Finding Free Stock Photos For Blogs Has Never Been Easier
OK, you write an informative blog post full of useful tips and ideas that you think hits the mark, but you don’t have a great image to go with it, what can you do? First off don’t panic, because today there are buckets filled with beautiful free images that you can use to add the perfect topping to your blog post. And those buckets are located online.
In the online world of free images there certainly more than 10 websites offering free stock photos for blogs and others endeavors, so I’ve narrowed it down to what I think are a collections of the best for you to choose from.
Spend a little time picking out two or three of these image repositories and jump in. Once you start your rummaging around you’ll be amazed at the quality, creativity and generosity you’ll find on each of there websites.
1.Pixabay has for many years offered bloggers and creatives a huge resource of free photos. Recently they have added videos, illustrations, and vector images to their catalog of offerings. I’ve use Pixabay for years and have found some very nice images to use from their constantly growing collection of images.
2. StockSnap offers a huge selection of images from its ever growing collection that you can use without attribution, but I highly recommend you give credit to the creator of any image you use. I’ve found some very interesting photos on Stock Snap that have sparked my creativity.
3. Unsplash has been around for a while and is full of images that I don’t often see at other free images sites. When I start searching for free stock images for blogs, i start that search on Unsplash before I search anywhere else. I find some of the most creative images I’ve ever seen on Unsplash.
4. Pixels offers some very nice and high quality images to meet all your needs. Pixels offers what they call “Legal Simplicity” which is just this “All photos on Pexels are free for personal and commercial purposes.” Couldn’t be much simpler than that, right? I enjoy finding original images at Pexels and browse their site often.
5. Reshot is a site I haven’t spent much time at , but from what I’ve seen I can assure you I’ll be going back often. Their tag line is “Handpicked, not-stocky images.” Check them out for some very original images.
There are millions of Free Stock Photos For Blogs available for you to insert into your own blog or article page that can give it a unique look and flavor. But not all free stock photos are created equal, so it’s important that you spend a few minutes reading the small print on each site for any restrictions before you jump in and download a ton of great photos.
For instance, at the top of the home page on New Old Stock they have the following “Free of known copyright restrictions” which may be a bit misleading if you don’t look any deeper. I found a couple of images requiring Attribution, this means you will need to add the name of the person or organization that made the image available somewhere on your post or article page.
Additionally there may be restrictions on different types of commercial uses on some of the images you find on these free stock photo sites. The majority seem to be free for most uses, but there are some that have a hook or two and it will save time and trouble down the road if you read the rules of that road on your first visit to each different free stock photo site.
6. Foodiesfeed A specialty site with tons of free stock photos for blogs and any other use you can come up with for delicious looking images of food. My advice for anyone who visits this site is to watch out, all the these great looking photos will make your mouth start watering and you taste buds will do a little dance. “Foodiesfeed is a resource of awesome naturally looking food photos that are completely free to download.” Check it out.
7. Picography does not yet have a huge selection to choose from, but there are some very nice images that may fit your needs. Keep an eye on there site from time to time, you may find a gem.
8. LifeOfPix This repository of free images pics a handful of new images every week to add to their collection and you may find the picks to be original and not found anywhere else. I spent a bit of time on their pages and found some interesting photos that I may use down the road. The one thing that made be pause was on there about page the text was very very small and hard to read, this may only be a design quirk and nothing more, but I’d like it better if the explainer text was more prominent. Check them out for yourself.
9. New Old Stock This image repository has a small collection of images they curate from ones they find that are in the public domain. And they are clear that many of their photos have commercial restrictions of some type. If you find an image you like please remember to check to see of there are any prevailing usage restrictions before you use them.
10. ISO Republic has one of the best license page you could ask for, it’s clear and well written. Their selection offers many unique images and while it doesn’t have millions of free stock images for blogs it has a nice curated selection to choose from.
Licenses And Attributions
Even though millions of images are available free from copyright restrictions or simply licensed using the now familiar creative commons in the public domain license allowing you to use them virtually anyway you’d like including commercial use, it’s always a good idea to check the requirements or each image so as to completely understand what the photographers requirements for use are, if any.
And even though an attribution may not be a requirement the photographers have put on the use of their images, it’s a good idea. When we use a free image in our own work and let others know who created the image we are encouraging that photographer to continue to make their work available for all to use.
Make it a habit of adding a link at the bottom of your posts or pages that lead to the photographers bio or home page as a way to say Thank You.
My favorite Image Optimizer is Short Pixel. In a flash it reduces the size of your blog and article images while keeping them looking great. Optimized Images mean a faster loading webpage that the search engines (Google) love. Click the banner below and check it out for yourself, you’ll be glad you did.
