How to find GREAT photos you can use for free.
We don’t all have time to go out and take lovely photos to use on our websites and blog posts. We also don’t all have the extra money to spend on stock photos. Luckily there are some AMAZING and free sites that offer great photos for use commercially with very little copyright issues. Some don’t even require acknowledgement.
Most of the photos I use on this blog and website are from one of these sources. This is a list of my secret photo website weapons, and I’m sharing it with you.
Death to the Stock Photo: These guys send you a pack of photos for you to use every month. The come right to your inbox and the quality is great. I look forward to this email every month. Oh, and for $10 a month – you can get access to the library and an additional pack of photos. Not only are these great photos, sometimes they inspire me to write a post on a certain topic. Every photo tells a story. No reason to not sign up.
Unsplash: Another ‘direct to your mailbox’ offer, Unsplash sends you new photos about every 10 days. You can access past photos on their website and recently they added a search option. Again, these are great quality and tell a story in every picture. The look like high-quality stock photos without the price.
Gratisography: This site has a wide range of looks to the photos they offer. Some of the photos are fun with people with exaggerated facial expressions and great special effects while other photos are more everyday (but still great) like one of bananas in a supermarket. All are free to use as you please. They add new ones every few days it seems so I check this site once a week or so.
Picography: As of when I wrote this post, Picography has 9 pages of free to use photos worth browsing through. They have a subscribe option if you want to get photos via email. I like having both options (email and browsing.)
Picjumbo: Another searchable site that has a wide range of types of photos. Worth having this one book marked, they also offer premium options.
For all of these sites I download and save pictures that get my attention when I see them, even if I don’t have a use for them yet. Then when I’ve written a blog post or I am trying to find a picture for my website I can look through the ones I’ve collected first.
Also, a lot of these sites take donations if you are so inclined. The way I look at it, is that if you find a site you enjoy and use multiple photos from, let them know by donating $5.00 to the photographer’s coffee fund. We all need coffee every now and then.
If you’re working on a project, website and need some help – or just want help managing your social media – as always please let me know. Following @thesocialmartin and my Facebook page are also great ways to get more information.SaveSaveSave