70+ websites for free stock images
One of the most frequently asked questions from bloggers is "Where can I find images for my posts?" Since we are not all photographers or designers, we remain the second option, namely to use pictures from the internet. It is now getting into the ranks of copyright and, above all, their misconduct. There are not one or two cases when emails or physical mail arrives from law firms discovered that a site violates the copyrights of their clients. Naturally, there is a clause on how out-of-court dispute can be resolved by financial transfer to their clients' account. In order to avoid such situations, it is better to use sites with free images and here we will focus on the most commonly used sites.
Before we proceed, we'll explain a little about the licenses under which the images are distributed. The most common licenses are CC0, PD, CC.
The first license is the PD - Public Domain- the creative work was created when copyright laws did not exist or the works were explicitly excluded from the law (formulas, facts, discoveries, etc.). A separate work may become public when 70 years have elapsed since the author's death. Then everyone can use it, remix it and share it for free and commercial purposes without permission from the author and without violating its copyright. It is also possible for an author to create a work in the public domain. This is an extremely liberal license with no limitations.
The second license is CC0. It is like a PD but is used specifically for countries where there is no explicitly defined PD. For example, in German copyright laws. Therefore, it is purely technical to assume that the two licenses are the same for Bulgaria.
The third license is CC (Creative Commons). Here, however, there are several licensing options - CC-BY, BY-SA, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND. And the different letters have different rights:
BY - Attribution - the license is only valid when we point out somewhere in our work that we use copywriting by another author by name;
SA - Share-Alike - The license is valid only when our works are licensed under the same license. Without the SA, the derivative work may be licensed under another more restrictive license;
NC - Non-Commercial - the license permits the use of the work and derivative works only for non-commercial use;
ND - No Derivate Works - the license does not allow the creation of derivative works.
In fact, if we want to use, modify, or distribute a work for a free and commercial purpose, we may only use licenses licensed under CC-BY and CC-BY-SA. Of course, we must explicitly (BY) say that we use the author's work.
After this introduction, here is a list of sites containing photos licensed under PD, CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA. There may also be copyright photos under other licenses or other restrictions. Get to know the copyrights of the photos you liked before using them.
Free Image Sites:
Wikimedia Commons – Various licenses but all of them are free
Flickr – Various CC и PD
Unsplash – CC0
Pexels – CC0
PublicDomainPictures – – CC0
Pixabay – CC0
SplitShire – CC0
Viintage – PD
Gratistography – CC0
PDPics – PD
The British Library – PD
Flickr “The Commons” – PD
New Old Stock – PD
Pickup Image – PD
Public Domain Archive – CC0
Yeah!Stock Photos – CC0
FreeRange – CC0
VisualHunt – CC0
Startup Stock Photos – CC0
GetRefe – CC0
Jay Mantri – CC0
Magdeleine – CC0
Travel Coffee Book – PD
Moveast – CC0
Barn Images – Various licenses
Free Images – Various licenses
Shot Stash – Various licenses
Free Images.Red – CC0
Re:splashed – CC0
A Digital Dreamer – Various licenses
Mega Pixel Stock – CC0
StreetWill.co – CC0
PolarFox – CC0
Skitterphoto – CC0
PicoGraphy – CC0
Photos Public Domain – PD
Foodies Feed – PD
Jeshoots – Various licenses
Cupcake – CC
Stokpic – CC0
Morguefile – Various licenses
Kaboompics – Various licenses
DesignersPics – Various licenses
ISO Republic – Various licenses
Snapwire Snaps – CC0
StockSnap – CC0
PicJumbo – Various licenses
Life of pix – CC0
Imagebase – Various licenses
Death to stock photo – Various licenses
Libreshot – CC0
Shutteroo – Various licenses
Good Free Photos – CC0
The Light Painters Loft – CC0
Dreamstime – CC0 and other licenses
Free Digital Photos – Various licenses
Free Photos Bank – Various licenses
Image free – Various licenses
Photo Everywhere – CC
StockVault – Various licenses and CC0
RGBstock – Various licenses
Free Media Goo – Various licenses
Superfamous – CC
FreeJPG – CC and PD
Albumarium – CC
Burst – CC0
NegativeSpace – CC0
FreeStocks – CC0
MMTstock – CC0
Raumrot – CC0
Free Nature Stock – CC0
Realistic Shots – CC0
Search Engines:
The Stocks – Various licenses
CC Search – CC + CC0
Compfight – CC + CC0
Foter – CC + CC0
Stock Up – Various licenses
EveryStockPhoto – CC + CC0
ImageFinder – Various licenses
PhotoPin – Various licenses
StockPhotos – Various licenses PD and CC
Epicantus – CC0
SplashBase – CC0
Free Photos – Various licenses CC0 + CC
EveryPixel – различни лицензи
Google Image Search – Various licenses
Modules for WordPress:
WP Inject
Instant Images
WP Pexels
Pixabay Images
Dreamstime Stock Photos
Editing tools
There are two easy-to-use image editing tools, namely Pablo and Canva. Both allow the image to be edited quickly by adding text above, contrasting effect and recording in popular size formats - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram.
A few years ago, finding free images was relatively difficult, nowadays there is nothing easier than that. If you know another free image resource, you can share it here in the comments.