How to find images for your marketing
In our opinion, it’s good practice to find images for your marketing that are legally cleared for use, no matter how big your company is, we want to avoid any actions from lawyers.
Before we get into where to find images let’s talk about image sizes. Often we get images from clients that have been taken from a website and these images aren’t always ideal for all marketing mediums. Before sending someone an image, take a look at the file size. If it’s over 500 kilobytes, there’s a good chance it’s suitable for all media including print. If the file is under 100 kilobytes, there’s a good chance it’s not large enough for anything but a small inset picture on a website.
So here’s where we find images in order of expense
1 Google search, if images are “Creative Commons License” meaning free to use. https://www.google.com/
1 Google search, if images are “Creative Commons License” meaning free to use. https://www.google.com/
2 Free and royalty-free image sources, here’s a list: https://snappa.com/blog/free-stock-photos/ These have some great and free images to use.
3 Istock isn’t free but it’s reasonable $12-$33 an image. They’ll try and get you on a monthly plan, but you can select to simply buy credits Once then spend those credits on image downloads. All images are either 1 or 3 credits to download. https://www.istockphoto.com/
4 Adobe has very good images but you can only pay monthly on a plan https://stock.adobe.com/
4 Adobe has very good images but you can only pay monthly on a plan https://stock.adobe.com/
5 Getty images has the best-looking stock but they are expensive, like $375-$500 an image expensive https://www.gettyimages.com/
To find an image you can use on Google, just search for an image subject.
– Click on the Images tab
– Select Tools on the right
– Click “Usage Rights” dropdown and select Creative Commons Licenses to only show the images you are free to use. On the left, you should also change the size from “Any Size” to “Large.” If you right-click an image then select “Save Image As” to save it. Ideally, you’re saving a .jpg file. But sometimes the file is a .webp file and that is not usable. Don’t worry about the image high enough resolution because you sorted the images to only show you “Large” files
– Now left-click on the image to go to the website it’s on, then right-click and “Save Image.” If you right-click and “save image” on the initial grid of images Google presents you, you probably won’t be downloading the largest file size.
And don’t forget, we are great photographers. If we can capture your image we’d love to.