A few weeks back I discovered another nugget of useful info that I picked up while blogging and just assumed everyone knew, and today I would like to share it with you.

I was at a workshop a few weeks ago when I was introduced to a writer who was about to publish her first book. She had written a collection of epigrams, and she wanted to collect them into a small book. But before she could send the file to the printer, she wanted to illustrate each saying with an image.

Alas, she didn’t know where to look for the photos. Sure, you can find stock photo sites through Google, but some of them are flippin’ expensive. Luckily I was just across the room, so when someone introduced us I was able to point her at my favorite sources of free photos.

And since I knew this question would come up again, I thought it would be useful to share it with you.

I have been publishing this blog for over 9 years now, and in that time I have used countless thousands of photos. If I had had to buy a license for each of the photos, the cost would probably have exceeded my student loans, which is why I am lucky that there are so many free photo sites online.

You can find free and legal images on Flickr, but first you’ll need to set a search filter to limit the results to only include images with the correct licenses.

The screenshot below shows you where the license filter menu is located:

That menu has 7 options, and it’s hard for me to tell you which one you should choose. As a rule, I set this menu to “Commercial use and mods allowed” before I search for images for this blog, but then again this blog is a commercial operation (technically speaking).

If you are going to use the image in something you sell, you should choose the “Commercial use and mods allowed” option. On the other hand, if you are going to use the images in something you give away, you could choose the “All creative commons” option or the “Modifications allowed” option.

Navigating Creative Commons and related licenses is not a simple issue, and I almost hesitate to say anything out of fear of sending a beginner down the wrong path.

But licenses and copyrights is also something that all creators have to learn. It’s not just because you may want to release your own work for free use by others, but also because you need to know whether you can use legally use a work such as an image or an audio file.

For example, if you want to download an image from a site and use it elsewhere, you should first check to see if the site has released the image under a CC license, or of they want to sell you a license, and so on.

I know, I know, you never thought about the license issue before pinning an image to Pinterest, but if you plan to use an image in a work you plan to sell, you really should spend time making sure you stay on the right side of the law.

image by Ozzy Delaney via Flickr