body: Suppose I collect three or four public domain images, modify them, build upon them and put them together to form an image that I can claim as my own.
  
  
  Then I purchase an image from some online site like DepositPhotos or Adobe Stock, modify it and add it to the larger image.
  
  
  I can no longer claim copyright because my image includes an image licensed by someone else (e.g. Adobe Stock), even if they don't require me to give credit.
  
  
  So how can I protect the rest of the image - the portion I created? Can I say "This image is copyrighted by me EXCEPT for the gold star, which belongs to Adobe Stock"?
  
  
  
title: Licensing an image that contains a licensed image