In this episode, I talk about where to go to access photos that you can practise and experiment with your new editing techniques.

You may discover a really cool double exposure tutorial and have a limited library of photos or specific photos that you do not have. An example is a waterfall or you may want somebody jumping. Instead of not having photos or waiting for those opportunities to go out and grab those photos, there are resources online that you can access free photos. You can download them play with them and then even share them again.

The seven different websites that I source photos; include Snap.io, Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, Burst by Shopify, Picjumbo by Getty Images and Picspree. A think outside of the cliche stock image sites. One that I quite like is actually a desktop wallpaper site wallpapercave.com.

I used the example of double exposure above. What is it and why do stock photos help?

It is a process where they pick up part of one photo and put it onto another. There are many apps available to achieve this on your smartphone. My favourites are Adobe Mix (iOS and Android) and Superimpose X (iOS).

In the below example, I was playing around with a new Cinematic Macro lens by Struman Optics and captured a stunning close-up of my daughter’s eye. Experimenting and having fun with the photo, I used the Pixabay app to look for an abseiling person hanging from a rope using a squeegee to clean the window. I downloaded the photo, removed the background from that photo and I had just him climbing down and hanging down over the front of my daughter's eye with the squeegee cleaning awry. You can edit the complete stock photo to practise new editing processes or just grab parts to create a composite of photos.

Please regularly check the policies of each of these sites. Generally, they are free from copyright restrictions and are licensed under Creative Commons public domain dedication. This means you can copy, modify, distribute, and perform the work, even for commercial purposes without asking for permission. Some stock photo sites will require attribution. It is also a courtesy. I always do that if it a whole photo that I have edited because I don't want to be fake about it. Pixels and Pixabay have apps that you can search on your smartphone and download. They also make it super easy to copy the photo attribution text.

My strong recommendation is to familiarise yourself with licensing around these stock photo sites of what you can or cannot do with them.

For small business owners, I am not a fan of using them. I would never put them on my website. I work with a lot of small business owners and helping them create their own visual assets for their sites and blogs. How many photos have you seen the same one on different blogs or sites? Google also knows that photo is duplicate content. Search engines reward new original content. The key is to create your own photos or at the very least, crop and apply a colour cast over a stock photo.

・・・

Take the14-Day Photo Creativity Challenge to quickly unleash your photo creativity through daily project-based learning: bit.ly/3aBXPhy

・・・

FREE membership – full access to the community forum, unlocked tutorials, downloadable PDFs and 5-part video series: bit.ly/sptgetstarted

・・・

Smartphone photography gear: Struman Optics lens accessories and tripods: bit.ly/3gv9JuC

・・・

Accelerate your learning. Join the Live 6-week small group program: Smartphone Photography Transformation: 5-Step System: bit.ly/sptspt

・・・

Join the email list to stay up to date on the latest articles and tutorials: bit.ly/sptemail

Be passionate, Be creative and Stay curious

- Mike