We want to start a regular newsletter for our clients, to be sent to a
few hundred email addresses around the world every three months or so.
I'm looking for a good plentiful source of royalty-free photos we can
use to accompany the text. Typically, each photo would be used once
only. The photos can be online, or purchasable on CD, but they must
have licence terms which allow our intended use (please check this!).
Specific areas which we need images to cover are:
Technology
science
law
patents
business
Most web sites I've seen so far are incredibly expensive - usually
because they sell very high-resolution pictures designed for print
use. An example would be
http://www.sciencephoto.com/ (but these are rights-managed, not royalty-free)
Some are cheaper, and are subscription-based, but have little to
choose from in the areas of interest. An example of that would be
http://www.webspice.com/
Some sites even provide free images, but again have very few that are
in useful fields.
Because the images we need will be embedded in a mailshot that will be
going out by email, very high resolution is not needed, and indeed
would probably make the emails too big anyway.
The best site I've seen so far is the royalty-free part of the collection at
http://www.comstock.com/
but this still sells its smallest royalty-fee images at £33 each,
which is quite a bit as we will need 5 or 6 per issue. The collection
CDs they sell are much cheaper per image, but since we will need a
wide field to choose from we'd have to buy a lot of CDs to cover the
range.
Can you find some cheaper options for me that still have plenty of
images to choose from - eg more than 100 in each category? (sites
having for example just 10 or 20 'law' pictures are no good, but of
course I understand that I may need to use different search terms from
those mentioned above: each site will index its images differently).
Michael2 |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
21 Feb 2004 14:00 PST
Michael2-ga,
Virtually all US government images are in the public domain, and can
be used in your newsletter. For instance, NASA space images are
available at:
http://nix.nasa.gov/
and their copyright instructions are at:
http://nix.nasa.gov/copyright.html
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photographs are not protected by copyright unless noted. If
copyrighted, permission should be obtained from the copyright owner
prior to use. If not copyrighted, photographs may be reproduced and
distributed without further permission from NASA. If a recognizable
person appears in a photograph, use for commercial purposes may
infringe a right of privacy or publicity and permission should be
obtained from the recognizable person.
----------
I can provide a dozen or more sites that have government photos for
the taking. The only trouble is, it's not always clear if a photo
"fits" your categories. What, for instance, does a "law" photo look
like (how many pictures of the Supreme Court justices would you want,
anyway?). Similarly for a "patent" photo.
If you want me to post the best of the royalty-free photo sites --
most, but not all from the US government -- as an answer to your
question, let me know. I'm sure the sites would include photos for all
of your categories, but I would leave it to you to sort through as to
which photos best met your categorical needs.
Let me know what you think.
pafalafa-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
21 Feb 2004 15:32 PST
Just to be clear, the government pictures are all available free of charge.
|
Clarification of Question by
michael2-ga
on
23 Feb 2004 06:58 PST
Hi pafalafa-ga
Yes, I would accept a list of free sites. I'm assuming you'll be
doing some checking for me as to relevance and that you'll make sure
the sites do have, at least in combination, the sort of subjects I'm
looking for? You'll understand that a bald list of free US Government
sites, that I have to check for relevance myself, won't save me any
time for my $25!
Law and patent photos could, for example include pictures of lawyers,
court scenes, law offices, scales, text books, legal briefs, Letters
Patents, patented devices, light bulbs [=innovation], and that type of
thing.
Have a look, for example, at the photos pulled up by a search on 'law' at
http://www.comstock.com/
(tick the rights-managed option as well to get the full selection).
regards
Michael2
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
23 Feb 2004 07:18 PST
Thanks for the additional information. I'm not sure I can really meet
the criteria you've set here -- e.g. 100 or more "patent" photos
(Comstock only shows a handful) -- but perhaps another researcher will
find some useful sources for you.
Best of luck.
|
Clarification of Question by
michael2-ga
on
23 Feb 2004 08:06 PST
OK, thanks anyway. I will post another question asking for free sites
which you might like to have a look at.
Michael2
|
