WHERE TO FIND FREE IMAGES FOR YOUR WEBSITE
You’re penning a beautifully-written and on-point blog post for your company newsletter (*ahem*). You’ve come to the end, and now’s the time to punctuate your post with an image that captures its heart and meaning. Unfortunately, Clip Art can only take you so far, so we’ve put together a list of places to find free, reusable, modifiable images that you can scour for your own purposes.It’s important to note that many of the images you find online are copyrighted, meaning you cannot use them without permission (and in some cases, a fee), and there are also limits on the sorts of images you can use for commercial purposes (nearly always the case when you’re looking for images for a business website). These sites all distribute images which fall under the Creative Commons CC0 license, which means you can use them however you like.
GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH
Type your search term, and down the bottom, adjust the usage rights to ‘free to use, share, or modify, even commercially’.
REALISTIC SHOTS
High-quality stock images perfect for your website. Categories include architecture, technology, and startup. The downloads are at 5000px wide – easily big enough for however you’d like to use them.
MMT
MMT provides a lot of nature shots, with a focus on flowers, and particularly close-ups of flowers.
BOSS FIGHT
It’s a strange name, but the images are beautiful (and plentiful). The buildings category includes photos of some of the world’s most iconic structures taken from angles likely not seen on Wikipedia, and one could get lost in the Animal category grid.
SKITTERPHOTO
Original, unique images, often with a sort of other-worldly effect. Categories include landscapes, people, and urban, but you’re best off searching. Beware the Google Ads though – go for the second search box (“Zoeken”).
UNSPLASH
A great selection of images, from beautifully-shot landscapes to people-centric macros.
PEXELS
Pexels is more of an image curator – they select what they consider to be the best of the free stock images every week, and upload them for distribution. The search is comprehensive, and the collection is vast. They also include wallpapers, which are great for full page background covers on websites. (Registration required)
PIXABAY
Boasting over 440,000 public domain images, Pixabay again is a curator of images, where their team browse the Internet, download the pictures, and distribute them from their own repository. This means that you’re likely to come across some images you’ve seen before, but it also means that their range is much greater than some other sites. Their categories are pretty comprehensive, too.
GRATISOGRAPHY
Fantastical, slightly quirky photo collection that appears more of a portfolio than a stock library, Gratisography is perfect for businesses who are looking for that something extra or unique. (Registration required)
STOCKSNAP
A combination of original photos, and what they consider to be the best stock photos on the web, StockSnap also gives a shout out to their photographers, which is nice. There are no categories, but the search is comprehensive, and you can search by tags.
