WRITING

Pictures and Words, a Magical Combination

How to find perfect, free pictures for your stories. And other illustration tips.

A picture tells a thousand words. We, writers, are all about words. But illustrating those words with some great pictures will enliven your stories and give them way more attention.

So, how do we find the pictures that are safe to use? That won’t get us into trouble with copyrights? How can pictures inspire us when we are stuck? And how can we collaborate with artistic friends in our niche of writing?

This story gives some answers.

Copyrights

We do not want to infringe on copyrights of people who do not want their work shared, so please be very mindful when using other people’s work. It’s not like every picture online is available for you.

For your inspiration, yes.

For publishing with your story, no.

The best tip I ever read about finding free pictures is this one.

Enter your search word. Click on pictures. Click on tools. Click on User’s rights. Choose the third option: labeled for reuse.

Here’s a screenshot. Sorry, it’s not in English, so the terms might be a little different. But try it and you’ll get the hang of it.

I like this method especially because it allows me to search for pictures that have not already been used a hundred times before.

Of course, there are free picture sites, such as Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash. But this method gives me better, more unique pictures. My story will stand out more with quality pictures, carefully chosen.

For the people who don’t know yet, Unsplash is also available within Medium directly. Click on the + left from your line and then choose the magnifying glass.

Crediting the Maker

Of course, we always honor the maker of every picture.

See it as a collaboration. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants and it makes our success even bigger when we can share it with the giants we are building our stories upon.

Credits are simple. In the free websites, there will be a sentence to copy.

• Highlight the sentence
• Push Ctrl C to copy
• Go to your story, push Ctrl V to paste

And the sentence will appear with all the right hyperlinks underneath the names.

Of course, you can also create the sentence yourself. Say something like Picture credit: [name maker] [name website] and create a hyperlink to the website you found the picture on.

Use a Big Picture on Top

Especially when writers start out, they don’t realize that you have a choice on how the pictures appear in your story. I didn’t know this for my first stories either. So I just left them as they appeared.

But you do have a choice.

Here’s a screenshot to illustrate what I’m talking about. When you click on the picture, a little bar appears with several choices. Try them all out and see what it does to your picture.

Sometimes, you will see not all options, just the first two. It means the picture is too small in size (pixels) to be shown full width. You can either choose a bigger size, better quality picture or go with the smaller options.

The alt text (right option in the bar) is also good to fill in when you’re actively working on your SEO. The term stands for Search Engine Optimization. It means that Google can find your images and display them when someone enters a certain key-word.

There’s too much to tell about SEO to describe in a few sentences. If you want to know more about it, a good writer to follow is Chris Hedges. She’s an Illumination editor.

More Creative Ways

Well, that are some simple tips out of the way. The real fun starts when you start experimenting with your own artwork. Or collaborate with others to find the perfect, unique pictures for your work.

The screenshot I show above, for instance, is a picture made by an acquaintance of mine, Arie Voorburg. He works in the same field as me. Trying to humanize cities and economies by using systemic thinking. He uses AI and VR in his work and the pictures accompanying his blogs mesmerize me.

So I just asked him if I could use one.

He likes to collaborate. So he said yes. Of course, when I use his pictures I mention his copyright and tell my audience that I have permission using it. It gives him exposure. It gives me great, unique pictures.

My Own Pictures Inspire

Recently I have found my voice in poetry. And when I’m stuck writing a story or poem, I only have to browse through my own pictures to be inspired and make the words flow in my head.

When I turned 40, I gave myself a camera. Wow! How being a photographer trained my observation powers!

Now, I watch a scene differently.

Now, I see many more details.

Now, I sometimes even sense a picture before it comes into being.

My camera use goes in cycles. Sometimes I really love to just feel moments without a camera. At other times, I go around with my camera and experience a place by framing it in shots.

This story by Beth Bradford, Ph.D., a former television news photographer, describes what I mean.

Living your life just for the Instagram shots is actually killing life itself.

During the lockdown, I’ve spent many a night browsing through old pictures. Finding some that inspire poetry. Or stories. Or could be used in articles. I made a file on my computer with the ones that I can use in the future.

So now, when I’m stuck for inspiration, I only have to open that file and the words start to flow.

Here are some of my stories inspired by my own photography.

Take Away from this Story

So, what’s stopping you to illustrate your stories with impressive pictures?

• We can find free pictures online
• We can collaborate with others who make great illustrations, pictures, paintings, etc.
• We can be inspired by our own photography, paintings, illustrations, etc.
• We can create get-togethers with friends to create the most amazing artwork together and have fun in the process

Happy writing.

Happy creating!

If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or my website. Or somewhere feeling moments or capturing them with a camera…

About the author