Whether you are an entrepreneur who wants to take advertising to another level, a blogger, or simply a photographer in search for creative ideas, you probably want to know where to find quality free images online.
A quality image will make the page or a website visually pleasing, and will also provide a better reading experience for your site’s visitors. In addition, people love photographs, so why not take the advantage of that and make your website stand out from the crowd?
In this article, you will learn a thing or two about stock images and how to obtain free images online, so keep reading.
Why finding free images online is important?
Whichever reason you have for using free online images, you definitely want to check if you can use them, without having to pay a cent and without actually “stealing” these images. “Stealing” means that you have violated the rights of the images “owner” and this can result in lawsuits, monetary damages, and even (though rarely) in criminal charges.
Just because the image is available on Google doesn’t mean that it’s free. Later on, you will find out where to get free images online, but for now, let us give you a better understanding of what stock images are.
What is a stock image?
Stock images are professional photographs of landmarks, common places, events, and people, which are sold, and bought, without any royalties attached. Thanks to these photos, programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, or anyone who appreciates quality work can obtain excellent photos without a need to hire a photographer and spend a great deal of money. There are two main types of stock images – rights-managed and royalty free. In this article, we will only talk about the second type. So, let’s see what a royalty-free image is.
What is a royalty-free image?
Contrary to what most people believe, royalty-free images aren’t free. However, they provide good value for the money, since once you pay for the rights to use the image (in stated terms), you get to use the images without paying for any additional costs.
There are various forms of royalty-free agreements, so it’s important to check the details and completely understand the terms before deciding on a certain agreement. Some agreements will allow you to use images for as many times as you would like while others will give you the right to use images for an indicated number of times. Also, make sure to check if you can use images for commercial use, or you can only use them for personal needs.
But, isn’t this post about places where I can get images without paying any fees?
Yes, it is, and for a good reason.
Some royalty-free images websites do not place restrictions on these kinds of photos for commercial use. This means that you actually can use these photos without getting the license for them. These images fall under the “Creative Commons” (CCo) category. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that is committed to sharing creativity by way of making certain works accessible to the public. Meaning, the creators of works choose the organization’s license that suits their needs best and then release their work.
What is important to point out here is that the owner/creator of the work retains the copyright – meaning, you cannot resell their images. If you really want to have exclusive rights to a particular image, you can contact the owner/creator and ask about usage rights. Obviously, you will have to pay a certain amount of money, but it might be worth it.
If this is not the case and you only want to use an image for your blog, or business, there are general rules that you should follow when using CCo images. You should always give credit to the owner in order to promote their work and effort. In addition, most sites where you can get CCo images usually have a donate page, so it might not be a bad thing to donate some money.
Where to find free images online?
We have listed 11 websites that support CCo images so that you can easily find what you need for your website or blog.
Let’s see what these websites have to offer you:
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WikiMedia Commons
Being one of the most popular sources of public domain images, WikiMedia offers a wide variety of free images, drawings, and illustrations to make your blog look stunning. Nonetheless, certain images hold a creative commons license so you will need to give credit to the owner.
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Freerange
Freerange is a great website where you can find numerous high-resolution stock photos. Whether you want to use images for commercial or personal use, you’re bound to find just the perfect ones for your needs. Moreover, the site offers around 20,000 CCo images that are easy to find, thanks to its honest descriptions.
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Flickr: Creative Commons
Here you’ll find a plethora of high-quality CCo, royalty-free and non-commercial-use-only photos that will make your work, blog or site into something eye-catching and professionally-looking.
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StockPhotosforFree.com
As the name itself suggests, on this site you’ll find an array of stock photos that can be used for free. The only thing you need to do is register and you’ll have access to remarkable photos that will take your breath away. Whether you are in a search for landscapes photos, event photos or images with people, here you will find just the thing you need.
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Pexels
Having a respectable stock photo collection, Pexels is dedicated to waking up creativity and boosting inspiration. Whether you have a passion for traveling, you are in love with the abstract or are simply looking for an inspiring wallpaper, this is the place for you.
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LifeofPix
Are you on a quest for high-quality photos that will spark your creativity? Then you have to visit this website. Animals, nature, people, water, events – this website offers an outstanding collection of high-resolution photos that you will love. Best of all, you will find images without any difficulty, since the search engine works great.
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Freeimages.com
In case you don’t want to waste time looking for the perfect image for hours, we recommend you visiting this particular site. Providing more than 300,000 free illustrations and photos, this site also makes looking for the perfect photo fast and simple.
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StockSnap.io
If you are on a quest to find breathtakingly beautiful HD images, this is the perfect site for you. Not only will you easily browse through an array of images but you will also easily find the most popular images on the site.
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Unsplash
This website is one of the best websites when it comes to finding free HD photos. Whether you’re looking for images to motivate you, cheer you up, or just want to enjoy creative work, this is the way to go.
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Burst
For those of you who want to take your company’s advertising to a whole another level and use high-quality photos, this is the perfect site. Burst is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs to make better marketing campaigns, offering a wide variety of high-quality images.
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Pixabay
Last but not least. Pixabay offers an impressive collection of stock images and art illustrations, inspiring creators to give their best and make a difference.
So, there you have it. The most important things you need to know about stock images and where to get them. However, if you want only the best for your business and don’t want to search for these images, why not leave the job to the professionals?
When building clients’ websites, we always recommend hiring a professional photographer beforehand so that we could use genuine photos to represent their businesses online. If you are on a tight budget or you simply think that there is no need to hire a photographer, we use a combination of royalty-free and stock images from websites such as 123rf.com, as they are among the rare stock agencies offering support in serbian language and domestic sales with proper documentation. That way, you don’t have to worry whether the images on your website will be used legally. We always make sure that your website has the best images possible, allowing it to be unique and helping it attract readers/customers.