Free Images for the Taking

By Joe Vallina

Finding free, high-quality imagery is one of the most vexing problems facing budget-conscious—some might say budget-handcuffed—association media teams. Certainly, the rise of the Internet has made it easier than ever to find and procure quality images of just about anything, but over the course of a budget year, the costs can add up quickly. As it turns out, I've found some reliable ways to procure good images for little to no cost that don't involve a breach of any copyright laws. Here are three ideas:

1. stock.xchange. This branch of the substantially more upscale (and definitely not low-cost) Getty images can be a real treasure trove when it comes to finding free images for editorial or promotional use. Note, however, that when you do an image search here, the "premium images” at the top and bottom of the page are not free. As always, be sure to note the usage restrictions clearly presented with each image before downloading. Images are searchable by topic, date, size, and photographer.

2. Wikimedia Commons. This site, like its sister site, Wikipedia, is brought to you by the Wikimedia Foundation. As such, all images here (as of December 2011, there were more than 11 million) are licensed under the Creative Commons agreement, the GNU Free Documentation License, or are in the public domain. Quality can be a bit spotty, but you can find some real gems here if you dig a little. As an example of what's on offer, the National Archives and Records Administration has added more than 100,000 historical images from its vast collection, all in the public domain and free to use.

3. Take your own! This is the most overlooked way of generating art, yet one that could be the most powerful, if used correctly. Many association publications are guilty of running bad snapshots or "yearbook” photos, mostly because the staff member doing the photography doesn't know three golden rules of creating good photos:

• Get close. Readers engage more with the subject by looking into his or her eyes.
• Use that f-stop setting wisely. Using depth of field is key if you want your shots to look professional. What is depth of field? It's when the subject is in focus but the background is not. To achieve this on your digital camera, use the setting that lets you control the f-stop and set it to the lowest number possible.
  

 By using a small f-stop number, you can create the illusion of depth. (photo: Barry Smith via stock.xchange)

• The "rule of thirds” makes the shot. Don't pose the subject smack dab in the middle of the frame. This is the mistake that makes photos look like bad snapshots. Instead, imagine a four-line grid on the viewfinder. Place the subject's focal point on one of the four points where the lines intersect. Your photos will look much more professional.