3 Amazing Websites Offering Free Stock Images to Download

Quote of the day: 

We don't take advantage of our position. We keep saying no to free stuff, as we can afford it now. 
-Lukas Forchhammer 


When it comes to photography finding the right image for use on your blog or website can be daunting. On a good day most of us would make use of our own images, to tell a story or enhance a part of our social media presence or brand. But sometimes we end up with unprofessional looking images that are not as good. The wonderful thing is that there are lots of websites offering free public domain stock photography -thanks to photographers who have given then up for free. These are professional looking photos that are free to use for any purpose without purchasing any license, unlike the royalty-free and rights managed stock photos which require a license to be purchased.

With free stock photos the options are unlimited, as rather than made do with your own photos, or hiring a photographer, you can search large databases online and quickly find something that matches what you are looking for, and is especially popular with web designers as it is a cheaper and less stressful option. Popular photos on these websites include those of people, places, hobbies, pets, architecture, abstract, business, nature, food and many more.

Below are 3 websites that offer free stock photos.

1. Pexels.com

Pexels is a great website that offers free stock photos you can use anywhere and it is even free for commercial and personal use. Also attribution (setting a link to the source) is not needed. This has been my favourite go-to website for professional images that match my preferences. It has a great interface and although the images are limited, but you can always find something close to what you are looking for. And the best thing is you don't need to register to access the website.

2. Pixabay.com

Pixabay is an enterprise founded in Germany in 2010, and it is similar to Pexels and offers a somewhat similar service -free images to use for personal and commercial use. The key difference between the two is that Pixabay also offers other media types. They claim to offer over a million high quality images, vector graphics, illustrations and free videos that can be anywhere from 7 seconds to a minute in length -both in HD and 4K resolution. However, you may find two or more videos -depending on your search term, that are provided by Shutterstock and which would require payment. But overall majority are free to download for personal use. You do not need to register to download the images on this site.



3. Unsplash.com

Unsplash claims to be a platform with 'over 200,000 high resolution images brought to you by the world's most generous community of photographers'. The photos are again, free to use like the other websites, and one does not need to register to download them. However, after downloading a photo, the message below appears: 'Crediting isn’t required, but is appreciated and allows photographers to gain exposure'...

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So those are three stock websites that offers free stock photographs for personal and commercial use. There are many more online that you can search for if you don't end up finding what you are looking for -but with millions of photos on these sites, it's highly doubtful you wont find the photos you need. Do you use free stock websites? Do share if you know of any others that could be beneficial.

Thanks for stopping by.


Peace. Love. Light* 




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