Stock Photography Tips for Bloggers

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As we know, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here at SS&M Headquarters, we are learning photography day by day!  But in blogging land, pictures need to be gooooooooooood all the time.

If you don’t have the skill or time, you may rely on stock photography to showcase that post.

We have learned some tips along the way and wanted to pass them along.

Stock Photography Tips for Bloggers

1. 1. You CAN NOT use google search images!!
   2. You CAN NOT google for a FREE image and use it!!  Photography is protected under copyright.  You are opening yourself up to a lawsuit if you don’t have permission to use or have paid for that image.  If you have any of these images, change them out ASAP.
   3. There are free photos you can use. Like these, and many more, but be sure to credit as they request.
   4. You can purchase photos from companies like 123RF,  which we have used many times.  TIP– Make sure you know what you are using the photo for as using once for a blog post or for a book cover are two different types of usage and fees.  Pay the right one, you don’t want issues.

1. Ask friends.  Seriously, photography is a huge hobby.  You may have friends interested in building their side business while helping you out.  Just agree to terms ahead of time…. i.e. link to their FB account, just adding their name below the pic, leaving a watermark, etc.
2. Take lots of pictures yourself.  When you are out and about, take pictures.  This will not only help your photography, but it will give you some possible pictures to use.
3. When taking your own photos, save them to your computer as stock photo – category – what it is.  For example, if you have an image of barn wood save it as : stock photo – background – barn wood.  This makes it much easier to find.  OR…You can also set up separate folders i.e STOCK PHOTOS and sub-folders under that with your categories.

Your own photos carry no risk so learning photography is always a good skill to have in blogging.  We also couldn’t even deal without the editing abilities we have using Pic Monkey Royale.  If you learn some of the great features with Pic Monkey, you can turn a ho hum photo into a much more blog friendly image.

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