows commercial reuse.
 
Flickr
 
Wikimedia Commons
  • Wikimedia Commons is the media repository that serves Wikipedia and other wiki projects. It has photos and other kinds of media in the public domain and under various open licenses: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
 
Creative Commons Search Portal
  • Other repositories of public domain and CC licensed photos exist on the web. CC's search portal provides convenient access to some of these at http://search.creativecommons.org/.
 
Having trouble finding the image you're looking for? Try using different key words.
 
Are there other great websites where you searched for open photos? What are they?

Task Discussion


  • Philipp said:

    Here is the search URL you can use for flickr.com withouth having to go through their advanced search interface. You can bookmark it and then update based on what you are looking for:

    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=searchterm&l=cc&ct=0&mt=all&w=all&adv=1

    l=cc (all cc licenses)

    l=comm (allows commercial use)

    l=commderiv (allows commercial use and derivative)

    l=deriv (allows derivatives)

    replace searchterm with the actual term you are searching for (search term would be search+term)

    I would love it if others shared their strategies, tips and tools on how to find photos as well. For example, is there a way to use google image search and limit to openly licensed images?

    on July 24, 2012, 8:51 a.m.

  • Philipp said:

    Here is my photo. I typed "Siberian Husky" into google, opened the first link to Wikipedia, and used the image from the wikipedia page. I've included a link to the page in my blog post. 

    http://1l2p.posterous.com/humoring-jane

    I don't actually like Siberian Huskys. I like this dog.

    on Dec. 13, 2011, 5:52 a.m.

  • AJC said:

    Here's proof: http://photostatements.tumblr.com/#12918780629

    on Nov. 17, 2011, 2:40 a.m.

    Philipp said:

    The link doesn't seem to work. 

    on Dec. 13, 2011, 5:43 a.m. in reply to AJC

    AJC said:

    Thanks P! I updated the link. :-)

    on Dec. 15, 2011, 11:50 a.m. in reply to Philipp

    Philipp said:

    Still, can't get it to work. 

    on July 24, 2012, 9:12 a.m. in reply to AJC