Check whether a reference is yours to use
Find the picture's source and read the license. Do not ask a chatbot to rule on it.
Most 'can I use this?' questions are a search problem. The license is on the file page, in the stock site's terms, or nowhere, which means you do not have it.
Tools
Affiliate links are switched off. The buttons below go to official sites, not paid links. Affiliate disclosure
Google Lens
Reverse image search to find where a picture already lives.
Wikimedia Commons
A license box on the file page, which is the thing to read.
The Met Open Access
A collection that labels Open Access works separately from the rest.
How to do it
- 1
Search the image, not the idea
Drop the file into Google Lens. Open the oldest or most official page that holds the same picture: a museum, a publisher, the photographer, Wikimedia.
- 2
Read the label out loud
Public domain, CC BY, all rights reserved, and 'editorial use only' are different sentences. If you cannot find a label, treat the file as not yours.
- 3
Match the use to the label
A study in a sketchbook, a background you will sell, and a workshop handout are different uses. The label has to cover the one you mean. When it does not, shoot your own or pick another file.
- 4
Write the source down
Put the URL and the license in the filename or in a note next to the art. Future you will not remember.