What is stock photography? Stock photography is a supply of photos collected to use instead of hiring a photographer. To use most stock photography commercially requires paying licensing fees.
While it's nice to give credit to your sources for using photographs online, it still isn't proper without permission. In addition, pulling images randomly from online could result in using a copyrighted image. If that is the case, a company could contact their lawyers. Some companies are more likely to do this than others, other companies just like to make an example of someone every once in a while. In addition to the lack of professionalism, taking the chance isn't worth it.
Many services provide plenty to be used without cost for non-commercial purposes. Be careful though, even when your trying to find free ones, sometimes they'll show you one you'd have to pay for. There not trying to fool you, they're just hoping you decide you want that one SO much that you're willing to pay for it. Keep looking, there are other ones that are just fine to use and dost cost anything at all.
A good number of stock image providers have photos in which they have already given the public permission to use them. Majority of these sites do require you to create an account in order to access any of the stock imagery, free-photos included.
FreeStockImages.net has a rather nice list of resources and the creator of the page provides a short quick review, including letting you know how to find the free ones.Don't forget, you still have to cite it!
Example citation for the picture to the right
DeLourve, Katrina. Red Panda. Digital image. Stock.xchng. © 2001-2009 HAAP Media Ltd, a Subsidiary of Getty Images, 22 Mar. 2008. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.
Citation created via Easybib
Public Domain
Items within the public domain are works that currently have no intellectual property rights within the country of your residence. Many things become public domain once the copyright expires and, for one reason or another, is not renewed. When searching for items in public domain, it is important to make sure they are within the Public Domain for the US, as the laws regarding it vary from country to country.Images used in your projects (whether public domain or stock photography) also need to be listed on your works cited page/section, with a direct link to where they were pulled from.
Example citation for the picture to the right
Bryant, Charles, and William Gay. Boston Massacre. Digital image. US History Images. US History Images. Web. 8 Sept. 2011. <http://ushistoryimages.com/boston-massacre.shtm>.
Public Domain Photography Websites:
US History Images
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Citations
Don't forget to give credit where credit is due! Just because you have permission to use them, doesn't mean you don't need to cite them. When I was your age, we had to cite everything by hand. As I entered college, websites online began offering help.
Learn how to write your own citations at Owl Purdue Website
or use online sites like EasyBib and NoodleTools to help build the citation for you.
