How to give proper image credits to stock photos in WordPress

So you wanna use to using high quality photos for free?

In that case, it’s really wise to know how you can put a proper image credit while using a free photo on a WordPress blog.

Normally photographers these days offer good photos for free in exchange of image credits. And once they have their online presence, they tend to charge money for quality pictures.

Well, if you are planning to buy images and put them on your blogs or use them for promotional purpose, that is just fine.

But in case you wish to free image, then you will have to provide an image credit.

While doing so, do not forget to check with the license as well.

Knowing about the license and the image credits will certainly help you stay on the right side of legal issues.

And, the photographer will have the image credit as well.

Why do you need to use image credit?

If you search online, you are sure to get plenty of websites that offer paid photos.

But mostly due to budget crunch many bloggers tend to use free photos instead of that.

This is exactly where the social media come in.

There are plenty of photographers’ community, where they tend to share their photos for free.

But unless you put their names in the image credit or their profile link, the photographer does not get any benefit out of it.

But if you do put on an image credit, one might click on that link.

They might check the photographer’s profile and decide to hire him or her for a paid assignment.

You might think that that is all that you need to do, but the fact is, there is a legal side of this case as well.

Most of the sites that provide free photos tend to put up a license that signifies how you can use the photos and where you can use them.

While choosing a photo from a particular website offering stock photos, make sure to check their legal license before using the photo.

So how do put up an image credit?

The rules of image credits are different for every single website.

If you have been blogging for a long time, you might know this already.

For example, Flickr comes with a bit of complicated rules and a CC license format that you need to follow.

Visual Hunt just provides a link to put up as an image credit.

.nd if you have used Unsplash, you should know that they do not force you to put up an image credit, rather they ask you to do so politely.

As a new comer, it’s really confusing and this is the reason why you need to know how to use the image credits and stay on the right side of the legal licenses as well.

Following the formatting and rules

So, there are quite a few differences in the rules and it’s really important to know how you need to format the photos so as to put them on your posts.

As you can understand you cannot know all the rules and format for all the websites that you can find online.

So here are some of important things you need to remember while putting up a photo on your blog.

Choose your favourite site to pick up your stock photos

This way you will need to know the rules and formats for one site only.

Just make sure to check the rules and know where you can find them.

Mostly different websites have different formats to share and all you need to do is stick to the format provided by the site and it should be fine.

Most of these stock photo websites will ask the image credit to be used just below where the image has been used.

In case there is not much info available on formatting, you can create your own customized caption on WordPress to put them under each and every photo that you choose to use.

Do not steal a photo from unauthorized sources

If you search online you can find multiple images are being used without any image credits and most of them are technically stolen.

But if you are planning to put those photos on your blog or on a business website for promotion or may be for earning money, well then, the first and foremost thing to do is to decide not to steal.

You have to understand that that the images that you choose are clicked by other photographers.

Even if you are not paying them for the photos, atleast put up an image credit as a respect towards their work.

This will not only help them keep on with the good work but also will ensure that you are not committing any sort of illegal steps.

Image Credits are not the best solution always

In some cases, putting an image credit might not the right choice for you.

For example, if you are writing an e-book and wish to put up a wonderful image as your front cover, then you are sure to visit one of the stock photo sites.

Pick up a photo and the next step will be to put up the image credit right under the image.

Well, how do you think it will look to have an image credit right under your front cover image?

Not exactly what you thought about the front cover for sure.

To ensure you do not have to be in such a situation, what you can do is contact the owner of the website or the photographer directly.

Talk to them and in case the photographer or the owner offers you paid photos, you can either

• choose to use one of them or
• you can pay for this particular photo that you have chosen already.

And make sure you do not have to put up an image credit right on the front cover of your e-book.

All said and done, choosing photo for your blog or business promotion is really difficult.

And you might have to go through loads of websites to find the one perfect image.

Whatever you do, whatever site you choose, make sure to stay on the right side of the legal formats and it should be fine for you.