Are you looking for professional-looking images for your blog or website? The good news is that there are millions of beautiful photographs you can get online absolutely free. Before you go any further, make sure you are only using stock photos that are under the “Creative Commons License”. This means you are allowed to use these images without plagiarizing a photographer’s work, and you’ll never have to pay a penny. Here are some of the best free stock photo sites.
No-Attribution Required Stock Photo Sites
1. Pexels
Pexels has stock photos and videos in just about every category you can imagine. Each individual image has its own page that will tell you if attribution to the artist is required in order to have the photo for free.
One of the coolest features of Pexels is that if you own Adobe Photoshop, you can get a Pexels Plugin. This means that you can search a gallery of free photographs while editing on Photoshop without going on the actual website.
2. Styled Stock
If you are a blogger who is into fashion, makeup, and interior design, you’ll love the eye-candy on Styled Stock. They keep up-to-date on style trends, and conveniently leave some white space, just in case you want to add text on top of the images.
3. Pixabay
Pixabay has a little bit of everything. They have photos, vectors, and videos all on one site. One of the interesting features on Pixabay is the search by camera. This is great if you are thinking about buying a new camera for your business, but you want to see the image quality first.
4. Kaboom Pics
One of the best things about Kaboom Pics is that you can search by color. This feature is amazing if you need to match an image to a brand logo, or you may have a highly stylized blog that sticks with a particular color story.
You can also choose if you want horizontal or vertical photos, which could make you life a whole lot easier. In some cases, you can even see multiple images taken at the same photoshoot, so you can pick the image you like the most.
5. Gratisography
If you are looking for free blog photos that are quirky and unexpected, Gratisography is for you. Everything on the website was photographed by Ryan McGuire, and he calls his work “art to make you smile”. While he doesn’t require any attribution, he has a donation link, just in case you’re willing to buy him a cup of coffee.
6. PicNoi
PicNoi is a little-known gem of a website that focuses mainly on images of people of color. Contributors can upload their own photos, as long as they agree to let anyone use them for free. There is even a Twitter account @PicNoi that updates with new photos on a regular basis. If you are looking for more diversity in the photos on your website, this is a perfect place to start.
7. StockSnap.io
If you’re worried about having the same photos that pop up on everyone else’s blogs, StockSnap.io has a very useful feature that allows you to see which images are currently trending online. Each individual photo will tell you how many people have viewed, downloaded, or favorited an image.
8. UnSplash
In order to get the most out of UnSplash, you should sign up for a free account. You can save your favorite photos in a “collection” before you actually download them to your computer. It’s a lot like Pinterest, except that absolutely everything is under the Creative Commons License. As you search for the perfect photo, the site gives suggestions at the bottom of the page. You can even follow your favorite photographers, and get notified when they upload new content.
9. Rawpixel
This site has a great collection of both photos and illustrations that are all absolutely free. The one and only catch is that you must sign up for a free account before you can download the photos. It might just be worth your time, because Rawpixel has tons of fun lifestyle photos that are perfect for a blog.
10. Burst by Shopify
The images on this site are lifestyle photography mainly for e-commerce businesses, but you can find tons of gems for your blog, too. One of the unique features of Burst is that they curate collections based on businesses you may want to start.
11. SplitShire
This website is filled with thousands of gorgeous photos of nearly anything you can imagine, as well as a handful of free videos of nature and sailing. The website was originally started by an Italian photographer named Daniel Nanescu who decided that uploading his portfolio online was better than letting it sit on a hard drive collecting dust.
Splitshire also welcomes submissions from anyone else who is willing to give their photos away for free.
12. Libre Stock
If you’re getting frustrated by looking on multiple sites to find the best stock photos, you probably want to check out Libre Stock. They collect images from over 40 different websites, and they make sure everything you see is royalty free. Once you find what you’re looking for, they will redirect you to the site where the photo was originally from, so you can download the photo.
Other Free Stock Photo Sites
13. FreePik
If you need stock images for the background of your blog, or you’re searching for a backdrop to use on promotional materials for your business, you’re going to want to look at FreePik. They have a huge selection of stylish backgrounds like beaches, flowers, wood, landscapes, and more.
If you already have some knowledge in photo editing, they even have pre-designed Adobe templates for flyers, and all you have to do is open it on your program to add your own text. This site seriously has some valuable content, it’s hard to believe it’s all free.
14. Flickr
Professional photographers love to use Flickr as a portfolio for their work. While you can’t take everything you see on Flickr, there is a huge selection of photographs under the “Creative Commons License” section of the website.
One of the greatest benefits to Flickr is that photographers are uploading new content every single day, so it’s just a matter of finding what you are looking for.
15. Advanced Google Image Settings
Just about everyone on the planet has used Google Images, but did you know that you can customize the search results to only show photos that are copyright-free? Find out here how!
This setting is not permanent, even if you are logged into your Google account. So be sure to manually select this every time you are looking for a free stock photo.
Now That You Have Your Photos…
Once you saved all of the photos you plan to use on your website or blog, you can customize them by adding text, changing the size, adjusting the colors, or creating a photo collage. If you’re new to photo editing, don’t pay a fortune for expensive software. There are tons of free photo editing apps available for you to download.
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