This is really great. I never would have gone through all these licenses to find out that I could actually use those images. Thanks.

Thanks for another great resource article full of great tips and info! I have often wondered about the CC license, and since I am newer to Flickr, you just made things a whole lot clearer!

Very nice article!

I’ve just started using flikr for my own photos… and prefer to use my own photos for my blog. That way, I know what the source is — plus I can show off some of my own images. However, I also like the idea of being able to use flikr to find the right images for a particular topic.

There are some absolutely fantastic photos out there.

One caution, though. I have seen a few instance of copyright infringement where people have uploaded photos to flikr that were not theirs. It’s a small problem compared to using photos off google.

Thankyou!!!

I’ve been wanting to know this for months and been hesitating due to not knowing about copyright and the problems it could bring. I’m probably one of the people who asked.

If you could do another post on how to copy/download the images this would be excellent.

Thankyou, I am very grateful.

I think you should also ask the photographer for the right to use their photos it only takes a second and it gives the artist a good feeling to know you were not using them an inappropriate manner.
Plus they can help spread the word of your website to show off their work.

I wished you’d have written this article earlier! Otherwise I wouldn’t have spent almost half a day trying to understand what the different licenses meant on creative commons. That said, this is still a great resource for newbies who’re keen to add some images.

Excellent stuff, Skellie. I’m a new subscriber… and I’m sold.

Cheers,
Ellesse

Thanks for the great info. I still have one question though.

“whether it’s for a blog post, an eBook, a design, an artwork or anything else”

For every license stands the ‘BY’ icon. How should you do that with an artwork in a magazine for example? In a blog a link under the photograph isn’t that disturbing but in a advertisement it isn’t always possible.

hey, i am going to bookmark this…i found this i also worth bookmarking .. Incredible List of Flickr Search Tools ..

Skellie, I’d also like to know how you do the captioning. I’ve been looking for a plugin that does it, but haven’t been able to find one.

Skellie,

This is such valuable information.

I had no idea you could do this. To think that I’ve been paying for photos all this time and never even considered flickr as an option.

I will set some time to actually sit down and follow you instructions.

Thanks again for sharing!

Gisele

That was useful Skellie, even though I try to use my own material as much as possible.

Sometimes you need to illustrate something very specific, and Flicr seems to be a good alternative source.

Really great post Skellie — I’m a huge fan of Flickr and the Creative Commons. As a blogger, I use Flickr’s CC images almost on a daily basis to support my writing. As a photographer, I license my work under the Creative Commons to give back to the community and promote my own work.

One other thing — when I use an image on a post, I notify the photographer with a link to the post and state that if they have any issues whatsoever with the use of their image I’d be happy to remove it. Nobody’s taken me up on that offer yet, and most people are ecstatic to see their image in a publication. This is a good way to make new friends and possibly regular readers too.

Skellie, I’m a bit offended by the phrase “don’t have the time or patience to put up with the hassle” that you use to refer to copyrighted images. For one thing, certain people, me included, prefer to control the way their images are used, and that’s why we don’t use the CC license. For another, photography is still a job for many people. Is it so hard to send a Flickr Mail to someone whose photos you’d like to use? Yes, it requires a little more planning, and you can’t just dash off a post if you’re waiting for approval, but I think it’s worth it. And is it so hard to pay a photographer for their work, even if it’s only a few dollars per photo? Most things in this world aren’t free. Housing and food still cost a pretty penny…

As a beginner blogger, figuring out images has been on my to-do list for weeks. So, thank you for helping me cross that off! One more item on my list, in case you are looking for related topics to post on: where to store images that you upload (for example, clip art or photos from a hard drive or CD).

I also use Creative Commons photos from Flickr on my blog. There are three points I would like to add to this great post:

1.Collecting images
A good way to collect images on Flickr is in the ‘Favorites’ folder that you can access from your Flickr homepage. So, whenever I spot an images I think I might use, I quickly tag it as a ‘favorite’. When it comes to choosing a photo for a post, I can then rummage around in the thumbnails in my ‘Favourites’ folder.

2. Inspiration
When I first started using photos on my blog, I thought of images as something that would add a visual interest to my posts, as well as set the mood for what I wanted to write about. But what I didn’t anticipate is that good images are a source of inspiration. When I fossick about in Flickr, I’ll often find an image that triggers an idea. I then tag it as a ‘favorite’ and paste a copy of the thumbnail—together with my post idea—in my swipe file.

3. Connection
I always email and thank the photographer whenever a post with a new photo goes up. In the process I invite them to have a look at how great the photo looks on my blog. This way I’ve made some lovely connections. For example, I’ve just published two posts on creativity and one of the photographers I’ve used wrote a fantastic comment, which amplified and deepened the theme. Another time when I included in a post a photo of people in a Zen ritual, it turned out that one of the participant on the photo is a famous Jazz musician. He has now posted a link to my article on his website. My point: don’t forget that photographers are potential readers of your blog, as well as possible friends.

Well, you’ve certainly found a winner with this article! It’s no wonder as it’s a fantastic article that should be added to every blogger’s list of essential “must read” articles.

From all the comments, though, I think you might have to write another article about how you did the caption…is it in the theme?

@ Patrick: Thanks! It’s really easy to do. A few people have asked so I’ll provide instructions below :).

@ Mike Goad: I’d hope that, if any trouble did arise, it would be clear that you had every reason to believe what you were doing was fair. But I don’t know enough about copyright law to confirm that, unfortunately.

@ Engtech: Thanks for those resources!

@ Evan: You just right click and ‘Save As’. If you want a bigger image, you can click ‘View larger size’.

@ Harvey Glick: I think that’s worthwhile, but I think the problem bloggers face mainly is that they often write and publish posts in the same space of time and it’s not feasible for them to wait on a response before using a photo. But if you’re going to be using the image in future, then I think that’s a really worthwhile thing to do.

@ Robert Tatum: Adobe Photoshop CS 8 :).

@ Sander: You might write the photographer’s name, then use an * and provide a link to her/his profile at the bottom of the page. That seems to be the procedure in magazines.

@ Zach: It’s simple — include this code after your images: < .br/.>< .font size="1">< .em>Photo by < .a href="profile of photographer">Name< ./a>< ./em>< ./font>

But remove the . punctuation — I included that so the code wouldn’t just format the text. The code without . punctuation gets pasted in the code panel of your blog software

@ Peter Smythe: You can find the answer above

@ Raoul: Sorry — I didn’t mean to cause any offense. I should have clarified that I was talking about getting photos to use for blog posts. Most bloggers write and publish immediately, so it’s impossible for them to wait for a photographer to respond to correspondence. I have absolutely no problem with photographers copyrighting their images, nor do I expect everyone to go with Creative Commons :).

@ Nancy: Imageshack.us is really great. I think you might find that suits your needs (it’s free).

@ Maya Norton: It’s not something I’ve tried before because I don’t have a Flickr account. If you’re complying with the license then it’s not necessary, but it’s certainly something you can do as an extra gesture of goodwill.

@ Jason: I’ve explained how to do the code in the answer to Zach above :).

at last, i’ve been waiting for this post! and it was worth the wait! thanks for another excellent post and one that is worth gold!

Thanks, Skellie. It’s always good to encourage people to do the right thing when it comes to using licensed content. CC is great and its evolution is good for everyone on the Web!

Thank you Skellie! I’ve been hoping for this exact post! Your images are always so perfect for your posts, and sized just right! I have to try out PhotoShop, but I’ve heard so much about it, I guess I’ll have to get the program. Oooh, I’ll put it on my xmas list!

This just became a training resource for our 60-plus business bloggers. Thank you, Skellie.

Hi Skellie, I noticed that some of the credits point to the image that you are using, and some just point to the photographer’s profile on Flickr. What do you think is the best way to credit the photographer whose picture we use? A link to that particular picture, or a link to his profile?

I also noticed that you save their pictures and host them on your own server. Doesn’t this violate any guidelines? I’ve read that the Flickr Community Guidelines specify that if you post a Flickr photo on an external website, the photo must link back to its photo page.

@Sue: I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand you I asked 2 questions in my earlier comment:

(a) whether we should link to the photo, or to the photographer’s profile on Flickr, and
(b) whether downloading the image and self-hosting it violates Flickr’s Community Guidelines.

@Sue: Thanks, I will drop you an email

What a great post Skellie I am a daily photography blogger and I use flickr and cc pictures almost EVERYDAY.

I 100% agree with you with the “Most of us don’t have the time or the patience to put up with the hassle.” I wish everyone made their pictures available under cc

However I have to add that, even if I am not required to, I always notify the original owner that I used his/her picture and in which post
1) I feel people have the right to know that their picture was used it may flatter them even
2) The original owner has always the right to refuse the use of his work on this or that article

Sorry for the long comment and happy holidays

Awesome

Thanks for sharing this insight into Flickr - page is now bookmarked

Great article, but just a quick note; as someone who has had a fair amount of her flickred images blogged (and a few stolen & reproduced too), it would be great if a comment was left saying that the pic has been used. After all, if we are using the CC then we have given our permission, so it is just a polite & supportive thing to do.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! i knew there had to be a better way to find pictures than i was coming up with. and i knew the copyright was an issue….i figured the creative commons thing by clicking on a few of your pictures and noticing a theme. now that i’ve read this, i feel much more comfortable placing (good) pictures on my site

Thanks Skellie! This is exactly what I was looking for! Great work

A very good guide that I was looking around for pictures. I always used to wonder how you ppl get these stuffs on hand. Whats the secret Ske ( if you don’t mind I feel easy to call you Ske rather than Skelle)…??

Great help with this article. Thanks so much
Lori

That is a great guide thanks.

I can’t express how helpful this article is for me!

Now I have more resources to use when blogging. Sometimes I would stop posting pics because of fear of copyright violation so this article is a godsend.

Thanks for posting this. I knew my blog needed some images to jazz it up, but didn’t want to use personal photos and was afraid of getting sued sideways if I used someone else’s pictures without proper permission. Your explanation was a huge help.

Creative Commons photographs are not “non-copyright” photos. They are fully copyrighted, but the owner has allowed them to be used under the terms of the relevant Creative Commons license.

To Ange and others who suggest other conditions for use of Creative Commons photos, such as leaving a comment, that is not required, and requiring that would take the photos out of the Creative Commons license. Remember: You own the photos and you can create your own license terms. If you don’t like every detail of the Creative Commons licenses, come up with something else. You can copy the terms of the Creative Commons licenses and change them, but you can’t call it Creative Commons, or Creative Commons plus extra or whatever. Creative Commons is trademarked and which means the licenses they publish, no more, no less, no changes unless authorized in the license terms (there are a few “variables” in the licenses).

The whole point of Creative Commons is to have a small number of simple, unabiguous, clear licenses, where you learn the terms once. and you can apply them to anything without reading the details.

Thank you so much for explaining this!

Now I know how to find Flickr pics I can use!

And I’ve re-set the permission on my own pics, too!

Brilliant as always!

This is a great article that will help a lot. I do have a concern, though. Looking at many of the Flickr photos, I see a lot of them are clearly recognizable photos of people. Some uses of the photos would require the _subjects_ of the photo to sign a release. Is there a way to determine if this has, in fact, been done, aside from asking the photographer?

Wow. I didn’t know about the copyright stuffs about Flickr images till now. Thanks for bringing this up!

Thanks for the CC primer, Skellie. That is something I am currently researching and trying to decide where to go with it as pertaining to my blogs.

I like SXC, but I’ll be looking at Flickr for some better looking photographs. I don’t mind giving attribution — I frequently do — and photos certainly are a way to support what has been written, a real attention getter.

Hi Skellie,

I just came across a plugin “Photo Dropper”.

Photo Dropper is a Wordpress plugin that lets you add Flickr photos to your posts.

It searches for Creative Commons licensed photos - images that are licensed for shared use - and lets you drop them into your posts - right from your dashboard with just 1 click.

Check it out at http://www.photodropper.com/wordpress-plugin/

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Austin

You’re most welcome Mike!

nicely explained and useful article … thanks !

good site

Thanks for the tips. Finding good images on flickr has become faster and easier after following the suggestions mentioned. Saves up lot of time and energy

Nice article. Here’s a tool for finding lots of gorgeous Creative Commons images: http://www.photoree.com
It was recently featured on CNET.com and Mashable

if anyone is interested, i write a blog about creative commons, creative commons through the looking glass which explores a number of projects, developments and concerns with the cc licensing model.

Great post Skellie, and one that should help people make the most of some of the great photos published on Flickr that are licensed for use on blogs and websites.

I use Flickr extensively, and also blog about my photographic wor, using Flickr to host the photos. A combination of wordpress and a little scripting means that adding photos to a post is simply a case of adding the photo id number (its part of the flickr url to any photo on the site) and the hard work is done, including linking back to the original photo on Flickr. This really cuts down on the work that adding photos to a post can bring, for very little work upfront. If anyone is interested in how this is done, just drop me a line and I’ll be happy to explain the steps required.