Where do you turn when you’re looking for high-quality, free photos for your website or blog posts? There are a wealth of sites out there, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites. I welcome your input below as well.
Free photo sites
Unsplash: There is rarely a time when I can’t find an image that I’m envisioning on Unsplash. The site contains more than 850,000 free, “do-whatever-you-want” with them, high-resolution photos.
Pexels: Its mission of “empowering creators” – both content creators and content users – is readily apparent when you’re visiting Pexels.com. Take a look and bookmark their site!
Pixabay: More than 280,000 public domain photos and clipart can be found here, free for private and commercial use. The site also has images for purchase.
Healthy Aperture: In need of a drool-worth food shot? Look no further. This site is a food blog photo sharing site founded by registered dietitian nutritionists Regan Jones and Janet Helm.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net: This site’s tens of thousands of images are available free of charge, for business, personal or educational use. The images are smaller in size but available for purchase if a larger size is needed.
Paid photo sites
Sometimes it pays to…pay. I find that the sites with photos for purchase offer a bigger variety of high-quality, artistic and/or creative shots. Sometimes you get what you pay for, right?
Getty: Getty tends to be top-notch, serving its business customers by providing photos and content from its many talented photographers.
Shutterstock: I gravitate toward Shutterstock for variety and quality, personally. The site boasts more than 40 million stock photos and other imagery.
123RF: 34,097,968 royalty-free stock photos and counting! 123RF is another great resource for stock images.
Remember to credit your source, unless you are paying for rights to the image. In addition, when paying for images, consider purchasing a small package. Oftentimes selecting a package deal can provide savings – opt to buy three or five images instead of just one, for example.
What are your favorite resources for either free or paid images?