Photographic images without copyright for artists – an article by Ellen Ging
- altonartsociety
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Hello fellow Artists,
You know that feeling – desperate to paint/draw something, brush/pencil/pastel in hand, paper/canvas at the ready, and you think, what the heck do I want to depict? Where can I find a decent reference?
I can’t just use any old photo from a book/magazine or the Internet. I am not sure I fully understand copyright laws, which seem to be a minefield. Neither would I want to use someone else’s creation of their photographic art without permission.
It is all so difficult. There are many places on the Internet where you can find royalty
free images, but many of these require a payment before use. It can feel very complicated.
Well, this might help you. I have Facebook on my iPad and on there I have found three different sites where photographers post their own images.
These pages are fully owned by themselves. By doing so, they generously give permission for Artists to use them to make their own artwork, without charge and completely free from copyright issues. The resulting pieces can be exhibited and/or sold. The Artist can also post their resulting artwork back to the site to give the Photographer the pleasure of seeing how their photograph has been used, though this is not necessary.
The standard of the photographs is often exceptional. The only request is that the Artist acknowledges the Photographer for providing the original image.
Have a look, and if you like what you see, joining the respective group is very easy. All instructions for the use of the images are available on the site.
As a committed technophobe, even I could do it.
I hope you find this useful.
Ellen Ging