Where does everyone find images?

sxc.hu is free: stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site

this is an awesome source Diana. I checked the terms and they are easy to understand.

In today's highly competitive and copyright-centric world I am wondering how they can do this for free! Hope their sources are legit!

No, that is completely FALSE.

Because they're a search engine and they're protected under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA. As an end user, you are not.

The only way I would recommend using Google Images is to do Advanced search - then choose 'Labeled for Reuse'.

Per Google:
Labeled for reuse
Your results will only include images labeled with a license that allows you to copy and/or modify the image in ways specified in the license.

There are other options under usage rights. Check it out and use accordingly.

Can't do that, but the site is really good with free photos generally. They do have paid photos too, but they are nicely separated from the main free ones. It is the first place I go looking for a photo.

You do have to check the terms and conditions for each photo. Some of the free ones do require that you acknowledge the photographer. I do use just one so far that was so spectacular that I was happy to do that.

I also like the site as an example of how you don't necessarily need a .com.

Flabby logic. (Or is it fuzzy logic? ) Just an assumption and it's a wrong assumption. Google does not use them on their website, at least the last time I went to google.com. You might be able to show them on your search engine. Hope you are not too sensitive and don't worry about it, we are all just learning here.

But take those images off your sites fast. Have you ever heard of image extortion? It's a long conversation and I'm not going to get into it just now, but you do not want to use a photo that doesn't have clear permission to let you use it.

First of all, I'm very surprised at how many warriors in this thread think it's ok to use Google Images with commercial intent lol

Second, I love using Getty Images - Unsupported browser detected, they have some seriously cool stuff from images to video and audio clips.

Good luck with your image search, OP!

- Tommy

I believe you are referring to Morgue File.

It's already been mentioned upthread but was buried inside of a list, but I use this: everystockphoto - searching free photos. They don't just show you one set of images. They search about a dozen different image search engines and I've almost never had trouble finding something there. For the record, they search Morgue file as well.

Also, regarding Google Images, it is 100% illegal to simply grab an image from there are re-use it on your own site. They do not host the images at all.

They host only a thumbnail of the image and then fetch the image from the original host when you ask to see it. They even have a warning that the image may be subject to copyright.

However, if you click advanced search, you can choose to search by usage rights and then search for "commercial reuse with modification" this allows you to re-use the image and to even change it around, but only if it's there. And you still need to check the inidvidual website you find it on to make sure that you follow the rules for attribution.

I recently wrote a blog post for an SEO blog about this (it's not my blog and I don't earn a penny for referring people there, but this post is very comprehensive compared to what I wrote here: Where to Find Royalty Free Photos and How to Use Them | SEO Blog |Online Marketing Blog | Internet Marketing Blog | Quantum SEO Labs so I thought it might be helpful to some people who are confused.).