Free photography resources

Stock photographs.

The very words make many of us shiver. They can bring to mind terribly staged pictures filled with false smiles, but stock photography has come a long way. The web is full of beautiful photographs that are just begging to be used, and they don’t always cost an arm and a leg either.

I often get asked if I know where to find good quality free stock photographs that can be used on business websites, so I decided it’s time to put fingers to keyboard and share some of my favourite haunts.

Before I start, I want to take a moment to mention licences. ALWAYS double check the licence on the photograph you want to use, and make sure it’s covered for commercial use if you’re using it for your business. The websites I list below are geared towards free distribution, but sometimes you can get redirected to another website, and the licence may have changed, or an attribution may be needed. Look out for the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence. This covers you for both personal and commercial use.

So let’s get cracking.

My favourite free photography resources

Canva

www.canva.com
I started using Canva over a year ago, and haven’t looked back. Their selection of images is fantastic, and although I use Canva Pro, you can use it completely free if you want.

Pexels

www.pexels.com
Pexels was my firm favourite before I started using Canva. The images are beautiful, they have a good selection, and everything is free.

Unsplash

www.unsplash.com
Brought to my attention by a reader in the comments, I now have so much love for Unsplash. One of my top go-to websites for free pics!

Pixabay

ISO Republic

www.isorepublic.com
Lots of CC0 licensed images, and beautiful ones at that. Intended for professional creatives, many of the images have an artsy or techy vibe to them, but there’s many relatable to the every day user as well.

Pikwizard

www.pikwizard.com
A great search tool for both free and premium images, Pikwizard has also has videos, HD images, 3D images and an image editing tool – a great all-round resource! I’d recommend double checking the license on each image before you download, which is visible to the right of each picture.

Flickr

www.flickr.com
Well established and very well known, Flickr is a great source of photographs once you realise you can filter your search by licence type; after your initial search, look in the top left hand corner of the screen and you’ll see a dropdown set to ‘Any license’. Simply click it, and select the licence you need – voila!

Also worth a mention

If you love to look through as many sites as possible to find that ideal image, try these free photography resources too:

www.dreamstime.com/free-photos

https://freerangestock.com/

http://jaymantri.com/

https://focastock.com/

https://stocksnap.io/

https://goodstock.photos/

https://www.freeimages.com/

http://finda.photo/

https://jeshoots.com/

Have your own favourite I’ve missed? Feel free to share below…

Happy hunting!