A photo says a thousand words, and this is even more true on the web. But you can’t just go around pulling pictures from Google or other websites to use, and not expect to get into trouble for copyright infringement.
While nothing can beat using local professional photographers to take photos of your products, staff, office or shop; stock photos can be a great combination along with custom high-end professional photography.
Below are 12 of the most affordable stock photography sources you can turn to for your website:
SEE ALSO: 4 Reasons to Hire a Professional Photographer for Your Website
1. Unsplash
Unsplash is one of our favorite free stock houses. It has made a name for itself as one of the best sources of free, high-resolution photos on the web. The quality of the stock photos on the homepage is very high owing to the painstaking effort made to comb through submissions in order to select only the very best. All photos are released for free under the Unsplash license.
2. Picjumbo
Picjumbo offers a collection of photos you can use for your personal and commercial projects, with new photos added daily for a wide array of resources including tech, fashion, nature, lifestyle, real estate, and much more.
3. StockSnap.io
Stocksnap.io could be your one-stop-shop for beautiful, high resolution images, with hundreds of photos added each day. There is a handy search feature on the website to help you sieve through thousands of pictures to find the perfect one for your project. Or you can go with popular opinion: Stocksnap tracks views and downloads to showcase the most popular photos. All photos are released under creative commons public domain and require no attribution whatsoever.
4. Pexels
Pexels is a well-organized site filled with easy-to-search stock photos all released under the Creative Commons Zero license. Photos on the website are nicely tagged and easy to discover through their discover pages.
5. Pixabay
One of the most popular sources of stock images online, Pixabay features art illustrations and vectors in addition to free stock photos. All photos on this site are released under the Creative Commons Zero license.
6. FoodiesFeed
FoodiesFeed offers thousands of eye-catching, delicious pictures of food; free and in high-resolution. If you happen to blog on travel, lifestyle, food, or are just a foodie with a desire for really cool wallpapers showcasing your passion, you can probably have your fill on what you desire on this site.
7. MMT Stock
MMT Stock features high-resolution photos compiled by Jeffery Betts. Jeffery favors photos of workspaces and computers, but it’s also possible to get photos of nature and flowers as well. Photos on the site are released under the Creative Commons Zero license.
8. Death to Stock
Death to Stock Photos takes the hard work out of the search by supplying 10 photos within a certain category daily straight to your inbox. The brains behind the site wish to make it as easy as possible for you to go about spicing up your blog posts and other pieces of content. Photos offered by Death to Stock Photos are released under the site’s license outlined on the website.
9. New Old Stock
New Old Stock provides vintage photos from the public archives which are free of any copyright restrictions. This is a site you definitely want to check out, if you need a retro-look for any of your personal or commercial endeavors.
10. Styled Stock
One for the ladies, StyleStock features feminine photos for women entrepreneurs everywhere. In true solidarity with the cause, the collection is totally free for commercial and personal projects.
11. Burst (by Shopify)
Burst features free stock photos aimed at helping entrepreneurs bring their products, websites, and marketing campaigns to life. Some photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero, while others are licensed under Shopify’s own license.
12. Gratisography
All pictures on Gratisography are high-resolution captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design, and are free of any copyright restrictions. New photos are added every week.
All the sites mentioned on this list provide enough high-quality stock photographs to give your website the sort of vibrant atmosphere that promises to keep readers engaged and coming back for more.
Though if you would like an introduction to an excellent local photographer, we have a list of trusted partners that we can refer you to!
