Looking to find copyright free images to use in your blogs, websites or social media posts? The following sites are the best on the internet.
Do you frequently share images online? If so, it’s essential to have a virtual Rolodex of go-to websites to quickly find images. It’s also important that you have websites in which the legal restrictions are clear and concise.
Below you will find my go-to list of the best sources, hand-picked and vetted to a strict set of standards. I’ve included some of my favorite paid resources as well.
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Copyright Free Images Galore
The following sites are the best places I’ve found online to get royalty free images. I have sorted through dozens of sites to bring you the best of the best. This will save you time and potential frustration.
You shouldn’t have to spend an hour and a half looking for the perfect image for your next epic blog post. These sites I’ve listed had to pass a certain number of criteria:
- Great selection of images
- High-quality photography
- Copyright free or CC0 licensed
- Great search functionality
- Easy to navigate quickly
- Safe for work (and kids)
Each site I list below will pass all of these criteria with flying colors.
About Copyright Free and CC0 Images
It’s important to note that the most important aspect is the copyright free or CC0 criteria. In case you’re not familiar with these terms, I wanted to explain them a bit.
When photographers upload their images to the internet, they are the copyright owner. They have certain enforceable rights that protect people from using their photos without their permission. If you are found using their copyrighted photography without permission, they can take legal action against you or your business.
A photo that is labeld “CC0” (Creative Commons Zero) means that the original photographer has willingly waived their copyright to it. That image is free to use for personal and commercial use. You don’t need to pay royalties, give attribution, or get permission.
Just because an image is marked “copyright free” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 100% free to use. Some may require you to give attribution or pay a small fee.
Without further ado, here is my go-to list of copyright free image sites.
Unsplash
This was a small free photo project that turned into an absolute behemoth of a website. It is now one of the most popular sites on the internet. Unsplash is home to more copyright free photos than you could even know what to do with.
Unsplash started as a simple Tumblr site posting 10 new photos every 10 days. It has turned into a place where you could spend hours and never need to go elsewhere for your image hunting.
Photographers upload their work to Unsplash where a team of editors review each submission. If the photo passes their high standards, the photo is made available. Photographers also can have profiles on Unsplash, which is a great incentive for them to upload their best work.
Attribution is not required for using Unsplash images, but they do encourage it.
Image restrictions: CC0
Burst (by Shopify)
The site is laid out beautifully. Burst give you the ability to sort through new photos, popular collections, or perform a search for specific image keywords.
Shopify claims they are uploading new photos to the site every week. A big improvement from when they first launched with new photos every couple of weeks.
It is targeted at entrepreneurs and business owners looking for stock photography, but certainly, anyone can use them.
Image restrictions: CC0
Pexels
Pexels began as an aggregator of copyright free photos from other sites. They abandoned that model and instead created their own library of images like Unsplash.
They are now my second favorite place to find images. The majority of the photography on Pexels is very high-quality. They have a similar approval process for photography submitted on the site.
It’s easy to search, updates with new photos daily and has a very large library.
Image restrictions: CC0
Reshot
Simple and elegant looking website, with a good search function that points to well tagged images.
What’s interesting though, is their “Quick Image Packs” where you can download a set number of images that revolve around a certain theme.
All they require for you to download these image packs is to Tweet about the site. This action is made easy by a “Tweet to Download” button on the pack you want to get.
Current packs available are:
- Diversity Matters Pack
- Active Lifestyle Pack
- Everyday Technology Pack
- Flat Lay Pack
I hope they add to their packs as this is a really great concept, and something I find myself needing more and more.
Image restrictions: CC0
Wunderstock
The newest addition to my list is quickly growing on me. Wunderstock has millions of high resolution images, and they’re all categorized into three different licenses:
- Attribution NonCommercial
- Attribution
- Public Domain (CC0)
They have created a search algorithm that searches online for Public Domain images. And if the algorithm thinks it hasn’t found enough for your query, it will also search Wunderstock’s own library or Flickr Creative Commons photos.
You can also filter your searches by photo orientation (landscape, portrait, or square), source (Wunderstock or Flickr), and license.
Overall this seems like a really smart iteration of a free image site. I think a lot more people are going to start using it.
Libre Stock
If you’d like a centralized place, much like Pexels, to search all the best free image sites using an intelligent tagging system.
The search engine is powerful. When you click on an image in the search results you are taken to the photo on the site it originated from.
Image restrictions: CC0 (but be sure to check the site you’re downloading from)
PicJumbo
A project of Viktor Hanacek, designer, who understands the importance of high quality images in a designer’s life. New photos are uploaded daily.
Fantastic work, and completely copyright free. There is a paid membership for $6/month if you want even more from Viktor.
Image restrictions: CC0
Barn Images
A relatively new resource, this site is owned and operated by two photographers who set out “with the hope of redefining traditional stock imagery.” They publish new, free photos every weekday and are dedicated to high quality, non-stock images.
Despite the name, the site is not dedicated to images of barns. It has a vast diversity of fresh, high-quality images that are great for use with your website, blog or social media projects.
Images restrictions: None
Gratisography
A personal project of Ryan McGuire of Bells Design. Very beautiful high-resolution images added weekly, completely free of copyright.
What I like most about this site is the personality and uniqueness of the photographer’s style. Very fun and a tad bit quirky.
Image restrictions: CC0
Pixabay
A collection of images that are personally uploaded by contributors under Creative Commons Public Domain. The site functions beautifully and has great navigation, sorting, and searching functions.
One of the features I like about Pixabay is the ability to filter your searches by landscape or portrait images. This is helpful when you’re looking for a very specific image orientation.
Image restrictions: CC0
Compfight
Compfight allows you to search through Flickr’s Creative Commons listed photos. It’s pretty simple to use and will automatically generate the HTML code to insert photo credit.
It can be a bit buggy sometimes, so you may be better off going straight to Flickr.com. Once there you can do an advanced search for Creative Commons photos.
Image restrictions: Depends
Morguefile
This is a big searchable database of free images. It also has some great filtering options to really find the photos you’re looking for.
Image restrictions: CC0
New Old Stock
Another Tumblr powered site, New Old Stock features “vintage photos from public archives”. A great place to find authentically vintage looking imagery.
Image restrictions: Public Domain
Death to the Stock Photo
Their mission is to “make the internet more beautiful”. This is an email subscription that sends you free curated photo packs every month.
They also do the occasional paid pack that is usually from a trip they are taking. Their photography is always top notch.
Image restrictions: Limited (but more than fair)
Jay Mantri
Yet another Tumblr based photo archive. I recently discovered this site and love the creator’s style.
No notes about how often he updates it but his only request is that you “make magic” with them.
Image restrictions: CC0
Kaboompics
Also newly discovered, I found this site to be easy to search and photos are well tagged, much like on Pexels.
Image restrictions: CC0
Albumarium
Now here’s a site with a very interesting take on the world of free images. All images are organized into albums (hence the name Albumarium). Instead of searching for photos, you search for albums.
This is very helpful for when you’re looking for more than one image under the same theme. Let’s say you need 3-4 photos that need to look like they were taken by the same person. Or maybe you want them to look like they were taken in the same setting. Albumarium is exactly what you need.
Other sites offer a similar “packs” model, but most of those are paid only.
Image restrictions: CC2.0
Life of Pix
Very simple site, updated regularly with new high-resolution images that are free to use and share. The search function works well, but I’d love to see the search function work with the grid layout. As of now, when you search you only get one-column results and that can be a bit tedious.
Image restrictions: CC0
Paid Stock Images
If you really want to ensure your image hunting is legal and time-efficient, you can always utilize one of the many stock image sites. These are sites that offer royalty free stock photos for purchase.
This is the best solution if you have a professional blog and you want the highest quality selection without any potential legal issues.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock boasts an insane amount of royalty free images that you can purchase for a good price. They also have a wide variety of illustrations, graphics, and icons you can choose from as well.
A noteworthy feature is their Shutterstock Editor Pro image editor. It is perfect for those who want to create quick image edits for various purposes. You can make the edits right inside the web app before downloading.
Super convenient.
The good folks of Shutterstock have also partnered with me here at Dustn.tv, allowing me to have generous access to 25 downloads per day. This partnership had no effect on their placement in this article. (They didn’t even ask to be mentioned.)
iStockPhoto
iStockPhoto is the leading stock image site on the internet. They have a huge selection of royalty free images for purchase. But don’t let that intimidate you because their search filtering options make it pretty easy to narrow down your searches.
Their downside is that they use a credit system as opposed to a straight dollar amount. This makes calculating costs a bit more difficult.
Photo Dune
Not quite as big of a selection as iStockPhoto but they are my personal preference. I prefer them because the payment system is in dollars rather than credits, so you know exactly how much you’re paying for each photo.
Social Media Images + Graphics: SoVisual.co
If you’re a social media manager, you’ll want to take a look at SoVisual.co. It is not a library of individual photos like all the other sites. Instead it offers bundles of social media graphics for purchase.
Because let’s face it–most of you reading this blog post are sourcing images to use on social media. And what do you have to do once you find them? You have to pull them into a graphic design app and take the time to design something.
SoVisual.co saves you tons of time in that aspect.
Each bundle or “Social Pack” comes with 30 days of social media images and content. Each day has one graphic in four different sizes. Additionally, each size has both a version with text, and without text so you can truly get the most out of every post.
This makes creating a consistent content calendar as easy as possible. And I must say (as a completely biased founder) I think these packs are pretty stellar.
Lightstock
Some of the highest quality Christian photography you will find on the internet. Period.
The prices aren’t cheap, but neither is the quality of the photos. If you’re looking for the best premium quality Christian-oriented photography, this is the place to go.
Enough free photo sites?
This list is constantly updated, and I only add the best of the best copyright free image sites to this list.
So if you have something that isn’t mentioned in this list, let me know in the comments below. I will review and consider your suggestion, but I don’t promise all of them will make it.
Do you have any free image resources that you would add to the list? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
I actually am using some of them and but I found nice list of these free share photos and I love it this blog and thank you, Dustin.
As usual, great content share! I think I only recognized two of the free photo sites and I have been in classes with video gurus for the last year. Got to add them to my bookmarks!
This is a great list and I’m glad that you’ve continued to keep it updated. I find myself using Unsplash the most out of all the above mentioned.
I also built my own free stock photo library (back in 2017) using Flickr, creative commons (4.0) licensing and Pixsy. I wrote up a mega guide on how you can get one up and running in about an hour – and reap some of those backlink benefits from your photo library.
You can find that here – https://massivekontent.com/build-your-own-free-stock-photo-library/
That’s one heck of an article, Jason!
Hell Dustin!
Great Stuff you have shared with us……keep sharing
Awesome! It’s such an amazing List, Dustin! Looking forward to seeing more excellent collection from you!
Thanks.
Awesome list!
Now I’m can take a deep breath when looking for free images.
Thanks for this awesome contents. 😍!
Thank you. This is a lot and I can find everything I need for free. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this!! I was getting so tired of being stuck with the only option I knew of. Much appreciated!
You’re very welcome!
An excellent, comprehensive guide. Many thanks for that!
Awesome stuff! What’s your take on this new site, reshot.com?
Added it to my list for review. This article is up for a 2018 refresh, so it may be added in a few weeks.
Check out also Lum3n for free photos. They have a selection of modern imagery which is available only from their website and can be used for free commercially.
This is a great list. I would also like to add Blend Images ( https://www.blendimages.com/free-stock-images-blendimages-community-resource ) to this list. We just launched a new program this year that features one brand new shoot to use for free each month.
Hello Dustin,
Is it possible to get sued by using one of the free images we find using your technique?
I mean I don’t want to take any risk with my website when I’m adding images and often I had to make it’s not under copyright. But is that enough to prevent a lawsuit against a site?
I’m not an attorney, so I do not give any sort of legal advice or suggestion. I would just say to read the licensing agreements on each site you’re pulling from. Most of the ones listed above are CC0, which means there are no copyright limitations on image usage. Some have a bit more nuanced licenses.
Wow! this is awesome! I am looking for stock photo website list on Google and I landed on your website. Thanks for the helpful information! I open up Pixabay first and found what i’m looking for,
Glad to hear it, Rahul! What do you need the images for? Your blog or social media? (or both?)
A couple of other free sources which might be interesting to you are lum3n for free stock photos (free commercial use) and Creative Market creativemarket.com for beautiful graphics, fonts, and templates. At lum3n you can just download the images with right mouse click without registration. At Creative Market you need to register, but it’s worth it since you get every week six different freebies. I have found some really amazing fonts there for free.
Thank you so much for this comprehensive list – Much appreciated!
Another great free stock photography site is publicdomainbox.There are 7 cool new photos on each and every day.
Just heard Mopho went completely free and did away with the monthly charge. Makes them even better in my opinion
Oh, cool! Jonathan didn’t tell me he was going to do that. Thanks for the heads-up Joseph!
It was a recent change. Thought it was pretty cool on their part.
I used to love PicJumbo but now their site is a mess.
Great collection of images. This will help us to use copyright free commercial images. Thanks for sharing valuable information.
Thanks for all the great sources.
You’re welcome, Craig!
Dustin, Thank you for helping me move a mountain this morning. I am excited to see what each site will deliver.
You’re very welcome Heather! 😀
This is the BEST thing I have found in such a long time. Thank you so much for pulling this resource together, it is greatly appreciated.
Awesome! Glad to hear it Cassondra! (Love your name BTW!)
Thanks so much for this Dustin! I feel like I’m late to the party, but party on!!
Great article Dustin!
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!
Hey, Dustin.
Thank you sooo much 4 the great advices and info that u present in here! Really helpful, useful and well organised as well. )
Also want 2 ask can I use it in my website (it’s small blog/portfolio resource of the small team of graphics/interactive designers – beginners, but a huge passionates in the field of graphics and web animation design)
sure with all respective linking. Just we’re ukrainians and by local language o I would translate it if u agree on that..
However, thanx a lot 4 this great share!
Nice List ;-] Look at our new website I hope you will like it Takopix.com enjoy ;-] We are adding every day 10 photos and photos are completely free.
Hi Dustin,
You can also use our site http://imagefinder.co, we have thousands of free stock photos mostly licensed under CC0 from various sources.
Hi Dustin,
I thought you might like to check out my site: http://finda.photo/
It currently indexes around 8,000 CC0 images, and all can be searched using keywords and/or colors. (As well as image height/width, aspect ratio, and more, if you want.)
Thanks!
…and here is my “Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike” photo site: http://fotodispalle.com
Great sites, thanks for the list!
I do have a question, though — I’m wondering where (and how!) to find GIFs that aren’t copyrighted. Would they be on any of these sites, or do I need to search elsewhere?
I haven’t yet found a good site to find GIFs, although to my knowledge most GIFs derived from movies or TV shows fall under “Fair Use” and can be used. I either make my own from YouTube clips using Recorddit (listed in my Toolbox) or use sites like Giphy or even Buffer’s Mood Board.
Ah, nice to hear movie-based GIFs are okay to use. I’ll have to check out GIPHY and Recorddit.
Thanks!
Thank you for this – it’s rad/helpful.
& you’re right, aint nobody got time to search through a thousand sites. 😛
lol! Glad to be of help!
Hello, Dustin!
Here one more paid stock image services http://depositphotos.com/ very popular in Europe and they have very nice photo blog http://birdinflight.com/
This page is a content marketer’s dream! Do you happen to know of any kind of similar free-use sites for music?
Thanks!
You know what Casey, I do not. Sounds like a good post for you to write. 😉
Wauw what a great ressource! Thanks. It must have taken you a long time to review all these sites. I particularly love Gratisography 🙂
Dustin…
Dustin…
Dude.
You published this post yesterday and it has been shared 32,000 times already.
Now I’m going to go ahead and assume that you didn’t drop a line of code into Social Warfare that adds 31,000 to your total share count…
Right? lol
I’m teasing man.
This is a pretty epic post.
And just heading over now to take a look at your free images.
Sweet! Batman mug. I feel compelled to find a way to use that in an upcoming post… maybe “17 Things Batman Taught Us About Blogging” or something along those lines.
Anyway, great job sir. Chat soon!
Brent
Haha– thanks Brent! This post was originally published in March 2014 though (see the note at the bottom of the post). It’s been accumulating shares since then– and has been my most visited page every single day since it was published. 😀
Thanks for this great article Dustin. Some of these sites I new about but the one I am really loving right now that I did not know about is Pexels.
Being a new blogger, it has been really challenging to come up with really great images to use on my budget so I am grateful for your advice and tips in this article.
Awesome Rob! Glad you found it useful! I’ll actually be updating this post soon! 😀
Glad to hear you will updating this post soon. I am looking forward to it.
This is ultimate … Thanks for putting this together!
My pleasure Daniel! There will actually be an update to this very soon! I’ve found some great new resources. Be sure you’re subscribed. 😉
Hi, thanks for this great sources. One more site for free images is https://plixs.com there are many high definition images with public domain license.
This is a really good article. Are there watermarks to free stock photos?
Thank you Tony! Most of the images I’ve come across that are CC0 do not have a watermark on them. Best thing to do though is just look for yourself.
Hi Dustin,
Recently, I’ve been taking photos for myself and I figured out that I kept those photos in my hard drive without using them for my photography portfolio or in any other way. So as maybe someone would like to use them I decided to share them for free.
I lauched http://negativespace.co/. I will post at least 20 photos each monday and also I will add the raw file to every photo I would post so people can play with them.
The photos are distributed without any copyright restriction under CC0 and you can search photos and sort them by category, colors and copy space position.
If you could add it to your awesome list, that would be nice
Bests
You know Luis, since writing this blog post I get comments like this almost every single day. I end up marking most of them as spam. But I took a look at your site and it looks awesome! So I am definitely going to give it a whirl and see if it meets my high standards for inclusion in this post.
Thanks Dustin,
I know, there are many people who have built free stock photos. I tried to contact many blogs to try to expand my traffic but seems like the train has passed so I decided to concentrate in giving high quality photos and content based on the visitors searches hoping that my content will attract visitors.
Let me know if my website meets your criterias, we could make a special photo pack for your readers.
Bests
Luis
Luis, thanks for sharing! I have some photos I was hoping to share also. Are you looking for contributors?
Subjects are, from memory, probably mostly landscapes (Yosemite Park; Arizona desert, for example), unless there is an interest in pet photos…
If interested, let me know here.
Thx again for your site.
Kathy
I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Negative Space! It’s actually one of the VERY first places I check first. You have some amazing features that I’ve not found on other sites. Just yesterday I used two of your images as base photos for client posting.
PLEASE keep up your fabulous work! You have been a blessing to me on countless occasions. =)
Thanks so much Kristin! I actually have a couple more sources to add to this list since I last updated it.
Thanks for the info. Have a great day!
You’re welcome Wendy!
Also http://foter.com/. On April 24 it had 228 860 217 free photos.
Hi Dustin,
fantastic post and useful list of resources!
I love to take screenshots and use them for my content.
Other than this, my favorite places to get free images for my blogs are Stockvault, MorgueFile, Pixabay and Photopin.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
have a great week!
thank you!
Apparently the creator of Little Visuals passed away. 🙁
The website is still up, but there are no new photos being added to it.
Oh no! Sad day!
Love this list Dustin! Two more to add to your list – http://dollarphotoclub.com (membership) and a free resource I totally LOVE is http://kaboompics.com.
Awesome resources Dustin. This is my first visit and comment to your blog but looking at your posts, I can say it certainly isn’t the last 🙂
There are also some huge time-saving resources when you need a quick image to type in the title of your post or a quote and share your content. I use a tool called shareasimage.com which lets you sort through a good collection of free photos, type in your text, optimize the size for twitter, pinterest or instagram and share it there and then.
I am not affiliated with the service in any way but have found it extremely useful. So I am raving about it wherever it seems relevant 🙂
That’s a good one Hitesh. I’ve also listed the free tools I recommend for creating images on desktop and on mobile devices. There’s also a new one out from Buffer called Pablo that works really well.
You’re right Dustin. Pablo may not have many features as of now but I am sure the buffer team can only make it better from here. Plus it’s free I think.
Shareasimage is about $12 a month but is also rich in options such as special effects, reduced file sizes and many backgrounds to choose from.
Yes, Pablo is free and I’m sure they’ll be adding more to it in the future!
Great roundup and I would say Unsplash is probably the source I use the most. I also created nature-focused free photo site you may find useful: http://www.freenaturestock.com
PS : thank you you saved my life !
Glad you liked it Stacy! I’ve used Freepik.com but never had much success finding what I was looking for.
I use Freepik.com everyday (especially for vectors) !
Your post is AWESOME !!! Thanks for this useful information. I shared your post to all my friends and they send a “Thank you” to you 😀
Thank you so much for this, super useful!
You’re welcome Ted!
Hi, one more site for your free photo sources list. I search images for my blog on the following sites. All photos are licensed under the cc0 license. http://creativecommons.photos
Thanks Rosi! I’ve added it to my list of resources to look into. I’ll be evaluating it to see if it meets all the criteria that the listed sites went through. Looks pretty good so far! 😀
Thank you so much for this! As an artist, I’m going to get a lot of use out of these, and the amount of time it’ll save me…THANK YOU!!!
Dude! You are the bomb! Thank you.
Thanks Erum!
I use imgparty, you can also add your own images
Great list, super useful! I always freak out about using images on the internet in case they belong to someone so it’s reassuring to find lists like this!
In addition to those mentioned, I use PRShots.com loads for my blog; they have literally thousands of up to the minute PR images from massive brands in the UK. It definitely makes blogging a lot easier!
Thanks Charlotte! I’ll check out PRShots!
I usually use fotolia.com and they have a stock of free images in addition to the ones for purchase.
Thank you! A great compilation – this is exactly what I was looking for 🙂
I don’t know how to thank you. And if am a girl definitely will send you a kiss.
Because, i ‘ve been searching for the free sites that offer images for blogging. At some point i felt like i am lack of images for my blogs. And i am a victim of the copyright images case past when am a newbie to blogging. Thank You very much for such a golden useful resources Dustin. Thank you a lot.
Our designer suggest their preferences http://designmodo.com/free-photos/ we have really nice collection of free photos providers, and all are free.
Thanks so much for this information. I am very new to blogging & need all the help I can get. I am passing on your help to others. Lots of love to you, Lisa
Thanks Lisa! Glad you found it useful!
Oh my word. You have NO IDEA how grateful I am to you for posting this. I can’t even remember how I just stumbled across your awesome blog, but I’m so glad I did.
As kind of a newbie in marketing (and an artist who’s super-sensitive to copyrights), I’ve spent a ridiculous. Amount. Of. Time. hunting down free image sites.
At first, my heart sank when 4 on your list were already in my Favorites bar.
Then POW. So many more beautiful websites than I knew existed!!!!! (Yes Ray, I had nearly resorted to flying to the great barrier reef). I don’t even usually comment on blogs – this may be my first time! And I’m gonna share this awesomeness. Maybe even Tweet it.
My little graphic design heart just went *boom*.
You made my week, Dustin.
Awesome Diana! So glad you found it. 😀
Hi Dustin!
Another great source is http://albumarium.com – it’s a fairly fresh site, just few days old. All images are free and filterable for non-commercial / commercial licenses.
I wish I found this blog earlier. I have a job in marketing without too much resources to buy images. I found some sites that are posted above, but some are completely new to me. Because photography is also a hobby of mine, me and a couple of friends decided to help out others who are looking for content by posting our own photos for free on a website. It’s like combining your hobby and giving use to the personal stock that accumilates over time. The result is skitterphoto.com. You don’t need to login, just browse and if you like something just download the original photo.
Thanks,
gr. Peter
photobucket.com in their terms of use http://photobucket.com/terms states:
By making your content public, you are also giving other Members on Photobucket the right to copy, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and create derivative works from it via the Site, third party websites or applications (for example, via services allowing Members to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content, and via social media websites), provided such use is not for a commercial purpose.
By uploading, you are confirming that the Content is yours—no one else’s—and that the uploading and use of your Content does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, intellectual property rights or human rights of somebody else. If we learn that you are infringing others’ rights or are using Content that is not yours, Photobucket has the right to remove this Content and you agree that you are responsible for any costs associated with the infringement.
So you can use any public photo from Photobucket for non-comercial use.
Yea, the only problem is– anyone can upload anything. Upon looking at one page of the animated gifs I saw several copyrighted items that weren’t uploaded by the owners.
The most difficult part of my day is finding photos and I have spent hours trying to find free images without all the CC attached. Thank you so much for making my days that much easier. I love what I do, but this just makes things a whole lot better! Again, Thank You.
Thanks Dustin! Love that you shared this, as a Graphic Design and Advertising student I am constantly in search of these kinds of sites. Many people and businesses that use social media need to keep legalities in mind when using and posting photos online!
Great list. I’m familiar with all of them and yet my personal preference is a paid stock site which you don’t list: Dreamstime.com
Thanks Dustin for sharing these great resources! You have created so much value for your site and every time I come back I just wanted to stay longer and learn more. What a great example of a successful website! 🙂
Finding free images from sites where I can easily understand the terms of re-use is, for me, the single hardest thing about blogging.
But no more… I had not heard of most of these sites. I am excited to check them all out. Thanks!
We have a growing collection of 2300 hi res quality free photos provided by tourism promotion agencies throughout USA for use by travel press.
What a great list, as the others have stated it is always nice to have a list where we can go to find free photo’s to use for our blog posts. Book marking this site for sure. Thanks for sharing.. Chery :))
Awesome Chery! I’m so glad you found it useful!
Am working on a book and looking for images so your post is very timely… will take a closer look at these sites. You probably know this site http://www.fantero.com/ and i’d be interested in your point of view… just heard about it today as I’ve done some outsourcing with their mother company. Merci
Dustin, thanks a lot for this super cool list! As a blogger I am always on the lookout for photos to supplement the ones I take on my own and this info will come in handy. Thanks again; and ditto on: you rock!
Excellent resource! I spend entirely way too much time looking for that “perfect” blog post image. I like what I am seeing on PicJumbo. Not your typical stock photos.
Thanks for putting this together!
Hey, thanks for this great list. I came across Unsplash, and Death to the Stock Photo last week and love them. My old favourite is Stock Xchng. Great I now have a few new ones for me to try. And interested in the debate about Getty. I agree with the previous comments about Canva being an awesome tool. Cheers Dustin for this list.
Glad you liked it Geoff! Thanks for stopping by!
Hey Dustin
Very thorough list! I’ve used several, but always nice to have more resources.
Just a question, since you didn’t specifically mention copyright, but that’s why we are all trying to use “legal” images.
What about your gif clip for your thank you page and the “I’m a Dustn.tv fan” minion that you’re using? Where did you get that image for your use, especially since you modified it into a poster with your own D logo… isn’t that a trademarked image from Despicable Me?
Thanks for always providing great content and design.
Love your new website btw…sigh, mine is due for a revamp…kinda like the cobbler’s kids shoes 🙂
Cheers,
Angelique
Thanks for the compliment Angelique! And to answer your question, this post may be helpful – Warning: Sharing that Image Could Get You Banned or Blacklisted. In a nutshell, yes it’s mostly about copyright. You can’t just use anything you find on the internet – in fact you’re putting yourself at high risk if you do. The Despicable me image is considered a “derivative work” which is permissible under copyright law.
Canva, a graphic design website that’s mostly free, also has stock photos for $1, and you can use them in a variety of ways–as part of a layout (templates provided), and many other ways. It’s all drag and drop and a lot of fun to create images for my blog.
But, hey, **free** is way more fun. Thanks so much. Wish I had found this list earlier.
I’ll be including Canva in my list of resources to create images. 😀
Thank you for this, perfect timing too. Might you have a follow up about apps used to edit images and quick tricks?
I’m in the process of writing that article! 😀
such a great set of collection . =) thumbs up!
Incredible resource. Thanks for putting this together. I will refer to this page again and again.
There have been some other great sites shared in the comments that I will also make note of.
I’m glad you found it useful Joshua!
Thank you so much for these amazing resources!
You’re welcome!
What about Creative Commons Attribution content on 500px.com? In my opinion, the quality of photography on 500px.com far exceeds that on Flickr.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge.
I also use http://www.rgbstock.com. Do you know it? What do you think?
Arantxa
I have not heard of that Arantxa.
This is great! Very informative and easy to understand. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome Rena!
BTW
Forgot to mention that I think this list is excellent, I am sure it will help me in my writing!
Thank you!
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Every image on the site is absolutely free, no copyright restrictions but some attribution requirements
Right Alan! I decided not to use it because I was focusing of the best images and sites with the greatest usability.
Thank you very much…tremendously helpful
I’m glad to hear that Mohd!
Cool! -thanks for sharing 🙂
You’re welcome!
Thanks for these links Dustin. I´ll be sure to check them out and see if I can use some of the images in projects or for my own sites. Since these are a bit more “normal” than the ones I usually use…
Great post.
I’m glad you liked it Henrik! Good luck! BTW, have you looked into getting a Gravatar?
Thanks mate. Why yes I´ve looked into getting a gravatar. It´s just that at this point I don´t have any good image of myself that I want to use as a gravatar. And this e-mail and website are going to be “my brand” so I don´t want to use the normal kind of gravatars I´ve been using in the past.
So it is on my todo list. It will change hopefully soon.
Thanks so much for this incredible set of image resources Dustin. As a writer, far too often the text stands well on its own, but needs the perfect image to truly bring it out. Cheers!
I’m glad you found it useful Mark! Cheers!
Hi Dustin – This is an AWESOME list! There are some real gems in here that I will definitely use. Thanks so much! (Love your new site BTW!)
Thanks Kara! I’m glad you liked it!
Dustin –
This blog is an excellent reference source for images online. I really appreciate all the research work you did to put into this article. I will most definitely be checking out these various sites for some unique photos. Thanks for sharing my friend!!
Virginia
Thank you for the info. I’m tired of using Getty and Image exchange and was looking for a few resources when I found your post. Love the style of your blog.
Great stuff Dustin, and many thanks for the great photo resources! 🙂
My pleasure Larry! 😀
Hello Dustin,
It’s always time consuming to find relevant images for all our writing(s). I always stick on to Flickr and sometime Behance by giving them credit at the bottom of the post.
Thanks for all these resources.
Happy Blogging 😀
Thanks Sunil!
Superb list!
Another that I use for blog posts is 123rf.com – they have a full free images section that is stocked to the eyeballs with great content. The only downside is that the free images are lower resolution than some of these sources, but you can get the hi-res versions for a small fee.
There are a couple here I hadn’t heard of before, so will definitely be trying them out. Thanks!
Thanks Stewart! I’m glad you found some new sources!
As usual, great content share! I think I only recognized two of the free photo sites and I have been in classes with video gurus for the last year. Got to add them to my bookmarks!
Thanks for all of the suggestions! I will have to take some for a ride 🙂
Have you tried 123rf.com yet? I have used them before, and am going to use them for a little while longer, but may use one of the sites listed in this post later on.
Thanks,
Sean
I have tried 123rf.com and found it to be less usable/efficient than the other paid sources I mentioned.
Wow! … Thank you so much for sharing this valuable resource Dustin. I have about 15 such sites but you’ve highlighted some new ones.
I hadn’t quite viewed Getty’s “opening up” their images like you but your points are quite valid – let’s wait and see what happens. Monetizing embedded images in future with advertising is a very sleazy idea (if I understand correctly) and will backfire. Hope they simply avoid that.
As Ray says, finding the “right” image is the most time consuming aspect of posting so having a “quality curated” set will go a long ways to efficiency.
Thanks again and have a great weekend! … You Rock 🙂
I’m so glad you found some new resources Sanjiv! You rock!
If searching for editable vector images, try Vectorstock.com. Some are free but not all. Edit with Illustrator, Photoshop.
Thanks for the list!
Thanks Kathy!
Thank you so much. Love the link to the vintage photos. Just what I need for my vintage blog! I am sharing with everyone I know. Thanks for taking the time to organize this! Woo hoo!
I’m so glad you liked it Tam! 😀
Wow! This is an amazing collection, Dustin! Thank you so much for sharing with the growing community of people who want to do things right!
Wow! Not only is this a really well-written and useful article, but the header image seems to be of a rangefinder version of my old Contaflex! Thanks for the memories.
I’m glad you liked it Old Hippie! 😀
Great sources! I love your page with images to share online. Pinterest and Google+ are both really hard to find good images to use so I’m sure yours will be popular.
If it’s half as popular as you are Peg, I will have accomplished what I set out to do with it. 😉
Thanks +Dustin! Great resource. Well Done.
Thank you Barb!
Thanks. You rock!
Thanks Kaarina! 😀
Thanks for the free sources. I mainly use everystockphoto.com which searches 10 other sites including PhotoXpress, Morguefile and Flickr.
Cool Promod! As long as it works for you, that’s what counts!
Great collection, thanks for doing the legwork. Did you know gettyimages.org recently opened their collection “free to use”?
Yes I did know that Charity. I have a few issues with their implementation though. They’re not responsive so they could potentially break websites that are responsive when viewed on a mobile device. They also intend to monetize the embedded images in the future with advertising– which also means they’re tracking them pretty closely. I’m also concerned about the fact that if Getty Images changes their file structure or a photographer decides to pull their photos, the blogger who embedded the photo now has a broken link uglifying their site.
Not sure how Getty Images can be free-to-use when I got a call from a collection company today saying I owe Getty for a three month licence to use one of their images they tracked on my website (I got the image from a website that said they were royalty free – not listed above)
Dustin,
Thank you for the great resources. I am a blogger who is learning as I go. I have to say there is more to it then people think. It is a great outlet for my creativity for me and along the way I may help some one else. I look at it as a win both ways.
Karen Marie
Awesome Karen! Just keep moving forward and take people with you for the ride!
Incredible resource, Dustin.
Your generosity is very much appreciated.
One of the most time consuming elements of writing for blogs is the time spent trying to find that “just right” image to accompany the post.
I’ve taken to using my own as much as possible, but there are times when it’s impractical to fly to the great barrier reef and snap a photo of a sea turtle.
Thanks again.
Lol I know what you mean Ray! #aintnobodygottimeforthat
Ray, I am chuckling at the last part of your comment only because it’s so very true. I take most of my photos myself but can totally relate to not being able to find that perfect photo because I can’t hop on a plane or a boat to snap it. However, with people like Dustin helping us along the way, we can definitely include that sea turtle in our post!