Do not pay for what you can get for free
The same photos are being sold on one site and distributed for free on another under the CC0 license.
In most cases, this is because the author can sell photos on the image agency and simultaneously upload them to the free image site, like Unsplash or Flickr, to promote their portfolio. It is a common practice among stock photographers.
But it also happens when someone is trying to get profit from free photos and uploads them to microstock image sites under his or her name, for selling. Identifying such false authors is tough. As a rule, they become known only if the authentic author of the photos will notice that someone else is selling their work.
In both cases, the buyer suffers, because he pays for what is essentially free.
In order not to spend money in vain, you can use specialized search engines for images. Here are a few options to check a photo before buying it.
1. Google Images
This search engine allows you to find all the sites on which there is a photo of interest to you. It searches for the URL of the photo, the image, and you can just right-click on the photo and choose “Find the image” (Google).
Advantages of the search engine for Google pictures is that it indexes the entire Internet, and the chances of finding the photo you are interested in are pretty high.
The drawbacks are that Google will show both the sites on which the picture being sought is sold, and those where it was used as an illustration by someone else. And the price for this photo will be unknown.
2. TinEye
Like Google Images, this search engine can search by image or URL and show the sites on which there is an image of interest to you.
The advantage of TinEye is the option of filtering by domain or collection, which makes searching a bit easier. However, this search engine does not show the price of the photo, and the search for a legal, free version may take too long.
3. Everypixel
Everypixel is a specialized search engine for stock photos based on artificial intelligence, which is specially designed to compare prices and find the best offers on stock image websites.
Unlike Google or TinEye, not only can you search for your existing photos but also find new ones. As for its disadvantages, it can be noted that the search engine only works with stock images.
