LibGuides: Architecture: Images

Using images

Images from either electronic or print sources, including photographs, illustrations and diagrams, are protected by copyright law, just like written text. When using images it is important to acknowledge and attribute the source fully.

Images can easily be found by searching the internet, however they are not all free to use, even for educational purposes. Internet platforms such as Google Images are merely search engines for finding images from different websites. Generally if you want to use images from websites then you will need to obtain the permission (in writing) of the copyright holder.

Some sites, such as Flickr, allow you to search for images that are covered by particular licenses which define what you can do with them, such as Creative Commons. You can also search directly on the Creative Commons site or go through Google Advanced search using the usage rights box.

There are also a number of sites which provide high quality, free, and public domain images which have been made Creative Commons Zero, or CCO, which means their creators have made them available for use by anyone however they like - but do check whether they require crediting or not. Check out Ned Potter's guide here to see a summary of some of some of the best of these.

Copyright Guidance for using images

Copyright Guide at De Montfort University: How to find online images and music for re-use
Relevant page for using images from the Library guide to Copyright
Copyright Notice: Digital Images, Photographs and the Internet
Government guidance aimed at small businesses and individuals who may wish to use digital or photographic images on the web. It also provides advice for people who may find their own images being used online.

Image Libraries

Creative Commons image search
CC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone. Creative Commons, the nonprofit behind CC Search, is the maker of the CC licenses, used over 1.4 billion times to help creators share knowledge and creativity online.

CC Search searches across more than 300 million images from open APIs and the Common Crawl dataset. It goes beyond simple search to aggregate results across multiple public repositories into a single catalog, and facilitates reuse through features like machine-generated tags and one-click attribution.
Flickr
Flickr is one of the largest photo management and sharing applications. Search on any topic then limit to the license you wish to use - options include 'creative commons' and 'no known copyright restrictions'.
LIFE photo archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
RIBAPix
RIBA’s image library of over 100,000 photographs and drawings from the RIBA Collections, available to view, buy and download. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions for rights and usage queries.

Registered users may freely download low resolution images with a small watermark on one corner for educational uses such as essays and dissertations provided that each image is fully credited. To download a copy of an image click on “Licence Type”, then “Digital Media”, then “Usage” and then “Digital file (low resolution, watermarked) for academic, personal use or research only (not for publication in any media).
May 2021 - important Information regarding RIBAPix...
VADs
VADS includes a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.

Copyright Video

Watch this video for an introduction to the existance of copyright in images.

Referencing images in Harvard

You must reference images according to the preferred referencing style of your faculty.

We are now using Cite Them Right for examples and styles of referencing, and this includes the Cite Them Right Harvard style used at DMU. You can find examples of referencing images in Cite Them Right by viewing the 'Media and Art' tab once you have clicked on the Cite Them Right link below:

Cite Them Right This link opens in a new window
Cite Them Right Online is a comprehensive and interactive referencing resource used by many universities. It provides guidance on how to cite over 150 source types in a variety of referencing styles including Harvard (Cite Them Right Style), APA, IEEE, MHRA, Chicago, OSCOLA and more.

Free sites for images

A Guide to the Best Free Sites for Art and Stock Photography
Ned Potter summarises and links to some of the best public domain image sites.

Vads: the online resource for visual arts

Vads: the online resource for visual arts

VADS includes a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.

Copyright & Images

Watch this video for an introduction to the existance of copyright in images.