An old adage goes like this, “a picture can speak a thousand words.” This saying stands true even in the world of internet and technology, but only the right picture will speak the right words. Whether you have a business presentation, an academic project, or a blog article, the right picture adds immense value to the presentation. However, there are copyright laws that prohibit individuals and businesses from using the copyrighted images. Any unauthorized use of the proprietary images can land you in legal troubles. As a solution, you can hire professional photographers and models to get the desired photos, but it could be pretty expensive.
The good news is that there are a number of websites that offer stock photographs on just about any category or genre. Most of these photographs are either available for free or are quite cheap. The biggest challenge is finding the right quality photographs that suit your needs the best. A lot of websites offer stock photos but they may not be of the quality you are looking for. Finding the best websites with the high quality photographs could be a little difficult. This is the reason why we have compiled a list of the most effective websites that offer great quality stock photos. Below are the 10+ Best Free Stock Photo Websites you can use today.
Flickr
Upload, access, organize, edit, and share your photos from any device, from anywhere in the world.
Pexels
Free high quality photos you can use everywhere. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
StockSnap.io
The #1 source for beautiful free stock photos. High quality and high resolution images free from all copyright restrictions (CC0) – no attribution required.
Pixabay
Over 520,000 high quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Free Images
Over 387,904 Free Photos and Textures.
Picjumbo
Totally FREE photos for your commercial & personal works.
SplitShare
Amazing copyright free stock real photos download free high quality photos for commercial use with no copyright restrictions and real look.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.
Getty Images
Find high resolution royalty-free images, editorial stock photos, vector art, video footage clips and stock music licensing at the richest image search photo library online.
Google Images
The most comprehensive image search on the web.
Visual Hunt
Visual hunt has more than 15,000 of the best free public domain photos and more than 350 million Creative Commons photos (if you cannot find Public Domain photo). Includes search and filter photos by color.
Great list, thanks.
I recommend http://visualhunt.com
Quick facts about Visual Hunt:
1. More than 15,000 best free public domain photos (CC0).
2. More than 350 mln Creative Commons photos (if you cannot find Public Domain photo).
3. Search and filter CC0 photos by color. Color pallette for every photo.
4. Photo popularity index. Shows how many websites use the photo (still beta experimental feature).
5. Possibility to save favorite photos to lightbox (after signing up).
6. Possibility to embed photos without downloading.
Thanks, added.
Great list Hariom.
Check http://visualhunt.com
Quick facts about Visual Hunt:
1. More than 15,500 best free public domain photos (CC0).
2. More than 354 mln Creative Commons photos (if you cannot find Public Domain photo).
3. Search and filter CC0 photos by color. Color pallette for every photo.
4. Photo popularity index. Shows how many websites use the photo (beta).
5. Possibility to save favorite photos to lightbox (after signing up).
6. Possibility to embed photos without downloading.
Thanks for the recommendation. We have added Visual Hunt to the list.
Great article Harry!
I started http://fancycrave.com/ 1 year ago as a side project. The site consists of completely free stock photos all taken by me and other professional photographers. My aim for these photos is to help designers and creative alike. People can use these images for whatever purpose they please. Each image is licensed under CC0.
I keep things very simple. I list the photo, its tags, the author, and the download link. The site layout is very minimal and straight forward. We strive to publish two new images every single day.
I hope you and others will find it valuable. If you see it fit, I’d be very grateful if you could add it to this list. Cheers!