Photo Service of the University Communications

You are new at the University of Erfurt and you need a suitable portrait photo for your website or electronic business card? Please contact us by email: pressestelle@uni-erfurt.de and we will arrange an appointment with you. In order to ensure a consistent visual language and photo background, we usually take these photos in the foyer of our Centre for Communication and Information (KIZ).

+++ Please note that we do not have the capacity to take new photos every semester. Therefore, team photos in frequently changing constellations are generally not useful. If you are planning larger photo shoots or would like photos of your event, we will be happy to recommend professional external photographers whom you can hire according to your own wishes and possibilities. +++

We would be happy to provide you with photos of the campus, the buildings and the atmosphere for your print products or for the university's website. You can view the available image material in the following document:

contact prints photo material

order form for images

The use of generally accessible standard images, so-called stock photos, has advantages and disadvantages. This is because you will almost always find suitable photos. On the other hand, the fact that photographs can often only be used for a fee - this applies especially to high-quality photographs - and that the use of the motif is not exclusive.

Below you will find a list of different agencies and sites that we for example use for our research. With pictures for free and fee-based use. Please always pay close attention to the scope in which the images can be used (free of charge). The naming of the author and source is almost always a prerequisite. If you are unsure, just contact us, we are happy to help!

picture agencies (selection):

• Pixabay (numerous free pictures, enter the search terms in English or German)
• FreeImages (numerous free pictures, enter the search terms in English)
• Pexels (one of our favourites when it comes to free pictures, enter the search terms in English)
• iStock
• NegativeSpace (Enter the search terms in English)
• New Old Stock (Vintage photos, enter the search terms in English)
• Gratisography (Enter the search terms in English)
• Wikimedia Commons The search at Wikicommons is especially recommended if you need historical photographs, paintings or portraits. Here you can easily find out if the images are licensed. (Please note the different national protection periods of the author and that the reproduction of a public domain work can mean a new protection period. To read up: Office Plutte: Federal Court of Justice (BGH): Photos of public domain works protected by copyright(German only))

But no matter if you use private pictures, photos from a shooting with a (professional) photographer or pictures from databases: When using images on the Internet or in publications, please always make sure that the image rights have been clarified.

This includes:

• the use of recordings for which a fee is charged (e.g. image databases, photographers),
• compliance with the proof of use (copyright/naming of the source and/or information of the author on the use of the image*)
• as well as the observance of the personal rights of the depicted people (right to one's own image, to read up: Recht-am-Bild.de: The right to one's own image(German only)).

Under no circumstances may recordings/photographs simply be downloaded from the Internet and integrated or printed. The same applies to scanning or photographing from publications.

(*Attention: in some image databases this is also a condition for free downloads)

If you are planning an event or the like that requires photos, we will be happy to name suitable (external) photographers with whom you can then arrange appropriate conditions yourself. Please note that the University Communications cannot provide photographic support for events.

• declaration of consent adult (university)
• declaration of consent adult (free text for own organisational unit)
• notice "We take photographs and film"

Do you want to include people under 18 years of age in a photo shoot or filming? Please note that minors cannot give their consent to the creation, storage and use of image material on their own. Do you have any questions about this? Please contact us:

You are generally allowed to take pictures. However, if there are recognizable people on them, you need their written consent to publish these pictures - no matter if they are photos or video material.

You must be careful for which purpose you want to use the pictures: for editorial purposes, i.e. for current reporting on a certain event (e.g. an event) or for promotional purposes (e.g. for a flyer, poster or similar). This also determines the form of the declaration of consent (editorial/promotional).

You are welcome to use the consent forms provided by the University Communications and archive them carefully. The people depicted can revoke their consent even years later. In this case, you or your successor must be able to find and delete all pictures concerned.

If you make a large audience shot where no single person (group of people) is in the focus of the picture, i.e. the audience is only a kind of "accessory", don't. If you focus on a specific person or group of people in the audience (e.g. in the lecture hall), you will also need a declaration of consent for the publication or storage of the images, because this is personal data and therefore in need of protection.

At events where photos are taken of the audience, it is a good idea to provide information about this at the entrance with a notice board. Please use the template "We are taking photos" (see "templates" above).

Again, you may only save the images if you have obtained the prior written consent of the person concerned. This must state for what purpose you are saving the images, where exactly and for how long and how you can revoke the consent.

If you only have permission for editorial purposes (e.g. for reporting on an event), you may only use the images for this editorial purpose and must delete them from your storage medium (drive, CD, flash drive, mobile phone etc.) immediately after publication.

This is only possible if the person depicted has given his or her consent to the use of the images for promotional purposes. The declaration of consent for editorial purposes is not sufficient here.

In principle, you may only do so with the written consent of the person depicted. To do so, you must inform the person about whom you are making the pictures available, for what purpose, how often and for how long (e.g. to the press for reporting on a special event or portrait photos for interviews etc.). If you distribute the images with the consent of the person depicted, you should document to whom you have made the image available, for what purpose and under what conditions. You should communicate these conditions in writing to the person to whom you have made the photo available.

In this case you are obliged to delete the stored images from your storage medium immediately. If you use the image on your website or blog etc., you should also remove it here. In addition, you should inform third parties to whom you have made the image available of the revocation. You may not continue to use the image. Flyers that have already been printed are an exception. You do not have to "retrieve" these. In this case the revocation is valid from the date of receipt.