Cheers! I am Sona Madison, a research methods student and amateur photographer. One of my pastimes is combining my academic work with my photography passion by using my own and others best photos as part of reports.
Back in May of 2010, Susan Kistler wrote an entry for aea365 on Sites for Free Photos for Great Presentations. I bookmarked the three sites that she recommended – Stockvault, Stock.xchng, and Flickr Creative Commons. Take a look at her piece for notes on the strengths and weaknesses of each. I’ve tried each one and used them on and off for various projects.
I wanted to add two more to the list:
Rad Resource – Freerange Stock: This site, and the photographers who contribute, make money off of the ad revenue on the Google advertisements that run down the side of the page where the photos are displayed. The photos tend to be of quite high quality, and very well curated resulting in good keyword searching – but there are large gaps in the photo library (neither ‘evaluation’ nor ‘assessment’ brought up any search results). Note that you’ll be asked to sign up for a free account.
Hot Tip: Freerange Stock recently launched its tutorials section. Its first addition is on Vector vs. Bitmap graphics – something that has always confused me a bit.
Rad Resource – MorgueFile: I saved the best for last. This is my favorite stock photo site. It touts itself as offering “Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!” and it is the inspiration part that has me hooked. Their photo library is extensive and of high quality, and is searchable by keyword and category. And, you need not sign in or set up an account to access and download the high resolution photos. And, while my ‘evaluation’ and ‘assessment’ searches still didn’t turn up any hits, when looking for a compass I had lots from which to choose – both physical and moral. My favorite is at the top of this page.
Lesson Learned: Note for all sites, be sure to read the FAQs regarding fair use of their photos.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.
Sona thanks for the great tips. I used MorgueFile for a presentation last month and the photos made it much more potent and effective.