As designers (web designers or graphic designers), we can’t live without photos. From websites to billboards, from flyers to social media posts, high-quality photos are a must for most of the projects we work on and develop. So knowing where to find free stock photos that are optimal and safe for professional, commercial usage is having a huge ace in our sleeves.
Ideally, we will use a premium stock photo service that solves all our needs for a reasonable fee. But for all cases where that’s not possible due to budget restrictions, or simply because we are human and we love anything free, here we’ve put together a list of great free stock photo sites that, after careful consideration, we recommend for you.
12 Sites to Download Awesome Free Stock Photos Safely
We all know photos and other media are a critical part of professional designing, and that the legal status of all elements used in our projects is crucial. It’s only logical that the best solution is professional stock photography services, particularly stock photo agencies that sell images online under flexible and very cheap Royalty-free licenses. We strongly suggest to have a look at this list of the best stock photo sites ever and find a suitor!
But we know there will be cases where paying for images won’t be an option, and prescinding of them isn’t either. Being experts in the stock photography industry we know the risks hidden in free stock photos: unpoliced user submissions, murky licensing terms and lack of required legal releases --for more info on this, you can read our great article about the risks in using images from Google and free stock photos.
To help you in your quest for amazing images that you can use without paying, we give you this list of free image download sites that in different ways minimize the risks and offer not only inspiring and beautiful images but also images that you will not encounter problems using in your professional work.
Without further ado, here they are:
Pixabay
Pixabay is a very polished German site that could easily pass for a stock photo agency website. Created by computer technology professionals, it has a very large collection of over one million images covering a wide range of topics, all free, and shows well-oiled functionality.
- License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0) enabling free use in commercial projects
- Source for images: crowdsourced via user submissions
- Why is it safe? While the crowdsourcing aspect implies a risk, Pixabay has a reviewer on board: a photographer and image editor tasked with checking and clearing every submission for both quality and legal validity. This is something uncommon in free photo sites, and a definitive plus for legal safety.
Unsplash
Originally a Tumblr blog, Unsplash evolved into a hugely popular free photo download site. It’s the brainchild of an American freelancers middleman service company and at the moment it offers about 500,000 free images of varied styles and subjects and superb quality. It was an unexpected hit for the company that opened up to lots of business opportunities.
- License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0) enabling free use in commercial projects - adds limitation for compilation
- Source for images: It started with in-house produced photos but now works with user-submitted files
- Why is it safe? The owner company takes good care of the goose that lays the golden eggs, and that means ensuring Unsplash is safe to use. Considering brands of the likes of Apple have used it, it’s safe alright.
Pexels
German-based website Pexels is the property of a couple of techie brothers. They offer hundreds of thousands of very modern and authentic images, for free.
- License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0) enabling free use in commercial projects
- Source for images: Crowdsourced by user submissions and aggregated from other free photo sites
- Why is it safe? While the license and the source do not scream legal safety by themselves, site founders are very serious about their work, and the Pexels platform and business development add a trustworthy feel to it.
Life of Pix
Life of Pix is a free photo site owned by a Canadian digital agency. Their images, which are counted in hundreds of thousands, have a particularly artistic influence and are of high quality, all available for free.
- License: Public Domain (no copyright)
- Source for images: Photographers voluntarily donate photos under Public Domain for Life of Pix to offer
- Why is it safe? The lack of copyright of the photos added to the professionalism of the site founders contributes to making the service more reliable.
Gratisography
A website run by a photographer and visual artist, Gratisography offers a modest collection of about 450 free stock photos. All images are unique, artistic, and break the typical stock photo stereotype.
- License: Custom license similar to Creative Commons Zero (CC0) that enables free use for commercial purposes and adds sensitive use clause
- Source for images: All photos are the site owner’s creations
- Why is it safe? We know exactly where the photos come from and who’s the copyright owner, and it’s the same person offering them for free. As safe as it gets in free stock photos.
SplitShire
SplitShire is founded by a photographer, who offers close to a thousand artsy, professionally shot and high-quality photos from his personal archive, free for everyone to use.
- License: Custom license similar to Creative Commons Zero (CC0) which enables free use for commercial projects and adds sensitive use clause and prohibition to sell the images as they’re downloaded
- Source for images: All photos are owned by the same photographer who created the site
- Why is it safe? Since he owns the copyright to all images, the license itself is secured and it’s also easy to contact with inquiries about releases.
PicWizard
PicWizard is a very pro-style free photo download site run by an Irish company that also owns a stock media production brand and studios, and a web-based design tool. The site offers thousands of very high definition and commercially appealing photos in various styles and with multiple themes.
- License: A custom license that enables free use for commercial projects adding a sensitive use clause and prohibiting image used in products for resale
- Source of images: Crowdsourced by contributors, most of which are renowned artists and media production brands
- Why is it safe? Owner company is first and foremost a stock media production house, experienced in licensing. Add to that that most free photos come from trustworthy professionals and you have a considerably safe free photo site.
Startup Stock Photos
Startup Stock Photos is a free photo site that is owned by an Iowa-based social media marketing agency. It hosts high-quality photos with a very modern and authentic style focused on the topic of startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Photos are loaded in batches of 10 and are all free to use.
- License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0) enabling free use in commercial projects
- Source for images: The gross of the photos come from three professional artists involved in the website
- Why is it safe? Owners of images copyrights are part of the project for the site and are easily contacted.
Libreshot
Libreshot has thousands of high definition, fine art styled photos of various subjects. The site is the property of an SEO consultant and photographer, and all images are free to download and use.
- License: Creative Commons Public Domain - pretty much unrestricted
- Source for images: All photos are shot by the site owner
- Why is it safe? Because you know exactly who owns the images and you know he’s the one making them available to use for free
Fancy Crave
A lovely website, Fancy Crave offers themed packs of professional-like, free stock photos with a strong focus on travel photography. There are thousands of photos available, all carefully curated into these themed packages. This is the creation of a commercial photographer and entrepreneur.
- License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0) enabling free use for commercial projects - adds a sensitive use clause
- Source for images: Photos are shot by the site owner and other contributing photographers
- Why is it safe? Who runs the site offers his own images, which adds reliability to the service.
Freerange
A site dedicated to free photo downloads, Freerange hosts a collection of thousands and thousands of them. Images span a wide range of subjects and styles, and they’re mostly high quality.
- License: Equalicense (custom alternative license model) which enables free use in commercial projects adding a limitation to usage in products for resale and mass distribution. Additionally also Creative Commons Zero (CC0) with free usage in commercial work
- Source for images: Produced in-house by Freerange or crowdsourced via user submissions
- Why is it safe? In-house-shot photos are safer as you know they come from a professional source that is aware of the intended free usage.
Rawpixel
Rawpixel is a UK-based stock photo site specializing in unconventional, realistic stock photography with a focus on lifestyle and people. Additional to their paid premium library, they have a whole section with thousands of free images.
- License: Custom license enabling free use in commercial projects, forbidding usage in products for resale and including a sensitive use clause
- Source for images: Crowdsourced from contributor artists
- Why is it safe? Being a paid service, they handle image submissions and licensing professionally, which gives higher trustworthiness to the free offer.
Wisest Practices for Free Photos in Professional Design
Given how vital good photography is in web design and graphic design, it’s a no-brainer that high-quality free photo sites are a great asset for such endeavors. As a designer, however, you must make sure you’re using this asset the right way, because not doing so could be catastrophic, resulting in legal trouble for yourself and even for your client(s).
Choosing a free photo supplier from the list we gave you is a great start point because they’re serious and offer higher reliability regarding the legal status of their images and licenses.
Additionally, you must make sure to read the licensing terms carefully and to fully understand them, as well as looking that you use the photos in an accepted way. When it comes to commercial use, it’s very important you double-check for model releases and other copyright details before giving the ok-go to a free image into a published and/or live project.
Now you’re armed with this list of awesome free photo sites and good advice about best practices to use free stock photos, go ahead and pick your next free image supplier!
Also, check https://twentytwowords.com/the-weirdest-stock-photos-in-the-history-of-the-internet/
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