Images have become a necessity for successful online engagement. We’ve said many times that users are turned off by huge walls of text and that image posts do the best in social media. Basically, to put it even simpler: the internet is boring without pictures.

Luckily for nonprofits and bloggers worldwide, there are options for sourcing images on the web without having to dish out hundos to expensive stock photo sites. There are just a few things you need to know about Creative Commons attribution licenses so that you make sure you are sourcing legally.

“Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) available in “the commons” — the body of  work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing (source).”

The Creative Commons website provides a great search tool for finding images to use. The website lists a number of sites to search and opens up each site in a new tab when you search a term. I’ve had the most luck searching Flickr and Wikimedia Commons. After you find an image on one of these sites, you’ll need to check to see what licensing the image falls under, so that you know how you are able to legally use the image.

There six main attribution licenses found are:

1. Attribution CC BY:

This license lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build up an image and even use it commercially - as long as you credit the author of the original image you are using.

2. Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY -SA

This license is similar to the one above, however the image that you create must also be licensed with the same license, so others can use your derivative in the future, even commercially.

3. Attribution-NoDeriv CC BY -ND

This license allows you to use an image but you cannot build upon or alter the image at all, and you need to attribute the original author.

4. Attribution-Non Commercial CC BY -NC

This license allows you to remix, tweak, and build upon the original image but you must attribute the author and you creation must be non-commercial.

5. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY -NC-SA

This license only allows you to use an image non-commercially, and you must license your creation under identical terms for others to use non commercially.

6. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY -NC-ND

This license is the most limiting. It only allows you to use an image you find non commercially, and you may not change or alter any part of it, and you also must attribute the original author.
 

"Aurora Borealis - Bear Lake, Alaska" by Jim Trodel is licensed under CC BY 2.0

How to Attribute

This is the ideal attribution for an image you did not make alterations to:

• “Image Title” by Author is licensed under CC BY 2.0

If you made alterations to the original:

• “Image Title” by Author is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Cropped from original

If you created a derivative:

• The work “New Title” is a derivative of “Image Title” by Author used under CC BY. “New Title” is licensed under  under CC BY by [Your Name]

Conclusion

Now that you understand public domain and attribution licensing- your emails, blog posts, and social media status updates should be FILLED with compelling images that make the user want to keep reading and share. Just don’t forget to check the license and attribute!

It is also a common practice let the author know you are using their image - most times they are excited that their work is being used and love seeing how! If you’ve applied our lesson on sourcing images in your blog or website, share a link with us, because we’d love to see how too.