Rewind to Fundamentals: The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post
Jul 8, 2008 by Patrick Winfield | Blogging, Design, Tutorial
Images are an important way to add that extra kick to your blog posts. They are often the first thing that attracts visitors to read further. But where do you find good image?
After completing your masterpiece, you begin to search endlessly around the internet for an image that depicts the core message of your post. When you finally find that perfect one, it is locked up in licenses and conditions that require a lawyer or a credit card. You are obviously frustrated and find yourself spending more time looking for another image than writing that post. Let’s explore some resources that will help you find that image!
Stock photography sites require a paid subscription and offer many choices and sometimes the best results. It can also be the most played out, overused, politically correct looking fluff out there. However, there are so many sources available, from the super expensive sites like Getty, to the middle of the road places like Shutter Stock and iStockPhoto.
Creative Commons is a tax-exempt charitable corporation that works with artists to set various licenses for their work. They search various places like Flickr, Google, Yahoo, etc. For these ‘free’ sites, you will usually need to attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. No matter which sources you use, it is important to credit the image. If possible, you should also attempt to inform the authors that you used their work and provide them with a link.
Here is an cool introductory video on the basic idea behind Creative Commons called “Wanna Work Together?“.
FreeFoto.com is another great resource that uses the Creative Commons license. You can only use images in an online setting, and must provide attribution and a link to either the photo or the site. Stock Exchange also allows you to re-use images available on the site. It offers more than 100,000 free images taken by amateur photographers around the world. Due to the overuse of the site, Stock Exchange can be a little slow.
National Parks Service Digital Image Archives has some beautiful nature images that are all free to use. The images may be used without a copyright release. Need a great shot of the Grand Canyon, a landscape or a mountain vista? This is a great resource for those types of images. I used a picture from here in the title graphic to incorporate it into my theme of the ‘wild west’ of internet imagery. 
Public Libraries such as the New York Public Libraries Digital Gallery have some great images that can be used humorously or as historical points of reference. The low-resolution images available on the website are suitable for immediate printing or downloading to provide good-quality reference for a wide range of educational, creative, and research purposes.
Or maybe you need a photo of a chicken or maybe a certain crop? Check out some of the images, offered for low resolution download, on the USDA Agricultural Research Service site.
At Public-Domain-Photos.com , you have access to a collection of general images. Although this site does not offer the best variety, it is worth checking out. You don’t have to license or attribute the image to the original source. Another similar site is Pix, , it is a free ‘image repository’ project (sounds like Napster for photos to me). It allows you to download images without registering. More on the public domain front is Old Book Illustrations.com with a lot of cool woodcuts and engravings for free downloads.
Let’s move away from the web-based resources now and get a bit creative with what we have. Do you own a camera? Digital or film, doesn’t matter. Start your own library of photos! Shoot them on film and scan them in or get a digital CD when you develop them (almost every photo lab will provide this service.) If you need a photo ASAP for a post on video games correlation to obesity in children, snap a picture (with the permission of the parent) of your family member zoned out playing video games. The picture might not look like one from a stock photo site, but that may just be what will make it stand out as original and interesting.
Can you draw? Maybe not so well. How about stick figures? Think about how you can use the skills you have, even if they are primitive, to spice up or add imagery to your posts. It doesn’t have to be comparable to a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece, just get an idea across or support the main idea with your drawing. Have fun and be creative.
Still can’t find that image and you need to add something to the post to spice it up? Try pull-quotes. This is a simple way to grab a reader’s attention. By using graphical text, you can offer a bite-sized piece of relevant and thought-provoking information that will ‘pull’ them in for the rest of the ride.
To find that image that correlates with your post, search around the links provided above. You can also be creative and create your own images or photos to use in the near future. There are vast amounts of possibilities out there whether you want to spend some cash or do it on the cheap. Just remember to always read the fine print.
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27 Responses to “Rewind to Fundamentals: The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post”
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Awesome, awesome roundup Patrick. Going to show this to SEVERAL clients for their own blogging inspiration.
Thanks David! Happy to hear you liked it and thank you for writing.
Hi! I hope you won’t mind if I add my site to your list. I have hundreds of Public Domain Images available for free. Perhaps you can find something useful!
Superb!
I’d add everystockphoto for CC and public domain image search engine.
I’ve been looking for this exact information on blogging photos. Thanks so much. I never struggle with the writing, only the visuals. This is a great help.
I would add Photoree to the list http://www.photoree.com
great source of beautiful Creative Common photos
Great stuff !
One more link i found is photobucket.com is also good for getting various images. I like it and stumbling it here http://lindsayhogan.stumbleupon.com/ for showing it to my frineds
Rewind to Fundamentals: The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post | 10e20 Blog…
The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post…
[...] part of making a post interesting and visually stimulating. Patrick Winfield wrote an extensive post about finding images [...]
[...] Patrick Winfield/10e20: Rewind to Fundamentals: The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post [...]
[...] How to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post. [...]
[...] I started with a great blog post by 10e20 author, Patrick Winfield titled: Rewind to Fundamentals: The 10 Best Ways to Find the Perfect Image for your Blog Post [...]
Very clear, straight forward, documented and ready to use. This is a blog as it should be…
Thank you Patrick. Maybe I’ll finally find a photo for our website :+)
Great post it can be really hard to find perfect images for blogging. Take a look at this blog Top 5 way to keep your treasured photos in top condition they have lovely photos.
Yes, images illuminate our posts and they help us to convey our messages across. Images on stock photo sites might look great, but not unique. I find it more appealing and original to use my own pictures.
Excellent collection of information.
Great resource for blogging, very helpful indeed as I have been learning about the best way to present my blog to keep in interesting. My site <a href=”http://www.visionboutique.co.uk/blog” target=”_blank”>www.visionboutique.co.uk/blog needs to improve its images and sizes to keep it flowing. Thanks again
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[...] Are you visually interesting? Are you using pictures? Not just for the sake of meeting a visual quota but good images that make a post better. [...]
[...] Are you visually interesting? Are you using pictures? Not just for the sake of meeting a visual quota but good images that make a post better. [...]
[...] Are you visually interesting? Are you using pictures? Not just for the sake of meeting a visual quota but good images that make a post better. [...]
Well-rounded up article. Great Patrick! I'm always too lazy to find images for my articles.
I've always had difficulty finding marching images for my posts. Glad to have found this article.
Stock photos are only good if one can add some creativity to them. If not, the same photos you use on your site can be seen floating around the whole Internet, making them to lose their uniqueness.
Normally I use the National Park Archives to collect the images I use for my website. Probably because I tend to breathe nature into whatever I do.
[...] Are you visually interesting? Are you using pictures? Not just for the sake of meeting a visual quota but good images that make a post better. [...]
Hey, I found your blog while searching on Google your post looks very interesting for me. I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!
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