Photography has always been an essential component of design. We have become accustomed to seeing cheesy stock images of people in suits shaking hands. Not only are many of these stock photos tacky, but they are also expensive.
Fortunately, there is an increasing number of websites with beautiful stock photography popping up all over the internet. They are also entirely free! This post has compiled a list of awesome websites for free stock photos.
Many of these images are free of copyright restrictions or are licensed under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication. This means you can copy, modify, distribute, and perform the work without asking permission, even for commercial purposes.
Some photos, however, may necessitate attribution. We did our best to determine which license they fall under, but we still recommend that you conduct your own research to determine how these images can be used. With that out of the way, let us get into our top free stock photo picks.
1. Vecteezy
Vecteezy has a large collection of high-quality free stock photos. There are a few features that distinguish this website from other stock photo websites. For starters, the site now has a more robust search engine that allows you to filter photos by color, orientation, style, number of people, model age, and other factors. Second, where required, Vecteezy provides signed model and property releases for all free photos. This protects users (and their designs) from any legal liabilities – a detail that many other free stock photo sites overlook. Finally, members of Vecteezy’s content team manually review each photo submission for quality. This implies that their photo collection has been expertly curated, ensuring a high standard of quality.
2. Freepik
Freepik is a powerful search engine that allows users to find free high-quality stock photos as well as other graphic resources like vector images, illustrations, and PSD files. Millions of graphic resources can be downloaded and used in any personal or professional design project. Furthermore, Freepik’s search engine has powerful filters that can help you find any type of resource, orientation, color, style, and so on. Users of Freepik can download graphic resource formats that are compatible with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
3. Morguefile
This website is also distinctive. The photos are not curated and are not as well produced as those on Unsplash or Gratisography. You will see photos of random people and everyday objects as if your aunt Sally had shared her Google Photos stream with you. Morguefile is not the best place to find large header images, but if you need a simple free photo of a kid brushing his teeth, this is the place to go.
4. Pixabay
This website has a massive database of high-quality images. It is a little more focused on business and marketing than Unsplash, which is often beneficial for content marketers and bloggers. Another significant benefit of Pixabay is that they provide free vectors and illustrations.
5. Stockvault
Stockvault is yet another excellent resource for free stock photos, wallpapers, and textures. The collection is roughly half the size of Unsplash, but it is well-curated and updated on a daily basis. This website also has a good search engine and is well-organized for category browsing.
6. Pexels
We could not write about free stock images without mentioning Pexels. Their extensive, well-organized collection of free stock photos is one of the most carefully curated on the internet. They also have free stock videos! Many bloggers use Pexels as their primary image source.
7. PicJumbo
PicJumbo is a thriving free stock photo community with a large selection of beautiful free photos. It is run by a 24-year-old photographer who was tired of having his photos rejected by major stock sites and decided to create his own.
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