Projecting Backgrounds - Open Source Photographs

[Fenris218]

I'm assistant projection and video for an upcomming show at my school "The Adding Machine - The Musical" and I have been tasked with finding open source landscape/nature/remote photographs to portray the "Elysian Fields", as we have $0 in budget.

My first thought was to go to deviantArt but I have been unable to get premission from anyone to use thier pictures. I've been told Flicker has open source pictures available but I am cautious because I'd rather not be the one getting chased after. I have informed everyone that I have written thus far, that not only will they be included in special thanks but also (if they sell thier pictures or are freelance) that it will be indicated on the program.

So my question, are there any places that are open source that I can look at or do you guys know anyone I could get in contact with to discuss the possibility of using thier pictures?

Also I apologize if this in the wrong forum, I think it's the right one though.

 

[MarshallPope]

Try stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site. You will have to register, but it is free and they have royalty-free stock photography. A few photographers require permission for use of their photographs, but most of us are fine with just a note of how a photograph was used.

 

[cpf]

The thing you're looking for is "Creative Commons," which come in various flavours. The most lenient license only requires attribution, but the creator can also specify that the photo may not be modified (or that any modifications be licensed equivalently) and/or that it may not be used for commercial purposes.

So, long story short, just make sure you follow the license attached to the picture, and make sure to provide proper attribution, and you're fine. Both Flickr and Google Images let you filter by Creative Commons License.