As a blogger, I know the power imagery holds in making or breaking a post. You may have a thought provoking and engaging article, but without imagery, there’s less chance that people will take the time to read it. With 37% of marketers saying that visual was their most important and effective form of content (source), there’re plenty of reasons to start compiling your image bank today. Over the years, I’ve scoured the Internet for websites where I can find images without spending a penny (or facing a copyright lawsuit), and I can assure you, there’s an abundance of them. If you know where to look.
Firstly, to avoid trouble relating to copyright or angering an unaccredited artist, you’re going to need to know what to look out for in terms of licensing:
- Creative Commons: The terms can vary for each image, however, if an image is released under Creative Commons, it can often be used providing certain conditions are met.
- Royalty Free: This means the image doesn’t require any royalties or licensing fees.
- Public Domain: These are images that either do not hold copyright licensing or the licensing has expired, so they’re free to use.
- Attribution: You are free to use these images as long as credit is given to the creator.
Now you know what to keep an eye out for and have a better idea of what kind of images are most suitable for you, we can dig in to where you can find them.
1. Flickr
Flickr is a photo-sharing and hosting site that allows photographers to share their work and plenty of them do so under the Creative Commons Attribution license. In fact, some accounts create work specifically for people to use either for free or under certain attribution terms. For example, this ‘Free Images’ account, created by UK-based creative agency, INK Media, provides users with an array of images that can be used for any purpose (including commercial purposes) providing attribution is given.
2. StockSnap.io
StockSnap.io has a vast gallery of images that are regularly updated and completely free as they’ve all been released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, so any image you find on there can be downloaded, edited and distributed, even for commercial use – all you need to do is set up an account.
3. Pickup Image
Search through a great collection of free images and even clipart pictures, which are sorted under different tags and categories and all CC0 licensed - to download the images you just need to sign up for a free account and away you go.
4. Unsplash
Unsplash is a fairly straightforward site that gives you access to thousands of beautiful images for absolutely nothing – you don’t even need to create an account for this one and the imagery can be found in a simple search or a quick browse through one of the many photographers’ collections.
5. Skitterphoto
The content on this site originally came solely from the two people who created it – they decided that they wanted to share their work as amateur photographers with the rest of the world and through out their journey, they have now welcomed other photographers to share their work on the site too… all realised under the Creative Commons CC0 licence and without the need for an account.
As you may have guessed from the title, Realistic Shots offers access to a range of lifestyle imagery, which is much more appealing and natural looking than standard stock images and each piece is released under the CC0 license. Browse through categories like architecture, nature, travel, people, and technology for some quick, creative content.
7. Pixabay
Pixabay is a community that shares photos, illustrations, vector graphics, and even videos all for free. To download an image, you need to enter text into a captcha box, unless you sign up for free.
8. Magdeleine
Search by category, tags, license or even colour – here you can find plenty of free images. Just make sure you check the licensing details first.
9. Foter
This collection is one of the largest for royalty-free images, which are under the Creative Commons licensing, however, they do require attribution.
10. Gratisography
Free to use for personal and commercial use, the images on Gratisography are quirky and vibrant and you can even download themed image packs that are also completely free.
11. Free Stocks
All of the many different images on Free Stocks are under the Creative Commons Zero licensing and there are plenty of different categories and tags to help you with your search.
12. Kaboom Pics
Kaboom Pics is a really great site with excellent free content. The search function is really useful because you can sort through images based on their colour palette, orientation, and category. Get downloading!