5 Insider Tips for Choosing the Right Images for Your Content
Are you unfamiliar with the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Images can make or break your great content. Despite the adage, people really do judge books by their covers. Aka images are first impressions you need to nail. That’s why you need to choose the best image that will complement your content. Thus, here are 5 tips for choosing the right images for your content. You’re welcome.
1. Choose high-resolution images (duh).
If you want your content to look professional, always choose high-resolution images. Images online should never be less than 72 dpi (dots per inch) and images in print should never be less than 300 dpi. Otherwise, pixelated images will drive your readers away. Note that the higher quality, the more space it takes up, leading to higher loading times.
Size matters too. If an image is high quality, but tiny, it’s possible you have found a cropped or resized version. Dig a little deeper to find the original image or ones like it through a reverse Google Image Search. Better yet, Bing’s image search is a lot easier to search for license-free images. A good rule of thumb is to go with your gut—if you are on the fence over using an image, don’t use it.
2. Use the right search terms.
To pick the best photos, learn photography lingo. Terms like low angle, silhouette, depth of field, wide angle, long exposure and selective focus can help narrow your search for exactly what photography you are looking for.
But sometimes you may be stuck on finding a good subject as not every article will have a perfectly realized image. Sometimes you must think abstract to search for the perfect image. For example, if I’m writing a piece on finding your writer’s voice, I need to think outside of typical “writing” and “voice” symbols because the whole point of the article is finding your personality on the page. This is a great time to chart out a word association guide to help with your search.
The image I ended up choosing?
The perfect blend of personality, word association (voice—sing—music—phonograph) and a playful tone that managed to be more subtle than a woman crossing an X over her voice box with a pen.
3. Match the tone of the article (or juxtapose it).
Remember that the best images reflect and complement your content. That’s why stock photography has become laughably bad recently—it’s far too generic. Great stock photography is well-composed, beautiful and can either be very straightforward or one with a specific point of view.
Whatever images you choose, make sure it matches the tone of the article. If you use Ryan McGuire’s quirky photos from Gratisography, hopefully the image complements or juxtaposes the content successfully. Juxtaposition is trickier, but media sites like The Onion have found plenty of success with this strategy.
Another quick tip: when using multiple images in a series, try and look for some visual or thematic similarities. It can be jarring sometimes to see a very beautiful, selective focus photo in black and white and turn the page to find a generic, amateur photograph.
4. Know thy copyright laws and always attribute.
The most important tip for choosing images for your content? Don’t steal. One, it’s gross and two, it’s gross. Photographers have to make a living too and using an image without proper credit is stealing. It’s almost as bad as not crediting the photographer/site where you found the image—always, always link to the original source (even if you don’t have to).
In order not to steal, you should know that there are three basic types of images:
- Royalty Free: a publisher buys a license once and can use the work according to the license.
- Public Domain: no restrictions, no copyright claim (which is not possible in some countries).
- Creative Commons: work may be used but only in compliance with the stated restrictions.
If you are using stock photography sites like iStock and Getty Images, be sure to read the fine print to see how, when and where you can use those royalty-free images. If you are using public domain images, you don’t have to worry about infringing upon any copyright law (usually).
If your content doesn’t have the luxury of using royalty-free Stock photography, use license-free images. Or “some rights reserved” images, aka Creative Commons images (all of your basic questions for Creative Commons can be found at our blog post). Often times, photographers will waive their copyright laws under a Creative Commons Zero license where “no rights reserved.” This means you can use the photograph however you’d like (for free!), but you should probably still be cool and show love by attributing images to the photographer’s site.
5. Optimize images for social media.
Part of any good content strategy (and even journalism) is to attract eyeballs and those eyes are looking at social media for their content. That’s why it is so important to choose images for the corresponding social network then. In our best practices series, we’ve offered some best tips for social media. When it comes to repackaging images for social media, think of how a cover image can entice people to read the article.
Practically, it’s important that you learn the dimensions to optimize images for social media. If you use a graphic design software like Canva—which has the social network’s dimensions for you in easy to use templates—fantastic. If not, here’s what you should know. (Note: The numbers given below are in pixels).
Facebook: It’s recommended to upload image widths of 720, 960 or 2048 for regular posts. For cover photos (for your Facebook page), upload 851 x 315 photos.
Twitter: It’s recommended to upload 1024 x 512, but images may actually appear in stream 506 x 253.
Tumblr: More flexible than some of the other platforms, image dimension sizes range on what type of image (jpeg vs gif) you are uploading). For a standard photo post, the maximum size dimensions you can upload are 1280 x 1920 for the image to display 540 x 810. For more on other image dimensions, visit this regularly updated page.
Instagram: The maximum size of photo uploads to Instagram are 2048 x 2048 and within the feed posts are 640×640 (that’s the dimension Canva uses).
Pinterest: It’s recommending to upload for Pinterest’s expanded pins at 735 x 1102. Within the Pinterest feed, images will appear at 238 and the adjusted height.
Google+: If you are still using Google+, know that bigger is better. The maximum upload size is 2048 x 2048 and the minimum has an image width of 350. Note that you can also click the images full size.
Cool? Cool. Those were our tips for choosing the right images for your content. And before I leave you, here is our ever-growing collection of resources to find these license-free images, hand picked by me for the variety and volume of high-resolution images. And best of all? All of these resources are free. Enjoy.
50 Resources for License-Free Images
By Emily E. Steck
Scouring the internet for high-res images is time-consuming. Luckily, there are plenty of license-free image databases to find what you are looking for. Here's a list of the best free image finders on the web.
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Unsplash
By Emily E. Steck
With 10 free uploads of high-resolution photos a month, there's a great selection of totally free photos on a variety of subjects. Licensed under [Creative Commons Zero](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free (including for commercial purposes) without asking permission. No attribution to the photographer or Unsplash is required, but it's always recommended.
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Pexels
By Emily E. Steck
All photos on Pexels are licensed under the [Creative Commons Zero](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) (CC0) license. You can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free (including for commercial purposes) without asking permission. No attribution to the photographer or Pexels is required, but it's always recommended.
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Barn Images
By Emily E. Steck
Barn Images offers you a collection of free high-resolution non-stock photography. Licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, attribution is not required but it is greatly appreciated if you link to Barn Images. See site for more details.
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FindA.Photo
By Emily E. Steck
Searching through other free photo databases like MMT, Picography, Life of Pix and more,
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Stock Up
By Emily E. Steck
Stock Up adds high quality new stock photos from Unsplash, Life of Pix, New Old Stock, Startup Old Stock and more each week.
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Flickr
By Emily E. Steck
Flickr has the largest collection of photos under the Creative Commons licensing. Be sure to check and cite the photograph properly and it is yours; also check if you can use the image commercially. Quietly also has a Flickr image search tool.
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Gratisography
By Emily E. Steck
Ryan McGuire, a photographer of Bells Design, offers his fun, quirky high-resolution [Creative Commons Zero](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) images for free personal and commercial use.
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IM Free
By Emily E. Steck
A curated collection of photos from free resources, all for commercial use. It's very easy to for a variety of subjects, including people, business, technology, icons, food and drink, nature, lifestyle and more. Attribution to the photographer is required.
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Splashbase
By Emily E. Steck
A search and discovery platform that sifts through images from the web's best Creative Commons licenses, Splashbase is a great place to start your search. Attribution depends on the license of individual photos.
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Picography
By Emily E. Steck
Free, high-res images from a variety of photographers. Use and customize the images however you like, even for commercial purposes. Attribution is preferred, but not required.
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Women of Color in Tech
By Emily E. Steck
The photos come courtesy of [#WOCInTechChat](http://www.wocintechchat.com/about/) and are free for anyone to copy, distribute, and display if proper credit is provided under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license. They are stock photography of Women of Color in the tech industry.
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Cupcake
By Emily E. Steck
Jonas Nilsson Lee, a photographer, graciously offers his images to be used freely and without attribution.
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Picjumbo
By Emily E. Steck
There are no restrictions on use, including attribution. They have a wide range of fantastic high-quality images.
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Albumarium
By Emily E. Steck
Search through Creative Commons images by selecting a "Commericial" license
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Designer Pics
By Emily E. Steck
Free, high resolution stock images for you to use. No attribution required.
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Magdeleine
By Emily E. Steck
Free to use for personal and commercial projects. Attribution required.
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Death to Stock Photo
By Emily E. Steck
Every month, Death to Stock Photos will email you a new pack of high quality, license-free photos that are yours to keep. Great, gorgeous images available for commercial use.
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LibreShot
By Emily E. Steck
Photographer Martin Vogel offers a collection of beautiful, high-res photos for anyone to use for commercial or other reasons, including tons of macro photography. Image credit is encouraged, but not required.
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Foodie's Feed
By Emily E. Steck
Food bloggers, rejoice—free, high-quality photos in one searchable website. Attribution is encouraged, but not required. You can also sign-up via email for more images every week.
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Life of Pix
By Emily E. Steck
Free, high-quality resolution photos for the price of free. Absolutely no copyright restrictions. Attribution is encouraged.
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Skitterphoto
By Emily E. Steck
License-free, high-quality photos by photographers from the Netherlands, all of these images are free to use and customize, even commercially.
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Bucketlistly Photos
By Emily E. Steck
A free Creative Commons collection of gorgeous travel photos from Photographer Pete Rojwongsuriya. All photos must be attributed to him and Bucketlistly Photos.
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Startup Stock Photos
By Emily E. Steck
An alternative to cheesy stock photos, this Tumblr of free startup photos is a great place to grab images focusing on open-spaced businesses.
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Superfamous Images
By Emily E. Steck
The best place on the web to find aerial photography and bird's eye shots; images are free to use as long as you credit.
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MMT
By Emily E. Steck
Free for commercial use from photographer Jeffrey Betts with new photos every week focusing on NYC life, nature and more.
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Get Refe
By Emily E. Steck
Perfect for urban vignettes and outdoorsy like images, images are free "real life" images. A surprisingly large collection; however, you cannot search through. Attribution encouraged.
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Splitshire
By Emily E. Steck
There's such a thing called beautiful, free stock photos. Splitshire allows you to download free high quality photos for commercial use with no copyright restrictions. Attribution is preferred.
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Little Visuals
By Emily E. Steck
Sign up to get 7 hi-res images zipped up in your inbox every 7 days. There is no copyright on the images, so you can you [use them any way you want](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Note that there have been no new updates in over a year.
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ISO Republic
By Emily E. Steck
Free for personal and commercial projects for creative types, no attribution is required but it is encouraged.
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Freerange Stock
By Emily E. Steck
Register for free, download high resolution stock photos for free. Totally free.
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Move East
By Emily E. Steck
Stunning photography of the eastern world through one photographer's eyes. Free to use for personal and commercial use. Attribution is encouraged.
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Lock & Stock Photos
By Emily E. Steck
Licensed under Creative Commons, you'll need to attribute to the [photographer here—](http://ajmontpetit.com/)AJ Montpetit—but it's worth it for the site's odd collection of architecture photos.
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Free Photos Bank
By Carlin Leung
Free so long as you credit 'em. Pretty decent quality, and download in .zip or .jpg
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Stokpic
By Emily E. Steck
Stokpic uses a custom fully legally-binding license; basically you do anything except redistribute. Attribution is not required, but requested. Be sure to carefully read about the license [here](http://stokpic.com/license/). oEvery two weeks, 10 new high-res photos are sent to you via email or you can search through the site through a variety of verticals.
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Food Photos
By Carlin Leung
Creative commons attribution licensing. Warning, don't go on this around lunch time.
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Pixabay
By Elizabeth Rosalyn The
Your source for free vectors, free drawings and free photos. You can freely use any image without attribution in digital and printed form, even for commercial applications.
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Free Nature Stock
By Emily E. Steck
A plethora of royal-free nature stock photos licensed under Creative Commons Zero. Users can use the photos without permission or attribution and even commercially.
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DeviantArt
By Emily E. Steck
DeviantArt is the world's largest online social community for artists and art enthusiasts. By searching through Creative Commons, you may use these images as long as you credit the author.
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Skuawk
By Emily E. Steck
Specializing in landscape photography, Skuawk's photos are free to download and use for any purpose. Image attribution is encouraged, but not required (as well as tweeting images).
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Morguefile
By Elizabeth Rosalyn The
This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. Contains photographs freely contributed by many artists.
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Photo Pin
By Emily E. Steck
A free tool that helps bloggers and designers find beautiful photos for blogs and websites using Creative Commons licensing.
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Photo Everywhere
By Emily E. Steck
Free travel photos to download and search for with a convenient map-based search. Attribution is required.
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The Stocks
By Emily E. Steck
Need to sort through images from a few different places in one place? Then use Stocks. It allows you to sort through Pixabay, Unsplash, Little Visuals, New Old Stock, Super Famous, Startup, Gratisopgraphy, GetRefe, Crow the Stone, Pexels, Jay Mantri, Magdeline, Travel Coffee, Move East and Barn Images without leaving your tab. Downside: you can't search for a keyword and pool results from all the sources, just each one individually. **Licenses and attribution depends on the site so take note.**
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Viintage
By Emily E. Steck
Your source for hundreds of thousands of **public domain** vintage graphics. You may download as many low resolution (600px to 3000px) vintage graphics as you like for free; a premium version where you can download unlimited high-res photos per month exists for the price of a $10 monthly donation.
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PD Pics
By Emily E. Steck
Pdpics.com is a repository of thousands of free public domain pictures and photographs. Use these stock photos freely in any project. No attribution is required.
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New Old Stock
By Emily E. Steck
Vintage, often high-res, photos for download from the public archives. Note: the site states its images are free of _known _copyright restrictions.
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Pickup Image
By Emily E. Steck
Pickup image is the largest collections of free photographs. Free download high-quality premium free stock images, public domain photos. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Attribution is requested but not required.
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Realistic Shots
By Emily E. Steck
Free, high-resolution stock photos available for personal and commercial use. No attribution is required, but it is recommended.
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Stock Light and Pixel
By Emily E. Steck
Stock Light and Pixel has been created to provide digital creatives with high-quality images for use wherever, whenever. All images featured on this site are licensed under [Creative Commons Zero](https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0) for commercial or private use without attribution.
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Raumrot
By Emily E. Steck
stockphotosAll available hi-res/hi-quality pictures you can use on personal and commercial projects. Please be respectful to registered trademarks. Attribution is required for photos with a CC: 2.0 license like so: **Photo: Markus Spiske / raumrot.com / CC-BY. Photos licensed as CC Zero require no attribution.**
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Image Credit: Ryan McGuire via Gratisography