...
NCAR and UCAR’s visual identity relies heavily on photography. The shift from white backgrounds to image backgrounds is one of the major pillars of our rebranding effort. Stunning visuals that complement our science outreach materials help attract a wide variety of audiences, which is increasingly important in the crowded world of digital communication.
It is of utmost importance to ensure that the images used in DART materials are not copyrighted. Ignoring copyright restrictions risks a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
It is possible to pay to use copyrighted images from stock photography websites, but DAReS hasnI've attempted to attain images from royalty-free photography websites but we haven't received permission to spend funds on paying pay for stock photographyphotographs.
The easiest-to-use database navigate source of royaltynon-free images that I'm aware of copyrighted images are the NOAA, NASA, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management & National Park service photo streams on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photospeople/noaaphotolib/
https://www.flickr.com/photospeople/nasacommons/
https://www.flickr.com/people/usforestservice/
...
https://www.flickr.com/people/nationalparkservice//
https://www.flickr.com/people/departmentofenergy/
NASA photos are typically in the public domain, while photos from other agencies are typically Some of the photos claim to be governed by the "Attribution 2.0 Generic" license which requires giving appropriate credit to the agency that produced them, while NASA photos are typically in the public domain. Editor's note: I strongly suspect that the Attribution 2.0 generic photos are also in the public domain, but the Flickr pages state otherwise.. Check the license for each photo.
Beneath each photo is an explanation of the license. Photos denoted with:
- Public domain
- No known copyright restrictions
- United States government work
can be used freely. Photos denoted with:
- Some rights reserved
can typically be used with attribution. The license disclaimer is typically a hyperlink that explains the restrictions. Photos denoted with:
- All rights reserved
are copyrighted and typically cannot be used. For example, certain photos are provided by private citizens as a courtesy to a government agency. This landscape is copyrighted by a private citizen, Natalie Bell, even though it is included the US Forest Service's photo gallery.
If you spend a few minutes browsing, you can see that there are absolutely stunning images in these galleries that are in the public domain or that can be used with attribution.
"Theodore Roosevelt National Park" is a public domain image from the National Park Service:
"Young Monk Seal" is an Attribution 2.0 license image which can be used freely by crediting NOAA:
Photo credit: NOAA
"Jupiter's Great Red Spot as Viewed by Voyager 1" is a no known copyrights image from NASA:
"Changing Arctic Ecosystem" is a United States government work image from the Department of Energy:
The second-most easy-to-use database of royalty-free images is Wikimedia Commons. It has over 72 million images and many of them are in the public domain and can be used for any purpose.
...