Image from Joshua Gajownik (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
***It is vital that you make sure that any images that you use are cleared of any copyright restrictions***
If you wish to use pictures and content on your social media platforms other than your own, it is important that you source material that you can legally use. The easiest way to do this is by looking for images that carry a Creative Commons license.
Images that have a Creative Commons license can be legally used online, however you need to check the license agreement as there may be certain restrictions.
A full breakdown of how the Creative Commons licenses work can be found here.
Do you have an image but you are unsure where it comes from and whether there are any copyright restrictions?
You can check an image by going to either:
Tineye: https://www.tineye.com/
Or
Google Images: https://images.google.com/
(click on the Camera icon to search by image)
Looking for some sites to find high quality Creative Commons images? Here's a few to get you started:
Creative Commons http://search.creativecommons.org/ searches various sites for images, remember to verify that the work is under a CC license by following the link to the site that has the image.
Flickr https://www.flickr.com/ To find creative commons images, select 'all creative commons' from the options listed in the license drop down box, which appears from the results screen by selecting the advanced option. You can check the individual licenses on each image.
Google Images https://images.google.com To find creative commons images select the desired 'usage rights' option from the 'search tools' option which appears at the top of the results screen. **Always** click through to the site that contains the image to check the license and any restrictions, which you can do by clicking on the image then selecting the 'visit page' button.
Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images can be searched, or images can be found by browsing many subcategories. Individual licenses for images can be found at the bottom of the images, as seen below:
More sites for finding creative commons images: