- Photo by Mitchel Bryant
How To Find Digital Photos
As an instructor at a two-year community college, students often ask me how to find photos for PowerPoint presentations, Word brochures, blogs, and other projects.
This is a good question. In his recent blog, John Jantsch, Founder Duct Tape Marketing, discussed the importance of using pictures in blogs, articles, and even in emails. It is a generally accepted rule of thumb that presentations should be 90 percent visual and only 10 percent text.
Seth Godin in his blog, Really Bad PowerPoint, states
Create slides that demonstrate, with emotional proof, that what you’re saying is true not just accurate.
Great photos appeal to the emotional side.
Here are 4 Tips I Have Used to Help Students Find Photos.
1. Take many original photos.
Many community college students have digital cameras on their cell phones. The best photos for blogs or other projects may be the photos that you take with an inexpensive digital camera or camera on your phone or iPad.
Encourage students to take pictures of everyday events so they will have ready access to pictures that relate to their blog post. It is better to use action shots rather than posed pictures.
2. Use Facebook friends as a resource.
I am blessed to have a talented nephew who post many original photos on Facebook and on his website. He is kind enough to let me use these pictures without cost. Of course, I give him credit for his work.
Most of your friends will agree to let you use their pictures. After all, they have already shared them with many people on Facebook. It is always best to get permission even from friends and family members before using their pictures. Be especially cautious about posting pictures of children without the permission of their parents.
3. Don’t download pictures from Pinterest.
Pinterest is loaded with beautiful pictures. It is so tempting to want to save these pictures for your project. This is what Pinterest has to say about using other people’s pictures.
How Pinterest and other users can use your content. Subject to any applicable account settings you select, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify (e.g., re-format), re-arrange, and distribute your User Content on Pinterest for the purposes of operating and providing the Service(s) to you and to our other Users. Nothing in these Terms shall restrict Pinterest’s rights under separate licenses to User Content. Please remember that the Pinterest Service is a public platform, and that other Users may search for, see, use, and/or re-pin any User Content that you make publicly available through the Service.
Even though I may be contradicting what you just read, if you use pictures on Pinterest in your blog, you will likely be violating copyright laws. The only safe photos to post online are the ones you take yourself. If you re-pin photos that you know are original, ask permission before using the pictures. Most of the photos on Pinterest have been pinned and re-pinned. It may be hard to get the appropriate permission and documentation.
4. Other recommended ways to get photos are listed below.
- Flickr Creative Commons: more than 6 billion images and 51 million registered users; copyright-free images to be used with creative commons license
- Stock.XCHNG: nearly 400,000 images; copyright-free
- Photobucket: more than 9 billion copyright-free images
- iStockphoto: nearly 10 million images, clip art, illustrations, videos and music; items are royalty-free and must be purchased for use
- Shutterstock: more than 19 million images, videos and illustrations; subscription-based service
You may be interested in reading:
Photography Everything to Boost Web Visits (John Jantsch)
Mitchell Bryant Photography and Design
5 Rules for More Effective Presentations (Michael Hyatt)
8 Speaking Tips for Consultants (Michael Zipursky)
Really Bad PowerPoint (Seth Godin)
Pinterest Power: How to Use the Third Largest Social Media Site to Promote Your Business (Stephanie Chandler)
Leading, Teaching, & Learning 