The Internet is a visually rich medium and we all need beautiful images to create our online content. Finding images that are beautiful, evocative and fit the feel of our brand can be difficult. Finding ones that are free or inexpensive can be very difficult.
Here's a list of a few sites that you probably haven't heard of yet that provide free or inexpensive images. Check them out.
Free
Stock Up
http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up/
Stock Up lets you search 26 high-quality, free stock photo websites in one place. Each website is indexed every week, so new photos are always being added.
"We only include stock photo websites with high quality photos and that give us permission to include them," says the Stock Up webpage.
Pexels
It's hard to understand complex licenses that is why all photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose.
"Currently we cover over 3,800 free stock photos. And every week at least 70 new high resolution photos will be added," says the site's "about" page. "All photos are hand-picked from photos uploaded by our users or sourced from free image websites. We make sure all published pictures are high-quality and licensed under CC0. Only creative commons photos from reliable photographers and sources like Unsplash, Gratisography, Little Visuals and many more are added to our photo database."
Stocksnap
All photos uploaded to the site are released under Creative Commons and do not require attribution. No more hassle trying to figure out whether you can use photos for commercial use and whether you need to provide attribution.
"We curate the best stock photos from around the web and we also upload photos from select photographers within our network. The end result is a bad ass repository of beautiful stock photography," says Stocksnap's website.
New Old Stock at The Stocks
Vintage photos from the Public Archives. Free of known copyright restrictions. Recapturing history.
"All photos are at the very least available for personal and non-commercial use (Medium articles, blog posts, personal projects, hero image for your 404 page). If you are curious of whether or not you can use it, check the institution's rights statement through the link I provide to the original Flickr posting. Most prefer that you link back to the original flickr photo and mention the institution by name," says the website.
My Stock Photos
All photos on this blog are under creative commons CC0 license. "That means you can edit, copy, distribute or use the photos for commercial purposes. Not everything in life has a price. Just enjoy!" says the website.
Cheap
Public Domain Archive
http://publicdomainarchive.com/
The website says, "With the Public Domain Archive Premium Membership you'll have access to download all of the high resolution photos on our website every month. $10 a month."
Death to Stock
http://deathtothestockphoto.com/
The website says, "For $15/month, you get:
Total access to all of our photos, past and future. Yours to use whenever you like.
An exclusive new premium-only image pack in your inbox, monthly. (Yep, you get the free members' pack too.)
A ticket to our top-secret cloud storage, for easy breezy 1-click downloads.
Big love + gratitude, from us to you."