fireman….of course, these are all copyrighted images so you have to be careful about how you use them. I source a lot of the elements in my work from old magazines and such. I just make sure I am using a small, unidentifiable portion of the image, or changing it so much that it is no longer recognizable as the original. But that’s for my own personal art projects / posters. when working for clients, I clear everything I use, you really have to be careful in those situations. Of course, fair use is the law so if you’re just lifting textures or tracing silhouettes then it’s usually ok. but I’m no lawyer, this is just all guesswork and based on my experience over the years.

For example, if I took that picture of the earth up there and just slapped some text on it and called it an album cover, I’m getting sued (as long as it reaches enough people that someone from Life recognizes it that is). If I instead took the lens flare, masked out the rest, then overlayed that in a blending mode on top of a graphic…. probably going to get away with that no problem.

daniel-
it depends on the project. sometimes I get inspired by something I see so I use that. sometimes I just have an idea so I need to go out and get the picture myself. I like to use old pics sourced from magazines more though, since they are printed offset, when you blow them up they start to look very interesting. you don’t get that effect with digital photography.

the new single cover is comprised of 2 photos. one is very old, and is a very small portion of the original so it’s unrecognizable. more of a texture. the main silhouette is contemporary, it is by an Italian photographer who I worked with to get clearance for use. more info on all that will be posted once the artwork is released.