Yo yo yo everyone!
A few of you asked me where I find my articles’ images: this article has been written especially for you.
I do know that sometimes being a web designer, a blogger, an ad designer, or simply managing a social media account is not easy. You always need to come up with fresh content, and free-stock images are the perfect tool to stimulate your creativity (if you’re working on your personal brand, shoot your own photos).
I love taking care of my blog’s design, and next sources definitely enlighten my workload. But before we start, we have to clarify how free-stock images’ licenses work.
You’re going to find mainly three kinds of licenses:
- Non-commercial use: this kind of license is a minefield. It’s also known as personal use license, you might use these images for social newsletters or wedding announcements. I personally tend to avoid them;
- Public domain (or commercial use): you can display, modify, print (…) these images without asking permission from the author. Feel free to incorporate them into a product, service, ad campaign, and almost any scenario;
- Attribution required: you have to give credit to the author of the image.
It’s neither difficult, nor compromising. Free-stock images are a golden asset which every social media manager, blogger, web designer should rely on.
Don’t be scared by licenses: you just have to know them.
Once you know how to handle them, your galleries will get an incredible boost.
The Internet is plenty of great free-stock images providers, I mainly use these ten (not necessarily in order of importance). I’m talking about…
- Splitshire: they only provide free-stock photos for commercial use (or public domain). Feel free to use their images as you wish. Their website is very tidy, and provide also nice free videos.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download their files; - Picjumbo: I love their website as well – they provide all those images for commercial use. Nice categories, nice content: they have also their own blog.
Their service is almost completely free: there is a premium section, but you can find awesome images in the free part.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download their files; - Kaboompics: here you can find tons of high-quality photos for commercial use (but they don’t want you to redistribuite its photos without permission). There is an incredible amount of free content: they even provide the opportunity to search new images by color.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download their files; - Foodeverest: I love well-focused websites. If you’re looking for free food images, this is the right place. They provide high-quality food photos for commercial use. You can use them however you want, just don’t resell them.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download their files; - Gratisography: nice gallery (maybe a little slow), you can find great pieces of content in it. The owner, Ryan, offers them for commercial use – you just have the usual restrictions (don’t resell them, don’t declare you shot them, etc.).
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download their files; - IMfree: fast and tidy website, I like it even though it doesn’t provide as much photos as others. However, it’s well-organised and provides outstanding photos for commercial use. They do deserve a mention.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download its files; - Unsplash: this is a stunning community of photographers. It provides a huge amount of photos for commercial use. The website is not-always intuitive and simple, but it deserves your time.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download its files; - Picography: old-fashioned website, great photos. It provides a huge list of photos without categories. You’re supposed to scroll this list and pick out your favourite images.
The images are offered for commercial use.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download its files; - Visualhunt: this is probably my favourite one. Simple to use, great photos, well organised – awesome. The only problem is that you have to check out the kind of license for each photo. No big deal, it deserves your effort.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download its files; - Pixabay: outstanding website. Great photos, great order.
Just like visualhunt, they don’t only offer public-domain photos – check out the kind of license.
The download process is pretty easy: you don’t have to subscribe to download its files.
Fiuu, I’ve finished.
Take advantage of this list, it’s going to be incredibly useful for your social media presence.
If you don’t know how to take advantage of it, just go through my old articles and have fun!