Hey folks! One of the tricky things about running ThemeForest is going to be all the photos that we’re going to use in our templates. As you’ll find in the Authoring tutorial, you need to make sure that you use photos from sources that give you an appropriate license.
I thought I would start a sticky thread of places where you can get photos that allow use in templates for resale. Here’s a couple that DO allow:
BigStockPhoto
BigStock allows any of their library to be used in web templates. You can
check the “usage agreement here”:http://www.bigstockphoto.com/usage.html
iStockPhoto EXTENDED licenses
iStock has a special thing where you pay I think it’s 75 credits and you have a different license. Obviously a bit more expensive, but I guess if you MUST have a certain image
Some Free Sites
"EveryStockPhoto":http://everystockphoto.com is a good place to look through free stock sites. You have to check the specific usage terms though as many of them don’t permit.
So if I wanted to just use my own photos on my html template, do I still need to state where and who took the photos? btw, this site is gorgeous! I’m super excited to start using it!
Yep you can use your own photos. When you upload your files there is a section titled “Comments to Reviewer” just note down that the photos are your own. If you use photos of people’s faces you may need to upload a Model Release form as well. You can grab that from the Authoring Tutorial area I believe.
Are you sure they are totally free. I’m sure you can’t use them for commercial resale though
With stock.xchng you need to get the permission from the photographer for each image you intend to use before you can use them in a template you plan to sell.
While we’re on the subject, when is the Envato stock photo site coming out?
BigStockPhoto has some limitations as well such as you have to be 18 years of age in order to agree to their usage rights as well as…
Without a BigStockPhoto Special License, you may not:
a. print the photo or image as a poster, postcard, greeting card, on a mug, shirt, hat, mouse pad, art print, painting, calendar, book, or gallery or use the image in screensavers, e-card software, web page builders or other systems where the image is shared or distributed to a number of users.
It really comes down to making sure you read the terms of use.
Is there a way to place a watermarked image into the files downloaded on sale and include a code or other option for replacing the watermarked image by paying for the images individual liscense for that particular website? Or is that just to hard to monitor?
My favorite stock photography site is of http://www.fotolia.com/ they have a great collection of relatively low prices images. Although the situation is similar with iStockPhoto’s where you can optionally purchase an Extended License or get the photographers permissions first.
I personally really like flickr. If you go to www.compfight.com you can search much faster.
I’d never just take a photo though, it is important to ask… especially for something like this. However, I have found that most people are more than ok with it
I believe asking a few photographers on sxc.hu for permission to use their files will result in a relatively big photo collection that you can use. Of course you have to credit the photographers as they deserve it, but other than that the pics are free of charge and hi-res. This is what we did.
Another nice photo site. The photos are low cost. There is a nice selection of royalty free stock photography. They can be used for HTML templates or WP Themes.
Our photos can be used in templates but the template must contain a hyperlink to freedigitalphotos.net
The hyperlink must not be removed at any time, otherwise the site owner will be in breach of our terms.
I personally use “stock exchange”:http://www.sxc.hu/ also if you guys have an image and you don’t remember the place where you have it and you are sure it has no copyright issues you can simply upload the file to “TinEye”:http://tineye.com/login and hopefully the software embedded in the website will do the job for you.
Basically, if I’m understanding correctly, in designing and reselling interfaces, I cannot use any images from the web if I have not bought them (basically)?
I understand everything has to be my own,
so simply crediting where an image came from is not allowed, correct?
And what about for previews, if I just wanted to use images as placeholders in the preview-but they wouldn’t actually be included in the selling of the actual layout. I’m guessing that wouldn’t be allowed either?
Just want to get everything straight before I do anything,
thank you.
I took a look at www.sxc.hu but it’s rubbish - the images are in fact NOT Free - if you click on a thumb it takes you to another website (StockXchange.com) where you are asked to use some of your ‘credits’.
It looks to me like there is no way of getting a stock photo for use in a template you intend to sell, hence most of the templates on TF look alike/don’t have any stock photos. (Unless of course you’re willing to pay 75credits for an ‘Extended License’ such as on 123-RF.com the site I use for my clients’ designs).
I took a look at www.sxc.hu but it's rubbish - the images are in fact NOT Free - if you click on a thumb it takes you to another website (StockXchange.com) where you are asked to use some of your 'credits'.
It looks to me like there is no way of getting a stock photo for use in a template you intend to sell, hence most of the templates on TF look alike/don’t have any stock photos. (Unless of course you’re willing to pay 75credits for an ‘Extended License’ such as on 123-RF.com the site I use for my clients’ designs).
This is the main reason I don’t upload to TF.
The first row of images at sxc.hu are pulled from StockXchange.com (their premium site). Below those are the stock images. There are some really nice ones there I think and they have a pretty good collection.
However, you cannot use them in commercial products like these templates without the permission of the author. BUT, the authors are almost always more than happy to give you full permission. They love it when you shoot them a link with the finished product and they can see how their image was used.
You have to be a little patient to hear back sometimes and sometimes you just don’t hear back at all but that’s pretty rare.
