Photography plays an important part in any design work. A well-constructed image is more effective than a single line of copy. Photographic images instantly grab the attention of the users and help enhance their overall experience.
But where to find good images? Some of the stock photography sites on the internet offer the tackiest of pictures at sky-high prices. But worry no more, there are now a number of websites out there that provide beautiful images perfect for a vast array of uses and THEY ARE ALL FOR FREE.*
*Most of the websites listed below have their stock images free from copyright restrictions or are licensed under Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication. Some require attribution for their images. Please do a further reading to make sure if the images need attribution or not.
1. Unsplash
Unsplash is my go-to website for when I need images because it is well curated and you can easily download their images without going to a new page. It also has a great library of high-resolution pictures and you can make your own collection of photos.
2. StockSnap
StockSnap is also one of my favourite stock website because it offers wide range of photos from people, nature, technology, places, and objects. It’s a very popular website for anyone looking for niche photos. You can use their search bar to help you narrow down the results to the topic of your choice.
3. Magdeleine
Whenever I need a range of landscape photos that focus on nature, city, and architecture, Magdeleine is my choice of website. It has a collection of very emotional photos that would blend well with your designs.
*Some images offered by Magdeleine need attribution. Be sure to check if a photo needs one!
4. Pexels
Pexels is like StockSnap, it has a huge library of photos with different themes. It also has a search option to make finding images easy.
5. Death to Stock
Death to Stock sends you beautiful photos straight to your inbox. All you need is to sign up to their mailing list. They also offer a premium version where you can access all the photos from their library. Death to Stock uses their own license which you can read here.
6. Negative Space
Negative Space posts 20 new photos every week. They offer a wide variety of images that are searchable and can be filtered by colour and copy space position.
7. Jay Mantri
Jay Mantri is a photographer that shares images with different themes on his site that everyone can use for free.
8. Super Famous
Super Famous Studios is run by an LA-based designer. The website offers stunning nature photographs.
9. Gratisography
Gratistography has a huge library of high-resolution images (often a bit crazy or abstract) that you can use for your personal and commercial projects. All photographs are captured by Ryan McGuire.
10. Albumarium
Want albums of dogs, cats, and babies? Albumarium has it! They grouped their photos by album to help users browse photos. Photographs are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, so an attribution is required.
11. IMFree
IM Free is a curated collection of free website resources all for commercial use. They offer photographs, icons, and templates.
12. Life of Pix
Life of Pix offers free high-resolution photos free of restriction. New photos are added weekly.
13. Foodies Feed
Who doesn’t love food? Foodies Feed has a library full of realistic food photography. Perfect for any food blogger looking for some extra pics.
14. SkitterPhoto
SkitterPhoto has a wide variety of high-resolution images. Each photo also has a description of how it was taken.
15. PicJumbo
PicJumbo offers a wide range of photos with different themes such as nature, people, technology, business, and objects. New photos are added daily on the site.
16. MMT
MMT is a website by Jeffrey Betts that features nature photography (mostly plants).
17. Pixabay
Pixabay has 840,000 free stock photos, vectors, and art illustration. It’s like Shutterstock without paying a huge amount of money.
18. Epicantus
Epicantus has free to use photography by Daria. You can use the photos for your landing pages, blog posts, and designs.
19. Fancy Crave
Fancy Crave has high-resolution images that are authentic, emotionally-driven, and tell a story. Two photos are added every day. Sign-up to their mailing list to receive 14 photos every week.
20. GoodFreePhotos
GoodFreePhotos is a large public domain photo repository that mostly features travel photography.
21. Pikwizard
Pikwizard offers 100,000 completely free images with 20,000 photos exclusive to them.
Using the right image will make a huge impact with your clients. And if you can do that without the cost, you have nothing to lose.
We hope this article helps in your hunt for the perfect picture – And if you want more awesome free resources and helpful tips why not subscribe to our newsletter or have a read through the rest of the blog. To find out more about how to use stock images, check out this cheat sheet by FirstSiteGuide.
Do you have a site that you’d like to recommend that has awesome free resources for designers? Tweet them to us @melewi! We might just feature them in our next resource roundup.
Featured image from Unsplash
