For most people, looking for stock photos is very hard to find. Images are very important for the aesthetic and design of your website. Although there are good ones out there such as Shutterstock, their photos don’t come for free. On the other hand, there are websites out there that provide free stock photos but the caveat is that these photos are either blurry, watermarked, low-resolution, or all of the attributes mentioned. Which option would you want to go to? Your guess is as good as mine.
Needless to say, looking for free stock photos for your blog or websites can be a very tedious task and you probably can relate with what I said when you had done it yourself. But not to worry, for in this post, I will give you a list of some of the most awesome free stock photo websites that you might want to visit.
What Is Creative Commons Attributions
If you search for images using search engines like Google, the results that will be displayed are not free for you to use. Most of the time, these images are still under copyrights from their respective owners or photographers. If you are not given permission to do so but still do it anyway, big chances you will be trapped in a web of copyrights trouble.
That is why you have to look for websites that have defined their copyright licenses. All of the sites that I will list below have their licensed available for everyone to access. It could either be a link to a description of the description of the license is written on every page so make sure you read it first. The descriptions you will read are either of the following:
- Creative Commons With Attribution – You are allowed to use the picture in any way you’d like but don’t forget to attribute the creator of the photo
- Creative Commons Zero – You are allowed to use the picture in any way you’d like even without asking permission.
Now on to our list!
IM Free
IM Creator (an online website building tool) put together this small library of premium-quality free photos for use in your designs. Attribution is required, but it’s well worth it: these pictures have the same (if not better) quality as paid sites.
Picjumbo
Many like this free stock photo website because it is easy to navigate and they provide amazing high-resolution photos. If you’re a food blogger or you own a restaurant business, Picjumbo is the site to visit when you need a vast collection of mouth-watering food shots. The site is searchable and almost all of their photos don’t require attribution. How good is that?
Pixabay
If you’re a web designer, then you will really like this website. Pixabay has easy-to-use feature and the images available are simply stunning to which most of these images don’t need attribution at all.
Unsplash
For great images of landscapes, Unsplash gives you the most breathtaking ones the nature has to offer. From foggy mountains to pristine rivers and emerald beaches, this site can give you a piece on how beautiful our world is. Plus, Unsplash adds ten new royalty-free photos every ten days.
Freerange Stock
Freerange stock is like the angel of all the awesome free stock photo websites out there. Why? Because the aim of the company is to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use – for free. Their photos come from various sources including from their growing community and their in-house photographers.
Little Visuals
This website pretty much lives up to their name; they offer little amount of photos that are handpicked than most stock photo sites. For you to get seven high-res photos every week, you need to sign up to the Little Visuals emailing list.
New Old Stock
Looking for vintage pictures? Then go to New Old Stock. This site holds an array of antique photos given by government agencies or discovered in estate sales. So if you want to go down the memory lane for hours, visit their page today!
Visual Hunt
While most of us are busy hunting Pokemons, Visual Hunt is busy hunting or the best free images from dozens of online sources and bring them all together to one, easy-to-navigate website. Most of the photos are cc0 license. In addition, they offer Creative Commons and Public Domain Photos from sources like Flickr.
Superfamous
This is the website to visit when you’re looking for stock photos for web design and desktop background. The collection of photos in Superfamous are curated by Folkert Gorter, a Dutch artist, and his peers of graphic designers.
Startup Stock
Startup Stock photos are free and they cater to pretty much everyone – from startups to bloggers, websites, and even developers.
Women in Tech
This site is dedicated to all the women of today! Women in Tech provides photos that “show a different representation of all women in tech. That you use these images in pieces about entrepreneurs, software engineers, infosec professionals, IT analysts, marketers, and other people who make up the tech ecosystem.”
Gratisography
Gratisography is an awesome stock photo website is built by the equally awesome and talented artist/web designer Ryan McGuire. His collection of photos feature some of the most vivid images you will find on the Internet. And these photos do not require any attribution.
GetRefe
For those who need some photos with landscape or architectural themes, you can visit GetRefe and check out their gallery of photos. Their images are taken by a number of photographers who travel across Europe.
Pexels
As of the moment, Pexels are has more than 2,700 free photos in their website because they upload 10 high-resolution photos every day. Their images are hand-picked from other free image sources and all their photos are under the Creative Commons Zero license, so you can use their photos without any restrictions whatsoever.
Jay Mantri
Jay Mantri is one of the well-known designers in Southern California. You can use his collection of images for free when you visit his website. He updates his photo collection every Thursday.
Magdeleine
If you’re looking for inspiring photos that range from nature to abstract, then go to Magdeleine. Attribution is required when you use their photos.
Travel Coffee Book
Travel Coffee Book is a website where travelers can share awesome photos around the world and let these images be used by the public for free. All their photos are listed under cc0.
Moveast
Moveast is owned by a Portuguese designer João Pacheco. He built Moveast to keep track of his experiences as well as to “encourage/inspire people to travel and to move.” His travel photos are available in his website and can be used for absolutely free under the cc0 license.
Barn Images
In order to redefine the face of traditional stock imagery, Latvian photographers Igor Trepeshchenok and Roman Drits created Barn Images. Their “non-stock” photos, which are very stunning, are added every weekday.
Morguefile
The site may be simple, but Morguefile is packed with thousands of photos that you can use for free. Their selection may not be as many as some of the websites mentioned here, but their sets of photos are so varies that you can check photos from antiques to wildlife.
FreeImages
Another website that has diverse collection of photos, FreeImages is one of the trusted stock photo websites. What brings them back to FreeImages? Their site is highly searchable which saves time especially when you’re working on a specific project.
Picography
Picography is yet another simple website where you can find a scroll-through gallery of random shots that are handed by professional photographers. Though not searchable, their photos are very amazingly taken that you just have to use it.
Public Domain Archive
You can find a lot of usable photos on their website, ranging from vintage pictures to modern landscapes. Public Domain Archive is very easy to use and has an array of striking photos perfect for web design.
So there you have it, the list of awesome stock photo websites. Make sure you have read their license condition so you won’t have any trouble using their images!