Research to Action

The Global Guide to Research Impact

Navigation

  • Home

  • How To ▾

    This list of how to’s provides an essential guide for a number of key communication and engagement activities that will help make your research travel.

    • Building Capacity
    • Policy Briefs
    • Research Impact
    • Theory of Change
    • Uptake Strategy
  • Topics ▾

    • Eye on 2022
    • Knowing your audience ▸
      • Building a strategy
      • Engaging policy audiences ▸
        • EBPDN
        • Targeting policy actors
        • Targeting practitioners
      • Stakeholder mapping
      • Strategic communication ▸
        • Building a brand
        • Engaging the public
      • Working with the media
    • Making your research accessible ▸
      • Framing challenges
      • Knowledge translation
      • Learning in context
      • Open access
      • Presenting your research
      • Using digital tools ▸
        • Using multi media
        • Using online tools/ICTs
        • Using social media
      • Using intermediaries
    • Monitoring and evaluation ▸
      • Applying M&E methods
      • Evidence into policy
      • Measuring success
    • Uncategorized
  • Dialogue Spaces ▾

    • GDN: Doing Research
    • Manchester Policy Week 2015
    • TTI Exchange 2015
    • Strengthening Institutions to Improve Public Expenditure Accountability (GDN PEM Project)
    • DFID/AusAid Research Communication and Uptake Workshop
    • 3ie Policy Influence and Monitoring (PIM) project
    • Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) Programme
  • Reading Lists

  • Opportunities

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Vimeo
  • RSS

Featured

Finding the Right Photo: Part Two

By Betty Paton 12/05/2011

Back in February 2010, we posted a blog on Research to Action called “Finding the Right Photo” which aimed to address the problems many development researchers face in finding suitable images as visual aids for their work.

The ease and accessibility of digital photography means that many researchers do not have any problem taking shots to accompany their work. However, there may be occasions when high resolution, good quality images are required and this post hopes to offer a list of helpful resources for researchers to turn to in their hour of need.

The original ‘Finding the Right Photo’ post linked to the most widely recognised stock photo sites on the web, such as iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, 123rf, and BigStockPhoto. These sites allow you to buy a wide range of photos from their image-banks but the shots are often generic, commercial and wholly unsuitable for the often sensitive development subject areas.

There is also the option of hiring an experienced researcher to source images for you from a specific brief.

But if you are running low and time and budget, Research to Action has compiled a list of great online development photo galleries that have a wealth of beautiful images available.

Copyright for images from these sites vary, but many allow you to use their images for free if it is in a non-commercial capacity and the photographer is properly cited.

Online Development Photo Galleries:

Wellcome Images

Commonwealth Foundation

World Bank

UNESCO

Kiwanja

Global Food Security

USAid

International Red Cross

United Nations

Child Africa

Getty Images

DFID on Flickr

There are also some fee-based sites:

Panos

African Media Online

Photo Voice

If your budget really cannot stretch to including images at all, then Every Stock Photo is a search engine for free photos across the web.

This image is from the UKCDS gallery. Taken by Sumaiya S Kabir, it shows drought prone Shapahar Upazila of Naogaon District, Northern Bangladesh.

If anyone has any other resources to add to this page please let us know, we will be happy to include them.

Related posts

EBPDN: Refreshing recommended resources - 31/10/2019
Building momentum to advance citizen evidence in policymaking - 03/09/2019
Bringing researchers and knowledge brokers together for greater impact - 29/05/2019

Get 'New Post' e-alerts and follow R2A

> > > > >

Contribute to R2A:
We welcome blogposts, news about jobs, events or funding, and recommendations for great resources about development communications and research uptake.

Topics: bigstockphoto, communication, development, dfid, digital photography, dreamstime, fotolia, image banks, istock, libraries, photos, r2a, shutterstock, text, visual aids

Betty Paton

Betty Paton is Research to Action's Communication Coordinator. She firmly believes that social media is a powerful tool in the communication of development research and is committed to embracing and understanding new, emerging and appropriate techniques for communicating development. She has a degree in Film Studies from the Combined Universities of Cornwall and an MA in Film and Cultural Management from Southampton University. She is also the Strategic Communication Manager at CommsConsult Ltd.

Subscribe E-alerts and RSS feeds

Contribute Write a blog post, post a job or event, recommend a resource

Partner with Us Are you an institution looking to increase your impact?

Tweets by @Research2Action

Most Recent Posts

  • Jamlab’s favourite African Podcasts
  • Communications and design: (Not such) a secret ingredient for successful EU Research and Innovation Projects
  • Stakeholder consultation facillitators: Nepal, India and Bangladesh, CGIAR – Rolling deadline
  • Open access guidance, databases and more!
  • Communications Officer x2: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London – Deadline 25 May

This Week's Most Read

  • How to write actionable policy recommendations
  • Policymaker, policy maker, or policy-maker?
  • What do we mean by ‘impact’?
  • Gap analysis for literature reviews and advancing useful knowledge
  • Communications and design: (Not such) a secret ingredient for successful EU Research and Innovation Projects
  • Outcome Mapping: A Basic Introduction
  • Three ways that knowledge brokers can strengthen the impact of scientific research
  • Top tips: Writing newspaper opinion pieces
  • Key questions to ask when putting together a Theory of Change for Research Uptake (Part 1 of 2)
  • Why study the research environment?

About Us

Research to Action (R2A) is a website catering for the strategic and practical needs of people trying to improve the uptake of development research, in particular those funded by DFID.

We have structured the site and populated it with material that we think will be immediately useful to this audience, but also to development researchers in general who would like to be more strategic and effective in their communications.

R2A is produced by a small editorial team, led by CommsConsult. We welcome suggestions for and contributions to the site.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Cookies
  • Contribute

Our contributors

  • Paula Fray
  • Shubha Jayaram
  • Sue Martin
  • Maria Balarin
  • James Harvey
  • Emily Hayter
  • Susan Koshy
  • Ronald Munatsi
  • Ajoy Datta

Browse all authors

Friends and partners

  • AuthorAid
  • Global Development Network (GDN)
  • INASP
  • Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
  • International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
  • ODI RAPID
  • On Think Tanks
  • Politics & Ideas
  • Research for Development (R4D)
  • Research Impact

Copyright © 2022 Research to Action. All rights reserved. Log in