The Internet has created this funny, or not so funny, illusion that any image you see is up for grabs to throw a caption over or repurpose for your own project, but this is not the case. If you're using images for a school project, at a minimum, be sure you know the originating source and provide a citation. For any type of published work, you need to follow proper protocol for photo use, since most photos are protected by copyright laws.
The owner of an image (the photographer) can grant you the right to use their image legally by licensing the image to you via a photography licensing platform, like EyeEm Market. This is the simplest way to access original images at fair prices for both you and the photographer. With two kinds of licensing, editorial and commercial, the image is priced depending on how you will be using it.
Fair Use comes allows you to use an image based on three conditions. First is if it used for limited non-profit and educational use. Second is if it is changed so drastically that it no longer has the same meaning or purpose, and third is if it is used informatively for the public good.
Creative Commons is a kind of licensing. In this case, a photographer releases the rights to their image under certain conditions. These conditions vary and can be as simple as making sure the image appears with a credit to the owner. If a photographer gives you permission by email to use the image for free under their conditions, this would fall under Creative Commons.
Public Domain is also a case in which the owners rights have expired, been forfeited or do not apply. Examples include the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven.
Here are some recommended sites for free images for graphic design or marketing projects.
For citation purposes, you should be using the originating source/creator of any images that you use. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using ‘reverse image search’ (see box below). Google has a service in place for this. Go to their image search page at http://images.google.com/ and click on the camera button. Upload the image and see the search results for your image. You may need to browse through the search results depending on the number of results returned and likeness to the image you uploaded. Use of the search options might also be necessary.
So you found an image somewhere, and now can't remember where it came from. Here are options for how to do a Reverse Image search to find the image's originating source:
