Getting pictures for use in product

If you go to wikimedia commons contact us page you will see some information at Commons:Contact us - Wikimedia Commons.

Then if you read under the contents and copyright section you will see a link with anchor text 'you can'.

Upon clicking this you will be directed to Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia - Wikimedia Commons where you will find all of the information that you are looking for.

Try sxc.hu that's where a lot of us go for free pictures. Just make sure the pictures you choose only have their "standard restrictions".

Seb.

Keep in mind for most ebook/website projects you only need the lowest resolution image. Some of them are pretty expensive, but if you keep looking you can probably find what you need for 1-5 credits each.

I agree that sxc.hu is a good choice but I often find that many of the photos on there are missing the professional touch I am seeking. Flickr is much better, keep reading

I am a big Flickr user, I spend a lot of time on there admiring the work that people submit. One day I realised that some of the people on there are also registered with Getty Images, they sell their photos their. I also realised that loads of people who are submitting work of the same quality as the Getty Registered users do not sell their photos commercially.

This got me thinking, why don't I message these people and ask if they would let me use their photo in exchange for a link back to their Flickr page or website. From my experience so far, only one person has said no. If you word the message right, I believe the thought of having their work seen is a good opportunity for the photographer.

Hope this helps, but be sure to get their permission! You might want to screen shot it too so you have double proof that the person granted you permission to use their photo

Joe Crosbie,

Photodune.net is extremely cheap (only 1$ for a small photo). The size of photo you get for a buck should be enough for an ebook, but you can get bigger sizes as well.
The only drawback is that their selection is not as big as istock yet...

Type in "Royalty Free images" into Google and have a look around the sites. I use istockphoto.com and they have a HUGE choice of images you can use.

Keep in mind that "royalty free" is not the same as "free". "royalty free" just means that once you buy it you don't have to keep paying for it every time you use it. Also note that some of the images have restrictions on the actual use.

One thing that has always concerned me about "free" images on websites is determining if they are really free our if someone stole them from another source and just posted them to drive traffic to their site. I know I used to see images on free sites that I knew came from paid collections.