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Finding and Using Online Images Ethically

How to find images online while following copyright law, fair use guidelines, and properly citing images.

Creative Commons Attributions

Best Practices for Creative Commons Attributions

  • Creators often have a note attached to work that specifies how they should be attributed
  • Follow the format, unless none exists
  • Keep any copyright notices intact
  • You may need to right-click or control-click (Mac) to get image info
  • Check creator’s profile, if no note
  • Hyperlink creator’s name directly to their profile
  • Hyperlink back to original work
  • If license applies to website rather than individual, attribute the website
  • Add appropriate CC abbreviations
  • Link to the CC license
  • Note any alterations you made to original

General rule:  Attribute TASL

  • Title (full) with date - Create a hyperlink to the image
  • Author - if possible, create a hyperlink to the author's page/bio
  • Source - website of location you found the image, such as Flickr
  • License type - Create a hyperlink to the CC License type 

Examples:

“False Sunrise” by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Template: “[Title, including link to original source]” by [author, including profile page link if possible] is licensed under [license, linked to license deed if possible].

OR

Author (linked). Title (linked). Source page URL. CC License text, (ie Attribution Share-Alike) CC BY-SA (linked) (Use appropriate license info)

Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition) recommends the following caption for images:

Photo Title. Photo by Mehmet Karatay (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

https://www.newmediarights.org/guide/how_to/creative_commons/best_practices_creative_commons_attributions

https://www.wikihow.com/Attribute-a-Creative-Commons-Licensed-Work 

Chicago Manual of Style: Image Citation: Notes and Bibliography

Chicago Manual of Style eBook 17th edition 

Chicago Style for Notes and Bibliography

Painting:

Last name, First name. Title of work. Date. Medium, Dimensions. Location. If found online, add the URL.
Bib example:
van Gogh, Vincent. Wheat Field with Cypresses. 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/4 in. The Met Museum Collection, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Footnote example:
1. Vincent van Gogh, Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/4, The Met Museum Collection, New York, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Photo from a website:

Bib example:
Bamin, Pierre. Golden Girls. Unsplash, December 25, 2020. https://unsplash.com/photos/WYoByjRH0qE.

Footnote example:
Pierre Bamin, Golden Girls, Unsplash, December 25, 2020, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Adapted image:

Caption: Source: Adapted from Vincent van Gogh. Title of work. Date. Medium, Dimensions, Location. If found online, add the URL. 

Bib example:
YourLastName, FirstName. Adapted from Vincent van Gogh. Wheat Field with Cypresses. 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/4 in. The Met Museum Collection, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Footnote example:
1. Adapted from Vincent van Gogh, Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/4, The Met Museum Collection, New York, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Chicago Style for Author-Date (parenthetical in-text)

Chicago Style for Author-Date (parenthetical in-text)

Last name, First name. Date. Title of work. Medium. Dimensions, Location. If found online, add the URL.

Bibliography:
van Gogh, Vincent. 1889. Wheat Field with Cypresses. Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/4 in. The Met Museum Collection, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

In-text:
(van Gogh 1889)

APA Image Citation

APA Citations for References

Cite all artwork forms from museums like this, including paintings, sculptures, photos, prints, and drawings. Include a description of the medium or format in square brackets after the title.

Paintings:
van Gogh, Vincent. (1853-1890). Wheat Field with Cypresses [Painting]. 1889. The Met Museum Collection, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Photos:
Stowers, C. (2011). Tibetan monks, from the thriving local exile community, walk through the city on their way to hold a hunger strike in protest at communist China's aggression in their home country [Photograph]. Panos Pictures. https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/APANOSIG_10313569575.

MLA Image Citation

MLA Citations for Works Cited

MLA citations should be constructed with a work's bibliographic elements in this order:

  1. Intellectual contributors: Creator (Author, Composer, Photographer, etc.), Editor, Arranger, Compiler, Translator, etc.
  2. Title, Title of Journal, etc. 
  3. Edition, Volume
  4. Publisher
  5. Place of Publication
  6. Year of Publication
  7. Location
  8. Pagination
  9. URL address or doi (digital object identifier)

Painting:
Start with the artist, then italicize the title of the work. Since you viewed the work online, give just the date. Add the website title and URL. You don't need to include a work's medium or dimensions when you view it online. (If you had viewed the work in person, you would have added other elements, such as where you viewed it and the medium).

van Gogh, Vincent. Wheat Field with Cypresses. 1889. The Met Museum Collection, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535.

Photo:
Start with the artist, then italicize the title of the work. Date of photo. Add the collection the photo is from. Add the website title and URL.

Eppridge, Bill. Woodstock. 1969. The LIFE Picture Collection, Getty Images. History. https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/woodstock.

Image Adaptations and CC Licenses

  • An adaptation/derivative/remix is a work based on one or more pre-existing works.
  • The definition of an adaptation under copyright law varies by country, but usually requires “original expression” added to the pre-existing work.
  • In the U.S., there is a low threshold for originality, requiring a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.”
  • An adaptation must be based on or derived from the original. Using short quotes or excerpts from a work to illustrate a point is not an adaptation, unless your work is built upon and derived from the original work.

Image Adaptation Examples

If you make any of the following changes to an image, it is considered an adaptation:

  • Cropping
  • Changing proportions
  • Adding text to the image
  • Altering the color composition
  • Combining images with Photoshop or other software

Changing the file format of something is NOT an adaptation and is allowed under all Creative Commons licenses, even NoDerivatives.

Adaptations and Creative Commons Licenses

If the original work is licensed under ND NoDerivatives, you can only make adaptations privately. You may not share them with anyone. To use a work with a ND license, you cannot make any of the adaptations mentioned above.

If the original work has a SA ShareAlike license, you must license your new work with the same or compatible ShareAlike license if you make any adaptations. You need to determine license compatibility to determine if the licenses for the works you’re using can be combined and are compatible with the license you apply to your new work.

In the License Compatibility chart below, determine which license to apply to your adaptation by comparing the licenses on the left and top. If there’s a green check, you can combine them and you need to use the the most restrictive (furthest down or to the right) license of the licenses you are combining. If the licenses are not compatible (an X in the chart), you cannot combine them.

CC License Compatibility Chart by Kennisland. CCO