If you have been following my earlier articles about Flickr and Flickr Storm, you are probably interested to learn how to properly attribute Creative-Commons or CC licensed works. I have previously mentioned certain details you need in order to come up with the correct attribution. In this article, I will show you where to look for them on Flickr and Flickr Storm.

For our discussion we will use our previous search phrase “abstract photography”, on Flickr Storm using a Share-Alike CC license type, and we will be using an image by See-ming Lee.

Where to look for Attribution Details

1. On Flickr Storm, click Advanced then choose Photos with a “Share-Alike” license;
2. Key in “abstract photography” on the search field and click SEARCH;

3. Looking at the image we see the type of CC license it holds and the name of the creator. There are instances when a photographer uses a screen name on his account. You need to find out if he wishes to be attributed by his screen name or real name (which I will discuss in a second); to do that you need to click on “Open on Flickr”, the page will redirect you to the image’s detail (where the title may or may not be available);

4. Click “See-ming Lee”, to go to the photographer’s page;

5. Hover over your mouse on the three dots on the photographer’s page and click “profile”;

6. On the profile page, check photographer’s name (if any); then scroll down to Licensing and see if there are specific instructions on how he/she wishes to be attributed.

Proper Creative Commons attribution

So far you are able to locate all the details that you need in order to attribute See-ming Lee’s work properly. Here is how it should look like according to Creative-Commons: Title, Author, Source, License.

“Bauhaus / 20060606.10D.39702 / SML” by See-ming Lee is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Notes:
1. Notice how the title is enclosed in open and closed quotes. It must link back to the image’s URL;

2. The photographer’s name is also linked to his Flickr page; and

3. The CC license is linked to its license deed on Creative Commons
4. If for instance the original photograph is modified by saturating it, you need to include “/Saturated from original” after CC BY 2.0

If you find the entire article hard to follow, maybe this INFOGRAPHIC on How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos by Foter might help.

Or, if you would rather use plug-ins for your browser such as Open Attribute (Firefox and Chrome) or Common Machinery (Firefox) to generate machine readable attribution of photos you download, I suggest checking them out.