I've noticed lately in some threads (i.e. "I miss album covers") that it can be tough trying to find images that are free of copyright. anyway, I've been reading a book lately called "Grokking the GIMP" and almost all of the images the auther used in the book were from government websites, and they were free of copyright, so you can download them and use them for personal and sometimes commercial use. here's the links for them:

http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/
http://nix.nasa.gov/
http://photolib.noaa.gov/
http://images.fws.gov/ (down for database update. should be up again by may 13)

these sites are a great resource for trying out photo manipulation/retouching etc., just be sure to check out each sites copyright policy before you use the images for anything.

- David :)

Very good David. Thanks. I'm sure the sites will get a little busier now that you've let the cat out of the bag. :D

Ed

Looks like plenty there to play around with ...Thanks

sure steve.. and welcome to RetouchPro !!

- David :)

Hi David

I just visited the photolib site.. Great ship pics..Looks like a lot to play with.. Thanks.

Jerry :D

Here's a few more from my bookmarks:

http://www.freefoto.com
http://www.freeimages.com
http://www.freeimages.co.uk
http://www.freestockphotos
http://www.gograph.com
http://www.istockphoto.com

I've never heard of the book you mentioned, but I did find a site that was pretty useful when I went looking through Google for more info: http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

Hi Brandee

Thanks for the sites.. I noticed that freeimages.com requires a membership (free).. Have you used this site and are there any hitches.. Thanks and welcome to a great site.

Jerry :D

I do have a free membership with Free Images... no hitches, just take a look at their license:

Image Use License

FreeImages Basic License Images downloaded from FreeImages may be used in any of the following commercial or personal final projects:

Printed materials including newsletters, brochures, annual reports, promotional and advertising campaigns, product packaging, products for resale, software, editorial work such as newspapers, books, and magazines.

Web and multimedia projects

Clothing


Images downloaded from FreeImages may not be used in the following:

Commercial screensavers

Offered for download or distributed on CD ROM
*allow me to clarify this. If you wish to create a greeting card with your company logo and message on it then offer for download this is considered a final project and is within the free license. What is forbidden is taking the free images and redistributing them in any basically unmodified form.




Sounds good to me!!

I've never heard of the book you mentioned, but I did find a site that was pretty useful when I went looking through Google for more info: http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/
Hi Brandee,
yep most people haven't heard of the GIMP (http://www.gimp.org), let alone any books about it. thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that site yet. also, thanks for all the links to the free image sites, now I have tons of resources to play around with!

- David :)