Let’s say- you are creating a presentation on ‘Organizational Guide for Beginners’ and you want to add images of a cluttered and an organized closet to demonstrate the difference to your audience. Now, what do you do?
For MOST of us, our immediate reflex will be to go over the internet, have a quick google image search, find pictures you like, and insert them into your slide.
But hold on, do you know that while doing this, you might be violating the copyright law?
Over time, I’ve come across SO MANY presentations openly violating the copyright terms and conditions. While ignorance is bliss at times, sometimes it can get you into serious trouble. Here’s why-
The image owner can find you and penalize you for using a particular image without seeking proper permission and providing appropriate source crediting.
Simply put- Not all the images you find over the internet are free to use, distribute, and edit. Thus, we must only incorporate images that are allowed to be reused.
What are the images you can use in your presentation?
Photographs shot exclusively by you
Let’s face it- it’s the simplest but sadly, a time-consuming way. You can’t possibly step out and find exact moments for you to shoot. It can be tiresome and at times, nearly impossible.
Suppose, you want to add a picture of a peaceful protest while creating a presentation on ‘Freedom of Expression in a Democracy’. Now, you just can’t expect to step out of your home and find a protest taking place near to you. That’s exactly where free online resources come to play (More on this in next point)
Licensed Images on the internet (No copyright issues)
To our relief, there are a few resources on the web which provide you with properly licensed images for you to download, distribute, modify, and use for commercial and personal purposes.
To save you your precious time, we’ve found the top 10 resources (The Best Ones Out There!) for you to find pictures for your next presentation. Hope this helps!
1. Unsplash
Unsplash provides its users with a huge collection of high-resolution images available under its own license (Unsplash License). With its dedicated team of around 207,000 photographers from all over the world, it has managed to create an extensive photo library hosting 2 million images.
License Agreement
All the images are available under its own license- Unsplash License
How does it work?
Unsplash has its very own team of dedicated photographers. This team upload their image entries on the site allowing users to reuse those images. In addition to this, users can contribute their own collection on this platform.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify, distribute and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions (Though, unsplash appreciates attributions but it’s not necessary!)
2. Desygner
Be it a school presentation or a heavy stake work presentation, you can rely upon desygner to offer you professional and high-quality royalty-free images.
Along with the free access to millions of free images, you can also get your hands on Shutterstock images as well by upgrading to Desygner Pro+ at the cost of $ 4.95. To learn more about their pricing plans, click here.
License Agreement
The collection of free images are available under creative commons zero license.
How does it work?
Along with providing its users the free images, Desygner provides a wide array of free templates to level up your presentation game.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify, distribute and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions to the photographer
- Free presentation templates to level up your presentation aesthetic
3. Pexels
Pexels provides its users with a vast collection of carefully curated high-resolution images. It’s a community-powered resource, that is, the users can upload the images owned by them and help the global community. How brilliant is that!
As an added advantage, one can find a distinct range of videos on this platform, all available for free use.
License Agreement
Just like Unsplash, Pexels has its own license- Pexels License
How does it work?
Pexels handpicks its collection from the photos uploaded by the users as well as the images derived from the free images websites.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify, distribute and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions (Though, pexels appreciates attributions but it’s not necessary!)
4. Pixabay
This community-powered platform provides its users with plethora of images, videos, vectors and illustrations, all available for free use.
License Agreement
The rich collection of media is available under the Pixabay License.
How does it work?
Like above-mentioned resources, this platform too is community-powered.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions (Though, pixabay appreciates attributions but it’s not necessary!)
5. Freerange
With its dynamic collection of images, this platform enables you to access its rich collection of free images available for reuse and modification purposes.
License Agreement
All the images are available under Equalicense.
How does it work?
With the support of in-house photographers and users contributions, Freerange’s collection is ever-growing and rich in the content available.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions (Though, freerange appreciates attributions but it’s not necessary!)
6. Creative Commons
This site is significantly different from others of its kind. It is essentially a network which provides its users to get a public license for their photographs as well as hosts a search function for users to find free licensed images.
Although, one has to be cautious while searching for images on this site. Some images can be used commercially. Some images can be modified. Not all images hold the perks of commercial use and image modification purposes.
So, make sure that while searching for images on this site for your presentation, you’ve check marked both these boxes.
7. Kaboompics
With optimized search options, this platform enables a hassle-free search for its users by giving them the liberty to filter the results by image orientation, color palette, time of upload and popularity.
License Agreement
The media is available under its own license- Kaboompics License
How does it work?
It is a community-powered platform but with advanced and more simplified filter options for users to find relevant images for their presentations in the least amount of time.
Major Perks:
- All images can be downloaded and used for absolutely free
- Available for both commercial and non-commercial uses
- Exercise your creative freedom to use, modify and edit the images in whichever way you like
- The images can be used without permissions or attributions
8. Canva
Canva, a graphic designing platform, allows its users to find free media as they create their designs.
Yes, you heard it right! On canva, you can create your presentation and find relevant images then and there without the need to navigate through a number of websites to get your hands on free images.
But be sure to incorporate only the free media and not the premium options available out there as they charge you a certain amount to use their premium collection.
How to search for images on these resources?
Step 1: Google search for the website and open it
Step 2: Type your search in the search window (Pro Tip- Try being as specific as possible for an easy and hassle-free search)
Step 3: Browse through the images and click on the image of your choice
Step 4: Click on ‘Free Download’ option, choose the image size as you deem fit and hit download
Step 5: Approve that you are not a robot and press download
DON’TS of using FREE Image Resources
1. Creating a competing website
Whatever you do just refrain from redistributing and selling the images on other websites. The worst thing you can do here is to create a competing website of your own by resorting to unfair means.
If you still choose to do so, pray that the owner of that image doesn’t find you because rest assured, the copyright laws won’t do any good for your professional career.
Thus, it’s in your best interest to make the most of these free resources by using the images available in an ethical manner.
2. Portraying identifiable people in a negative light
Always keep in mind that the photographs provide context but the caption provides the story.
So, it’s important for you to make sure that the identifiable people are not portrayed in a negative light or in any way that can be offensive through the content of your presentation.
Final Thoughts
Well, PowerPoint Presentations can be boring and bland without proper imagery. But it’s just as important for you to have GOOD Images (license-free photos) in your presentation.
So, in this blog, we tried to save your precious time by providing you an insight into our top picks when it comes to incorporating images for our presentations.
Doing the right thing doesn’t automatically bring success. But compromising ethics almost always leads to failure.
Erika Andersen
Let’s not compromise our ethics, even when it comes to something as simple as creating a presentation.
Professionalism goes a long way. You won’t want someone to penalize you for not following copyright laws when it comes to your presentations. Make sure you are incorporating the right images into your presentation the right way.
Happy searching!