Image licensing can be a tricky subject. Do you have to include attribution and a link? Can you use it in a PDF, banners for marketing, or in products you’re creating for sale?
Let me introduce you to the wonderful Creative Commons Zero license…
Images which are released under CC0 allow you to freely use them for whatever purpose you’d like, including commercial uses (to promote your business, or use in things you want to sell like products, ebooks, templates, etc).
Here are 9 websites with gorgeous photos released under this license:
Unsplash
Stunningly beautiful, simple photos at Unsplash. Search by keyword (and you can even help tag photos!), or see what’s featured/new. Click here to visit.
StockSnap.io
Create your own collection of favorites, see what’s most popular or trending, or search by keyword. StockSnap has some very nice business related images, too. Click here to visit.
NegativeSpace.co
Amazing library of photos here. You can search by keyword, browse by category… or find images based on copy space! Click here to visit.
LittleVisuals
Filled with interesting landscapes and object photos. No easy search but you can browse by page and it’s a smaller collection. Click here to visit.
Gratisography
Find really fun, creative photos including many of people with interesting expressions. Whimsical and urban get their own categories here. And hey, send Ryan a cup of coffee as a thank you for these unique photos released without copyright restrictions. Click here to visit.
Life of Pix
Tip: Click “Gallery” to browse images by type/subject. Beautiful photos including landscapes, architecture, people, food, office… Click here to visit.
Jay Mantri
The slogan here? free pics. do anything (CC0). make magic. Can’t beat that. Gorgeous images. No search option but you can subscribe for periodic updates when new images are added. Click here to visit.
Public Domain Archive
Find vintage and modern images here, all public domain. New images added weekly. For $10/month you can get access to a bulk download option and even more images. Click here to visit.
Magdeleine
Click “Browse” when you land on this site, and then you can search by keyword, category or even color! (Important note: this site offers images with a variety of licenses, so be SURE the license type stays cc0 when you search here.) Click here to visit.
If you’ve found this post useful, please click below to tweet and share it with your friends.
What are your favorite sources for images? Share in the comments!
-
36Shares
- 36
Wow! We’ve never heard of any of these so this is extremely helpful. Have bookmarked this for easy and quick reference. Thank you so much Michelle for sharing such value to help others. You are appreciated.
Great post! Thanks for sharing all of these. As bloggers, we’re always greedy for decent freebie photos, aren’t we? :-)
Great stuff, Michelle. :) Thank you!
Wow, I bookmarked this. Do we have to still attribute to the photographer and link to the page?
No, with CC0, which is public domain, you don’t have to link or give attribution, although of course you can.
Love it Michelle. I just have to save these URLs somwhere cause some of the pics that I saw are just great :-) Thank you very much for sharing this information.
#gamechanger Love it! Thank you for sharing Michelle.
Thanks Michelle…this is massive! Time to stock up on some photos :-)
Thanks. This will be helpful – I’ve never heard of any of these in all my searches.
Hi Michelle, great suggestions! One of my clients is a mortgage broker and for his newsletter I need images relating to things like rising home sales, happy business people, etc. I find that freedigitalphotos.net is a great source for searching more abstract topics like that. All images are free with a simple attribution. Another good source for free images I like to use is morguefile.com.
Thanks for the links Michelle! Pixabay.com is another terrific resource for free photos.
I agree different free pic sites, Thanks a lot Michelle.
So helpful, thanks!
WOW!!! Thanks so much! My question is the same as @Mey Duldulao, do we have to give the artist credit or link back to his page? I don’t see any info on the site that list rules of use.
Terrific info. Thanks, Michelle. I occasionally use images from free sources, once in rare while buy an image, however my most frequently used resources is ME. I take lots of photos with an eye to being able to use them in my sites and other work. That eliminates all worry about what license and rights and such is needed.
Awesome, awesome information! I was not aware of any of these myself. I currently use http://www.createherstock.com and http://www.stockfreeimages.com but thanks to you I have even more resources and choices. Thank you.
These are great photo resources Michelle. And I love the unique images that I saw on many of these sites. Thanks for sharing!
I struggled for a simple thing, image. I don’t have the right tools to create or make images which I could use for my blogs. So, the list of websites you made here are certainly great help to me. Thanks a lot.
Very invaluable information. Truly appreciate it!
Hi Michelle,
I was looking for some information on stock photos this morning when I came across your excellent post: https://michelleshaeffer.com/9-free-sources-for-beautiful-photos-you-can-do-anything-with/2015/09/01/
I’ve actually created a site for free health and fitness stock photos.
Here it is: https://www.focusfitness.net/stock-photos/
I think it can make a great addition to your article.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Brian Syuki