Did you know that you cannot just grab photos from the web and use them anywhere? Each photo or image has a creator and copyright owner. Simply using a photo without buying a license or getting permission can cost you (and believe me, with the ease of finding out who is using what illegally with Google image search, there are thousands of law suits every month regarding this matter). So avoid legal-issues and respect image creators by following these simple steps in image use:
- if you plan to use an image online or in print, buy a license or seek permission from the copyright holder
- if you cannot locate the creator or copyright holder, DO NOT USE IT.
- if you do not want to pay a licensing fee, then start taking photos everywhere you go for use as backgrounds, blog post images, or other marketing uses. You have a camera on your phone, so creating your own photos is always a way around this problem.
- if you can’t find what you want and realize your photos are not too good, then hire a photographer and get all the photos you want in one or two sittings. Contact your marketing consultant or designer beforehand to get relevant ideas for upcoming campaigns.
I create visual content by painting, drawing, doodling, and taking photos of the world around me.
If you dedicate time once a month to doing creating your own, then you can easily create a stockpile of images to use all month long.
These are a few ways of how to deal with obtaining legal use of images on the web. If you have any questions at all, always contact the creator of the image OR contact your graphic designer for insight.