I’m looking for an image I can use for my “For King and Country” tribute page. I just found out that I can’t use a random picture of Google due to copyright. How do I find an image that is free to use? I’ve tried a couple of websites that give images you can use on your website but they’re all background images.
Wikipedia is a good go to source for pretty much any topic used use on a tribute page…the pics there are creative commons. Just look them up on Wikipedia and click on the pic…there are two pics of that band available there.
Make sure you include attribution on your page…even if a site doesnt require it, its courtesy to give attribution to the photos and data used used to create your website.
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Any old image off Google or Bing is fine in this instance. You’re doing it to practice Web Design, not profit off an image.
Google and other image search engines have been under pressure for some time from the major image distribution services to make access to copyrighted images more difficult but in this instance I wouldn’t worry about it.
Much further down the line you’ll learn about distribution rights for images and crediting artists & photographers for their work but you’ve got more pressing concerns at the moment. Just focus on learning and improving.
Good luck 
I found a photo off wikipedia, but how do I give attribution?
Add a comment in your code, or add a caption to the image specifying where it is from
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In this instance I’d just an an alt="" attribute to your img with the name of the person and the photographer.
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Ok, I’ve now chosen a better looking image off of Google. Thanks to everyone for your help!!!
If anyone is interested, here’s info from creative commons on attributions. https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/best_practices_for_attribution
@jujug12, just make sure you don’t take the image from google and check the actual page the photo is from. Esp for educational purposes, most places are fine with someone using their pics and will provide the license type and how to credit them. Professional photographers tend not to though.
On a side note, most of the images published online do have owners.
The best thing to do when using those images will be to add a photo credit tag right under the image to both acknowledge the owner of the picture and at the same time allow him/her to gain some exposure through your project.
I do the same in most of the blog posts(https://medium.com/@geek4ctrl) I write since most of the images taken are from Unsplash.
Now that you mention it, I realize that I didn’t give credit to the picture I took for my tribute page(https://codepen.io/geek4ctrl/pen/mPPRXx). I’ll have to fix it.
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Ok, thanks for the info.
I dare to disagree; the pictures will be used publicly (unless they never share their projects). If it was completely private educational use, it wouldn’t matter as much, but in this case there’s no reason to postpone learning about copyright and attribution. Photographers and other creators might not be ok with this kind of use (unless their website outright says it is ok) and if you want to use their work, it’s just basic decency to respect the conditions they set up. And crediting is so easy, there is no excuse to avoid it.
I am glad you’ve already learnt that google photos aren’t free to use by default; it is good to learn about these things as early on as possible and develop good habits. 
Unplash was already mentioned; these pictures are actually truly free to use (and crediting is a nice bonus as a way to thank them for making their photos available), so I’d start there. For specific topics, you can use Wikimedia. You can also check out Flickr’s Creative Commons, but there you do have to read licensing conditions for each category.
Good luck!
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Completely agree…not only is it a matter of legality, its also a matter of just doing the right thing. Its why even if a site says I don’t have to give credit, I still do.
I was reading some funny thread I found somewhere on the interwebs of the things people would do to get back at people who hotlinked photos (never, ever hotlink) and it turned on the subject of using pics without permission. The stock photo sites are the most ruthless…they will regularly do searches and will fine people for using images without permission. One guy was fined and threatened with legal action til he as able to find a reciept that he paid for the content from a different site…the graphic artist had their work up for sale in multiple places.
So yeah, its not a problem until it is…and when it is…its a big problem. But…there is so much free content out there available, its not a big deal and just the right thing to do to do things right and give proper credit.
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