Get Stock Images For Free From Freerange Stock
If you run a publication of some kind – whether that is a newspaper, a print magazine, a blog or any kind of website – you need a regular supply of good quality images to publish in your publication.
This problem has two aspects to it.
One – You will have to find good quality images. Of course you can’t use poor photographs and ruin the credibility of your publication.
Two – You will have to find free or low cost images. A publication requires lots of images in just a single edition. Since you will be publishing several editions you will need a lot of photographs and you also need to keep your costs low.
I have a solution which will solve both these problems: a website called Freerangestock.com.
What is Freerangestock.com
Freerangestock.com is an online resource where you can get free stock images. Period. There are no hidden costs or extra charges involved.
Freerange Stock was created with the intention of providing high quality, professional stock photos for both commercial and non-commercial use. For free. Their vision is that free stock photos can be good photos.
Freerange Stock is a photographic community which is supported by advertising revenue. Photographers get paid when users click on the ads that appear next to their submissions.
A note on their images
All the images on the site are either taken by Freerange Stock itself, drawn from various Freerange archives, or contributed by a community of professional and amateur photographers.
The images provided directly by Freerange Stock and Freerange archives originate in one of the following two ways.
They are either digitally photographed on Canon DSLR cameras or they are a high resolution (i.e. 4000 dpi) Nikon scan of an original 35mm slide.
Once the image is captured, the photo is sharpened, color corrected, cropped and keyworded. Some images are edited in Photoshop to make them more visually appealing. Then the original is archived and a 2400 x 1600 (or larger) version is optimized and then posted on the live site.
The contributing photographers gather and create images in a number of similar ways.
Fair usage
The images on the website can be used in commercial projects. These include projects like websites, advertising, books, videos, and other similar items.
Unlike other websites, which make it a compulsion to credit the photographer, Freerange Stock lets you be flexible.
If you want to help promote the Freerange site, you can credit the photographer and link back to the image on the site. However you can still use the image if you don’t want to link back, under most circumstances. Check out the terms of use for complete usage guidelines.
You may not, however, repackage, redistribute, or claim ownership of the images. Do not use the photos in products that rely on the photograph as the main selling point. This means you may not use the photos on shirts, mugs, mousepads, calendars, and/or toilet seat covers and then sell those things in the market. But then, you’re not allowed to do these things with most stock photos, free or purchased.
Revenue
Freerange Stock shares revenue with contributing photographers through Google AdSense. If you sign up as a photographer you will be given the option to add your Google AdSense publisher ID to your account. This is your personal advertising account through Google, which allows you to generate ad revenue on ads that appear on download pages for your images and your profile pages. You keep 100% of the ad revenue that your pages generate, and your ad code will cycle through the entire site as well. At the present moment, 50% of the remaining ad impressions on the entire site are dedicated to photographer revenue sharing.
Go and take a look at the website and then let me know what you think in the comments below.
