Finding The Best Stock Images for Content Creation
If you’re running a social media page set up for success, we understand that you want everything you post to look amazing. We also understand the struggle achieving this if you don’t have access to a photographer or stylist, or content readily available. Here is a list of our favourite royalty-free stock image sites, as well as a summary of the Copyright Act for Australian content creators, to help you create stunning posts for your business or personal pages.
Created by yours truly, we have a collection of styled and edited photos available for purchase, which you can adapt to your brand’s needs. Take a browse through everything available here. These photos are particularly tailored for lifestyle, business, blogging, decor and design.
Pexels have a variety of photos and videos, which don’t require any attribution. They have a wide range of images, with some premium options available for purchase. There is no login required, so download is convenient and easy!
Similar to Pexels, Unsplash has a variety of artistic photos available for free download, however this site does not include stock video. The creators also don’t need to be credited, and best of all, everything on the website is free.
Unlike some of the free sites, Stocksy includes several less traditional image options, such as prints and animations, photos of families, workplace and site photos, photo collections and a range of videos. These pieces require an account and payment, and the site includes the ability to search with JPG files.
Another paid site, SC Stockshot provides stylised images which have been used by Vogue Bridal and a wide variety of wedding sites. You can also access 20 images for free by signing up to the newsletter, and the site is unique in categorising various images by colour palettes, along with traditional category groupings.
Copyright law
Understanding Australia’s copyright law can be broad and complicated, so here’s a brief summary of how it works for content creators.
Copyright law applies automatically to every piece of work, regardless of where it was made, provided it is being used in Australia. This applies to unpublished content, regardless of whether it has a copyright notice included, including work you find on the internet.
To use someone else’s work, you need to gain permission, and may need to pay for a licence. You are also legally required to credit the work’s creators, unless they have explicitly waived this right. If the work is in the public domain, or author has explicitly denied the rights of use through Creative Commons Licensing, you may use their work without permission, however it is still polite to credit them. Other exceptions for using material without permission are listed under ‘fair dealing’ in the Copyright Act, which primarily applies to educational, legal and journalist organisations.
For content creators, you may use a portion of someone else’s work without permission, provided it is not an important, integral or distinctive part of their work, and the guideline for this is 10% of the piece. The wording on this clause is very broad, so we recommend seeking permission and licenses for whatever you use to avoid infringement.
If you’d like to know more about content creation and how we can help, contact us at [email protected]
Create, Credit, Copyright
Don’t get us wrong, the Internet is a wonderful platform that has leveraged marketing opportunities for thousands of brands and created a whole new industry for those creatively driven. However, it hasn’t come without some bad practices largely due to ignorance and laziness. If you haven’t figured it out by now, we’re talking about copyright.
Did you know that if you create something original, whether it be music, written work or a photo, your work is protected under Australian Copyright Law? This protection is instantaneous from the moment of creation and no copyright registration is required. What many people don’t realise is that this law extends to content that is posted to social media. Have you ever come across an Instagram #inspo account or seen a photo credited with ‘image via pinterest? If you have, then it’s likely you’ve come across content that is breaching federal legislation.
Social media, particularly Instagram, is a platform that encourages people to share content and inspiration. However, in some scenarios, people have taken the sharing culture a little too far by claiming other’s content as their own.
To ensure that you are following social media etiquette, we have put together a few tips that will help you to keep your feed honest, reputable and legal.
- Ask permission to regram the original content creator’s image by simply sending them a quick DM. Most people are more than happy for you to share their content as long as you tag them in the photo and credit them in the caption.
- Tag and credit! Be sure to always tag and credit the content creator in both the caption and the image tags. This way you’re never misleading anyone.
- If in doubt or you can’t find the original content creator, consider whether you really need to post that particular photo.
Why not have a go at trying to create your own content. We’ve shared plenty of handy tips and tricks in our ‘Mastering the #flatlay’ online course to help you get started.