If you’re a blogger or routinely publish content on your website and social media, you’re probably aware of the importance of using high-quality photographs. Choosing the correct image is important and it can even help you in expressing yourself better.
Finding the proper photographs, on the other hand, takes a lot of time. You may also be required to use photos that were created and owned by someone else. There are numerous places to find photographs, but it is critical to understand the restrictions governing their use.
Stock photo services demand a licence purchase, creative commons licences provide particular usage rights under specified conditions, and public domain photographs are not copyright protected in the first place.
It is critical to understand that ‘fair usage’ does not imply ‘free use.’ Fair use is a legal exception that permits for limited use of copyrighted content without the owner’s permission.
To assist you in your research, we have compiled the best 21 websites to find free photos without any restriction:-
Unsplash
Unsplash offers its own licence, which allows you to use the photographs for free in any way you like. The site is fueled by a community of around 300,000 photographers, ranging from amateurs to professionals, who ‘gift’ their photos to make them freely available under Unsplash’s “do-whatever-you-want” licence with the images.
Unsplash, which is owned by Getty, is especially good for discovering exceptionally high-quality images: their team hand-picks each shot and, according to the website, “accepts only the best.”
Pexels
Pexels works in the same way as Unsplash do, with photographs given by the photographers themselves. Pexels has its own licence that specifies what you are permitted to do with the photographs. You may use and alter the photos for commercial and personal purposes without attribution.
Pixabay
Pixabay is yet another excellent option for bloggers and content creators looking to brighten up their websites. It has a large library of images, vector drawings, illustrations, and movies for you to use. They have a thriving creative community dedicated to submitting high-quality photographs. You may join this community by completing a simple sign-up form.
It couldn’t be easier to look through all of Pixabay’s offerings. You can search for images by kind or explore by category. Downloading is an easy task on this website. All you have to do is specify the size of the image you want.
Duotone
Look no further than Duotone if you want to keep to a set colour palette for your website, blog, or social media. You may use this online tool to produce a duotone effect to any image you like. You can choose images from Unsplash or add your own.
When you’re satisfied with your customised image, you can save it as a PNG. Remember to optimise any photographs you post ahead of time to prevent being trapped with excessive file sizes.
Burst
Shopify’s Burst is a free stock photo platform for entrepreneurs. As with Unsplash, photographers offer photographs “with the expectation that users will be able to download, edit, and use them however they see fit.”
Giving acknowledgement to the photographers is optional, but as Burst puts it, “our photographers always appreciate a shout out.”
Vecteezy
Vecteezy has over a million free stock pictures and a curation staff that manually reviews each image that is uploaded to the site. Their search is powerful; you may narrow down the image results by colour, orientation, style, quantity of people, age of people, and other factors.
Vecteezy requires attribution, but every free photo comes with signed model and property releases. This shields you and your projects from legal liability.
Stockvault
Stockvault is yet another excellent resource for free stock images, wallpapers, and textures. The collection is around half the size of Unsplash, but it is carefully selected and updated on a daily basis. This website also features a good engine for searching and is properly organized for category searching..
RawPixel
RawPixel contains a good selection of Public Domain photographs. On this website there are photos that have lost their copyright or that have been given to the public domain. You could just find what you’re looking for on RawPixel. However, you must first create a free account in order to obtain it.
Gratisography
Gratisography has rejected standard stock photography in favour of a unique, creative collection of high-resolution images. A picture must bring something new to the table in order to become a Gratisography image, so you can be confident that any ones you choose will stand out from the rest.
You can click the search box or browse their categories, which include animals, business, and fashion. If a photograph catches your eye, you can download it as a JPG at no extra charge.
Canva
Under Canva‘s content licence agreement, the online graphic design tool also provides a collection of millions of free and premium stock pictures. Canva has the advantage of instantly converting an image into a bespoke graphic for use on social media or your blog.
Canva’s picture library can be accessed using the editor’s search tool or by going to Canva Photos.
Pikwizard
Pikwizard is another excellent option for free high-quality stock pictures. As an added bonus, you may alter each image with Design Wizard, their sibling graphic design software.
If you like traditional stock photographs to artistic photography shots, Pikwizard may be the site for you. Here you can find professional photographs of individuals in a variety of contexts, including sets and series that include the same performers in many photographs.
Flickr
Flickr is a photo-sharing website where you may find photographs that can be used and edited for commercial purposes. This does not apply to all of the photographs on the site, so make sure you filter your searches.
After conducting your search, pick “Any licence” and then “Commercial use allowed.” Keep in mind that the licence for each image varies.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a global leader in the provision of licensed stock photos, vectors, drawings, and music to businesses and consumers. It boasts over one million creators and adds hundreds of thousands of creative materials every day.
Shutterstock has received nearly one billion downloads of photos, video clips, and audio tracks to date. It has over 300 million free stock photos in its portfolio and customers in over 150 countries.
Picjumbo
Picjumbo is a tiny collection of roughly 4000 free photos with various topics. Rather than a community of users, these are made by a single artist.
All photos are taken by a single photographer, who maintains the website once a month with fresh images. Use keywords or search terms like “space for text” or “flatlay” to get what you’re looking for.
Negative Space
Negative Space offers consumers high-resolution stock pictures shot by photographers in the Negative Space community. The website actively encourages photographers to donate their work in the hopes of inspiring creatives all over the world, so here is your chance to shine!
Negative Space makes it simple to find the ideal image. The most recent photographs published to the site are shown at the top of the page, and they even provide a categories list for you to browse. Once you’ve found an image you like, simply click “download free stock photo” and you’re done.
Morguefile
Morguefile was founded in 1996 to provide free picture sharing for creative workers and educators. According to their about page, not much has changed since then (except from the quality of their images): “We are a community-based free photo site, and all photos found in the Morguefile archive are free for you to download and re-use in your work, be it commercial or not.”
Morguefile’s 400,000+ photos are free to use commercially, but must be credited according to their licence.
New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a collection of photographs from public archives that are not subject to recognized copyright limitations. According to its ‘Rights & Usage’ page, the site is a collection of pictures found via institutions participating in Flickr Commons and the guidelines of Flickr Commons.
It’s worth noting, however, that photographs are “at the very least available for personal and non-commercial use” according to New Old Stock. If you’re unsure whether a photo can be used commercially, choose another choice from this list.
ISO Republic
ISO Republic is the ideal location for anyone looking for the ideal image to elevate their website, blog, or social media material. You’ll be fully spoiled for choice with thousands of images to choose from. Not only that, but ISO Republic even offers a library of free stock videos that you may utilise to enhance your creations.
Begin your journey by searching for tags or photo categories ranging from animals to sports. You won’t be able to complain about what’s on offer because they have a strict quality-control procedure in place. All submissions are thoroughly reviewed to ensure that everything on the site is of excellent quality and resolution.
Kaboompics
The library of the Kaboompics now stands at roughly 20,000 photographs, but they’re good ones. Karolina Grabowska, the photographer behind every image on the site, runs Kaboompics as a one-woman show. New photographs are posted on a daily basis, and, yes, they are absolutely free for personal or commercial usage.
Image orientation, colour, category, and keyword searches are all available. When you want many cohesive images to work with, the site also provides ‘photoshoots,’ which are collections of identical photos all taken in the same photoshoot.
Life of Pix
Life of Pix is created by the Leeroy creative agency, provides true-to-life high-resolution stock pictures for download. It contains thousands of stock pictures ranging from food and people to architecture and textures. Every week, the site features ten new pictures from a handpicked photographer. All copyright-free photographs are available for commercial usage, however distributors face some restrictions.
Styled Stock
Styled Stock is a stock library that specialises in ‘feminine’ images. You’ll find stock photos of women and graphics similar to those found in a women’s magazine. Of course, you may use these photographs for whatever you want – they aren’t just for women. They’re all high-quality, stunning photos with a little more personality than ordinary stock images.
On this website all photos are attractive and aesthetically pleasing. If your company generates material exclusively for women, you should dig into their database.
Wrapping Up
In today’s digital world, bloggers and content creators must constantly search for high-quality, copyright-free photos. However, the world of picture licensing can be confusing. Here we tried our best to provide you a useful list of 21 websites that willingly provide a plethora of photographs without any copyright restrictions.
From Unsplash’s beautifully curated gallery to Gratisography’s creative images, these sites cater to a wide range of content requirements. Whether you’re looking for typical stock photographs, image customising tools, or images customised to certain niches like Styled Stock, this collection simplifies your search for appealing graphics.
These resources enable content makers to elevate their productions with exceptional photography, unlocking limitless creative possibilities in an age where visual storytelling is king.
