10 Places to Find Free Stock Images Online
A picture is worth a thousand words…and this is often true in your blog or websites as well. Choosing the right photo can draw in a reader in a way that a text-only post may not. Finding photos online is an easy and convenient way to add interest to your articles, and there are many resources out there that provide images for this purpose, at no cost.
Read The Fine Print
When choosing photographs for any personal or professional use, be sure to pay attention to the fine print. Some sites only allow use of the photos for certain types of sites and pages, some only allow for usage a certain number of times, and some require that you give credit to the photographer.
Public Domain images are free to use however you want. This can include pictures taken when working for the U.S. government, or pictures that you can download from a government website. These are generally public domain, but check the copyright policy on the site to be sure.
Right Protected images are bought for a predetermined length of time for a certain project. This is usually negotiated before use with the photographer, and you will have exclusive rights to the images for the duration of the agreed upon limitations, for a fee, This is more commonplace and convenient for larger corporations and businesses, but doesn’t make a lot of sense for website owners.
Royalty free images can be free or cost money. The “free” in Royalty Free indicates that you don’t have to pay a continuing royalty for each use. If you pay for a royalty free image, after the one time fee, you can use the image however you would like. However, other websites can also purchase the same image, so you may see your choice used elsewhere.
10 Sites with Free Images
1. Photoree.com is a free web service that helps you discover random images that are (mostly) under a Creative Commons license.
2. PDPhoto.org has a large collections of royalty free images; pay attention to the license credit below each image before downloading, as not all the images available on the site are royalty-free.
3. Bigfoto.com offers royalty free photo agency offering free download of all pictures (with link or reference).
4. FreeDigitalPhotos.net has over 2000 free images that you can use in commercial and noncommercial work
5. PhotoRogue.com offers a free service and allows you to send a request to volunteer photographers to obtain an image if you cannot find it.
6. FreePhotosBank.com allows users to search for photos, see which photos are the most popular, and which ones have the highest ratings or the most downloads.
7. Dreamstime.com/free-photos is an online supplier of stock photographs with a large section dedicated to free images.
8. FreeMediaGoo.com has a large collection of images that you can use for free with some restrictions. .
9. Stock.Xchng has over 100,000 free images to browse. The photographers establish the terms, so read the fine print, but most pictures can be reused immediately.
10. MorgueFile.com has over 55,000 high quality images, divided into several categories
