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featherstone
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Who likes / has used / would consider stock photos not only for site graphics, but for characters as well?

 

Personally they're my favourite resource when looking for faces. Not only they are actually free of legal hassles, but they don't come with all the baggage that celebrities have.

 

I'm trying to encourage their use in my boards, however I realize that it's not a popular choice. 

 

Thoughts? Experiences?

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I've never used stock photos for anything other than general site images, like for backgrounds, banners, and location images. I like not having to worry about the potential of someone coming after me and my site for photo rights! But I've never used stock photos for characters! I'm intrigued about this idea, though, and I'd like to know more. Where do you find free stock images for this use? My stock image resource sites rarely include people - they're more for photos about objects, landscapes, and activities than actual people. 

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I don't really care if other people use them. I have on private sites, so why not?

Reality is an illusion. 


 
 

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Two reasons not to use them:

 

1) most stock photos aren't free or are ugly watermarked

2) they don't give the model's name to be put in the Face Claim list, and this might lead to abuse from some members. How do I know the photo can be used and it isn't their brother's or enemy's if I can't check the name to be a professional model/ actor/ celebrity?

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1 hour ago, Elena said:

Two reasons not to use them:

 

1) most stock photos aren't free or are ugly watermarked

2) they don't give the model's name to be put in the Face Claim list, and this might lead to abuse from some members. How do I know the photo can be used and it isn't their brother's or enemy's if I can't check the name to be a professional model/ actor/ celebrity?

 

I must have explained myself poorly. When I say stock photos I mean those that are entirely free (like those on Unsplash etc), or  that you can download for free by giving credits, or that you can buy for a very cheap price if that's the case. On my board I have a list of sites that you can use, they are more and better than one imagines.

 

No, I don't use watermarked pictures. Ew. And removing watermarks is the best way to have some angry people at your virtual door (because if I'm the type who watermarks a pic, I'm also the type who'd take a minute once in a while to retro-search it online).

 

As for abuse... Unless something very weird is going on, they are literally pictures that were meant to be used anywhere? Models signed a model release, which was supposed to be asked by the site that listed them. This means that unlike celebrities they couldn't even complain they hate being used for RP. They literally agreed to their pic being used for whatever (except a few limitations that don't concern us here).

 

As for abuse by members, I just ask for the credits of the pic. I don't need to know who the model is, I need to know the source. Knowing the source and the licence I know that the pic is as safe as reasonably possible, and I don't even need to track what celeb throws fits against RPers, who is a horrible person IRL, who is dead, and all other issues that'd make a face less welcome to use.

Edited by featherstone
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8 hours ago, Sage said:

I've never used stock photos for anything other than general site images, like for backgrounds, banners, and location images. I like not having to worry about the potential of someone coming after me and my site for photo rights! But I've never used stock photos for characters! I'm intrigued about this idea, though, and I'd like to know more. Where do you find free stock images for this use? My stock image resource sites rarely include people - they're more for photos about objects, landscapes, and activities than actual people. 

 

8 hours ago, Sage said:

 

 

Here's the resources I have on my site! https://builtonsand.rpginitiative.com/showthread.php?tid=18

 

It started as a list of sites, then I added a gallery to show that they had some good material. There are more images of people that one believes, you just need to know where to look for. There are more sites than those, if one googles around a bit. I just listed some of my favourites.

Edited by featherstone
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Oooo I can definitely see the appeal of this now. For a rp that's not reliant on images, I think this could be very useful. I'm caught up in the current rp trend where you have to have 8 million pictures of your face claim for different things and uses (like an avatar, profile pic, gif/icon, signature, etc.) but for a game that didn't rely on that sort of thing? Where you actually have a section to describe their appearance/demeanor? I like this a lot. In current trends, this seems to have fallen out of favor, and I do kind of miss that. And seeing how your site uses them has definitely made me open to the idea of using stock photos for characters. 

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This would open another question on how much space there's today for RPs that aren't focused on images. I used to have FCs, but they were just that, an avatar and a name. But I would digress.

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This is fantastic.  I've mentioned in other posts that I'd like to move more towards using stock photos, so I'm happy to see other people doing similar.

 

One of the few things that's holding me back for doing this for all my characters is that sometimes I get bored of the photo I use and want to use a different photo from a different photoshoot/movie for a slightly different look of the same character, and this is challenging for stock images.  But not impossible.

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32 minutes ago, Uaithne said:

This is fantastic.  I've mentioned in other posts that I'd like to move more towards using stock photos, so I'm happy to see other people doing similar.

 

One of the few things that's holding me back for doing this for all my characters is that sometimes I get bored of the photo I use and want to use a different photo from a different photoshoot/movie for a slightly different look of the same character, and this is challenging for stock images.  But not impossible.

 

If you look at my list, I think I said one of the sites offers entire sets of the same model. On Unsplash, too, I found that a few photographers have more pics of the same subject. In general I'm happy with a single avatar, but if one cares there are resources.

 

Of course, it'll never be the best option for RPs that are all about graphics and gifs for every single emotion, but I'd really love if such trend were not universal.

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I don't mind people looking at alternative sources for their avatars and site graphics, but it depends on if the stock images are what I'm looking for. It took me ages to decide which actress I should use for one of my OCs because I found it difficult to find one which looked right, both from her physical appearance (hair colour, etc) and what she was doing in the picture. I don't like using people in modern settings if I'm doing a fantasy character. (On the other hand, some of the images I've found for actresses in 'modern' settings look too glamorous and sometimes the perfection can be over done so if it offers more choices and won't cause problems with copyright infringements then it's a good thing.

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1 hour ago, Uaithne said:

One of the few things that's holding me back for doing this for all my characters is that sometimes I get bored of the photo I use and want to use a different photo from a different photoshoot/movie for a slightly different look of the same character, and this is challenging for stock images.  But not impossible.

 

This is my only issue with stock photos. I honestly prefer not having images (but they're so popular and aesthetically appealing at the moment with current fashions of RP that it's almost impossible to not have an image of your character readily at hand).

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18 hours ago, featherstone said:

 

 

Here's the resources I have on my site! https://builtonsand.rpginitiative.com/showthread.php?tid=18

 

It started as a list of sites, then I added a gallery to show that they had some good material. There are more images of people that one believes, you just need to know where to look for. There are more sites than those, if one googles around a bit. I just listed some of my favourites.

 

Dude, this is awesome! You put in a lot of work and it's a really helpful resource! I think something like this would definitely tip the scales if somebody was on the fence about allowing stock photos as images. On my site, we don't require faces at all but people are free to use photos. Some of them may very well take to the stock photo idea.

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@Zozma the gallery is something I'd like to improve (& once found how to code it, adding more examples isn't the biggest deal). I found it's really helpful for players - if you suggest something that's outside widespread RP habits, giving practical examples is the least you should do.

 

It all started because I didn't want copyright hassles, but having an alternative to overly famous faces was and is another big motivation.

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