Digital Media for Projects: Using Images & Music

Getty Images has just made a large collection of their photos free for use on non-commercial websites and blogs. Click below to go to the section of their site where you can search for the photos. You will use an embed code to insert the photos in your website. This also inserts the photo credit information for you automatically. You cannot use photos from Getty any other way than with the embed function. If you copy and paste from Getty, you're violating their terms of service.  

The embed code is located below the photo:

You use the code it gives you to insert the photo into your website. Each Website builder may have a different way to do this. You will need to look for an "embed code" option. See me if you have need help.

Guidelines for citing images and photos in a multimedia project:

Follow the directions for using the photos. Most sources require that you simply credit the source, but occasionally, you may have additional requirements.

When citing your image do the following:

• In the caption of the photo, credit your source and include a "image courtesy of" followed by a link to the original source of the photo

Typically, if you credit the photo in the caption, you do not need to list in the bibliography. However, your teacher may still require citing images and photos in your bibliography. Check to be sure. 

Another option is to take your own photos to post on your website. Credit yourself!

To use music on in a project that will be posted online, you must contact the licensing agency of the record label of the music you wish to use. In addition, royalty fees are required. 

However, there are several royalty-free options for using music publicly online. Typically, these websites charge you for their music, but here are two websites that offer FREE royalty-free music that you can post online. But you must credit the source. Credit placement can be at the end of your slideshow/movie/project, as long as it's easy to locate. Here is one:

Credit from this website with, "Music: Kevin MacLeod" If you are using more than one song, please include the title of the song.

Here is our subscription resource for royalty free music. Your user name & password is located in the same place as all of your other database passwords. (if you're not sure what that means email me for the password.)

ANOTHER OPTION for using music:

If you are making a slideshow and want to use music, many of the slideshow makers such as Animoto and Slideroll have music available to use when you create slideshows. So there's no worry about permission or fees. That's already taken care of for you.

Lastly, YouTube has a collection of royalty music you can use. (You need to be logged into your Google account to access.) These audio tracks DO NOT require attribution!

Use the filters  and search bar to search and browse new music for your videos.

You can search by track title, artist, or keyword to find a certain track. You can also use filters to find music by the track title, genre, mood, artist name, or duration (length in seconds).

Refine search results by tapping the filter  next to the artist, genre, or mood of individual songs. Results can be sorted if you click on the date added, length, artists or song title column.

New releases are added to the Audio Library twice a month.

Click below for an *awesome,* helpful infographic about picture use from Curtis Newbold at The Visual Communication Guy Blog. 

Find a photo or image from these great, free sources. Also, remember that you can find good images in all of our research databases.

The first group of sites are either public domain or Creative Commons Zero, which means they require NO CITATION or permission. They are free to use however you like.

The following list of sites have excellent photos, but they do require citations. Please note requirements for each source. 

Take your own photos and edit them to fit your project.