Stock photography can be expensive. And randomly grabbing licensed images from the Internet can cost you thousands of dollars if you’re found violating a copyright and threatened with legal action (this happened to someone I talked to at a Meetup).
Free Photos, No Attribution Required
Here are some sources for license-free stock photos! No attribution required (but it is often encouraged, and please double-check, as licensing can change):
- Burst
- FreeImages
- Gratisography
- Morguefile
- reshot
- Pexels
- Picography
- picjumbo
- Pixabay
- SplitShire
- StockSnap – scroll down past the Shutterstock photos to see the free ones.
- Stockvault
- Stokpic
- Unsplash
The featured image at the top of this article is from Pixabay.
Specialty Photos
These are sources of specialty photos:
- Foodiesfeed
Professional food photos. Attribution is requested but not required.
Archival / Historical
These sites offer free historical/archival photos. Attribution may be required:
- New York Public Library Digital Collections
These photos are very old but could be useful for a retro or historical site - Wikimedia Commons
Some photos require attribution or have other requiremetns.
Attribution Required
These sites offer free images but they may require attribution or have other limitations:
- Dreamstime
Has a free section but attribution is required. - FreeFoto
Attribution and link are required. - freepik
Free photos, vector art, icons, and PSDs, but attribution is required. - NASA on The Commons
Free photos, just need to give attribution to NASA. - NASA Visible Earth
Free with attribution, unless otherwise noted. - openphoto
- pdpics
- PhotoPin
License varies with photo.
Free Videos
This site offers free videos!
So, as you can see, there are lots of sources of royalty-free photos on the Internet! Don’t take chances by randomly downloading photos!
What are some sources of free photos that I don’t have here? Please comment below. – Brian
Leave a Comment or Ask a Question