Stock photos in AI sites
Aglyn AI is in beta. It is available today on every plan that includes it, and it is still changing as we improve it. Beta means you can use it now, while what it builds and the steps on this page may still change.
When Aglyn AI writes the pages of a site started with AI, each picture it needs, such as a hero, a service card or a blog cover, is found as a free stock photo that matches what that part of the page is about. An event Aglyn AI adds gets its cover photo the same way, from the event's title.
Where the photos come from
Photos come from Pixabay, a library of free photos. The job searches it with words from your page and your kind of business, such as ceramic serving bowl for a potter's work card or dog grooming salon for a groomer's hero, and picks a photo that fits the space.
A picture of a thing only takes a photo that shows that thing in your line of work: a potter's bowl is never filled with a bowl of fruit or a bird at a feeder. When nothing shows the thing itself, the space gets a photo of your craft instead, such as handmade ceramics. One start never uses the same photo twice.
Photos are searched for your kind of business first, as your business type describes it: a dirt bike repair shop's pictures show dirt bikes and motorcycles, never a bicycle or a race car, and a taco trailer that also takes catering requests shows tacos, not a buffet. A photo tagged with a brand, such as a car or motorcycle maker, is never used unless your business type names that brand. Brands are recognized by the words a photo is tagged with, so look over your pictures for a logo before you publish. A band of pictures that finds no fitting photo takes photos the start already copied for your site, and when there are none, the band is left out of the page rather than shown as captions with no pictures.
When a photo cannot be copied into your library, for example because Pixabay is busy and asks to wait, the job waits and tries again. If it still cannot, the space takes another photo the same job already copied for your site, chosen to suit the space: one the page does not show yet where there is one, and never the same one as the picture beside it. On a new site, a page never shows a photo twice this way.
A space with no such photo yet holds a starter photo for a moment. Once every page is built, and before the site goes live, the start asks Pixabay for that space's own photo again, at least a minute after Pixabay asked it to wait. If Pixabay still cannot send it, the space takes one of the photos the start copied for your other pages instead, one the page does not show yet:
- a page's main picture takes a wide photo;
- a dataset's record, such as a gallery on a photographer's site, takes a photo of the same kind of record, or of the people it is about: a couple for a wedding gallery, a family for a family session;
- a page shows the same photo twice only when the start has no other photo for the space;
- a record of one of your team only ever takes its own photo, never a photo of something else. If Pixabay still cannot send it, the record keeps its starter portrait for you to replace.
Apart from those team portraits, your pages and your datasets' records keep the starter photos that come with every site only when the start copied no photo at all, or the deployment has no stock photos.
When the search finds photos but none of them fits the space, the space is left without a picture: its section shows its own background, and the words take the space. A page whose every picture would be left out this way keeps one: its first picture takes one of the start's own photos, or a starter photo.
Your site's Social image
When the site goes live with the Social image it was created with, or none, the start sets it to your home page's main photo, so a shared link shows your own work. A Social image you chose in Setup → SEO is never replaced. See Social image.
In your media library
Every photo used is copied into the site's own media library, and the page uses that copy, not an address on Pixabay. That means:
- the photo keeps working whatever happens on Pixabay;
- it is listed in Media like any file you upload, with alt text you can edit;
- the same photo used twice is stored once;
- you replace it like any image: select it on the page and choose another from your library, or upload your own.
You can search the same library yourself while you edit a page: the media picker's Stock photos tab. See Stock photos.
Credits
Stock photos cost no AI credits. Finding and copying them calls no AI model, so they add nothing to the start's estimate.
To make a picture rather than find one, use Create images with AI, which does use credits.
The photographer's credit
Pixabay's license does not require a credit on your page, and none is added to your site. Each photo's details in the media library still say who took it, as Photo by the photographer's name on Pixabay, with the license it was used under, so you can credit them if you wish.
What is sent
Only the search words are sent to Pixabay: never your brief, your business details or anything that identifies you or your visitors. See Privacy and Aglyn AI.