Friday, September 7, 2018
As designers (web designers or graphic designers), we can’t live without photos. From websites to billboards, from flyers to social media posts, high-quality photos are a must for most of the projects we work on and develop. So knowing where to find free stock photos that are optimal and safe for professional, commercial usage is having a huge ace in our sleeves.
Ideally, we will use a premium stock photo service that solves all our needs for a reasonable fee. But for all cases where that’s not possible due to budget restrictions, or simply because we are human and we love anything free, here we’ve put together a list of great free stock photo sites that, after careful consideration, we recommend for you.
We all know photos and other media are a critical part of professional designing, and that the legal status of all elements used in our projects is crucial. It’s only logical that the best solution is professional stock photography services, particularly stock photo agencies that sell images online under flexible and very cheap Royalty-free licenses. We strongly suggest to have a look at this list of the best stock photo sites ever and find a suitor!
But we know there will be cases where paying for images won’t be an option, and prescinding of them isn’t either. Being experts in the stock photography industry we know the risks hidden in free stock photos: unpoliced user submissions, murky licensing terms and lack of required legal releases --for more info on this, you can read our great article about the risks in using images from Google and free stock photos.
To help you in your quest for amazing images that you can use without paying, we give you this list of free image download sites that in different ways minimize the risks and offer not only inspiring and beautiful images but also images that you will not encounter problems using in your professional work.
Without further ado, here they are:
Pixabay is a very polished German site that could easily pass for a stock photo agency website. Created by computer technology professionals, it has a very large collection of over one million images covering a wide range of topics, all free, and shows well-oiled functionality.
Originally a Tumblr blog, Unsplash evolved into a hugely popular free photo download site. It’s the brainchild of an American freelancers middleman service company and at the moment it offers about 500,000 free images of varied styles and subjects and superb quality. It was an unexpected hit for the company that opened up to lots of business opportunities.
German-based website Pexels is the property of a couple of techie brothers. They offer hundreds of thousands of very modern and authentic images, for free.
Life of Pix is a free photo site owned by a Canadian digital agency. Their images, which are counted in hundreds of thousands, have a particularly artistic influence and are of high quality, all available for free.
A website run by a photographer and visual artist, Gratisography offers a modest collection of about 450 free stock photos. All images are unique, artistic, and break the typical stock photo stereotype.
SplitShire is founded by a photographer, who offers close to a thousand artsy, professionally shot and high-quality photos from his personal archive, free for everyone to use.
PicWizard is a very pro-style free photo download site run by an Irish company that also owns a stock media production brand and studios, and a web-based design tool. The site offers thousands of very high definition and commercially appealing photos in various styles and with multiple themes.
Startup Stock Photos is a free photo site that is owned by an Iowa-based social media marketing agency. It hosts high-quality photos with a very modern and authentic style focused on the topic of startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Photos are loaded in batches of 10 and are all free to use.
Libreshot has thousands of high definition, fine art styled photos of various subjects. The site is the property of an SEO consultant and photographer, and all images are free to download and use.
A lovely website, Fancy Crave offers themed packs of professional-like, free stock photos with a strong focus on travel photography. There are thousands of photos available, all carefully curated into these themed packages. This is the creation of a commercial photographer and entrepreneur.
A site dedicated to free photo downloads, Freerange hosts a collection of thousands and thousands of them. Images span a wide range of subjects and styles, and they’re mostly high quality.
Rawpixel is a UK-based stock photo site specializing in unconventional, realistic stock photography with a focus on lifestyle and people. Additional to their paid premium library, they have a whole section with thousands of free images.
Wisest Practices for Free Photos in Professional Design
Given how vital good photography is in web design and graphic design, it’s a no-brainer that high-quality free photo sites are a great asset for such endeavors. As a designer, however, you must make sure you’re using this asset the right way, because not doing so could be catastrophic, resulting in legal trouble for yourself and even for your client(s).
Choosing a free photo supplier from the list we gave you is a great start point because they’re serious and offer higher reliability regarding the legal status of their images and licenses.
Additionally, you must make sure to read the licensing terms carefully and to fully understand them, as well as looking that you use the photos in an accepted way. When it comes to commercial use, it’s very important you double-check for model releases and other copyright details before giving the ok-go to a free image into a published and/or live project.
Now you’re armed with this list of awesome free photo sites and good advice about best practices to use free stock photos, go ahead and pick your next free image supplier!
Also, check https://twentytwowords.com/the-weirdest-stock-photos-in-the-history-of-the-internet/