Free Stock Photos: Where to find them and how to use them
Having access to free stock photos can save you from a lot of trouble. Photographs and images are key to the branding of any business.
An appropriate selection can enhance your image and reinforce the design of your visual identity, your communication, or your website.
Images and photos are key to conveying the essence of a project. Visual-focused brands have a better chance of making an impact, capturing attention, transmitting their ideas and being remembered.
Can I use any stock image?
We cannot use any photograph we find on the Internet just because you like it for your website, blog or social media profiles.
Make sure you always use royalty-free images. Make sure you read the terms and conditions for images and photos before using them.
For some photos, we can do whatever we want with them for free, but for others, they may not be allowed to be modified or used for commercial purposes. We may even have to cite the photographer.
Tips for utilizing stock photos
Before you start downloading images, here are some tips to improve your results when you decide to use them.
- Choose images that have a similar style, this will help create a consistent graphic identity; if possible, choose images from the same designer or photographer.
- If you do not have extensive knowledge of graphic design, then you can opt for .png and .jpg formats, you can vary sizes but not formats.
- Use Drive or Dropbox to create a project or folder to manage new resources if you want to organize them better.
- You need to remember to rename your graphics resources every time you add them to your website, and include keywords in all files to boost search engine rankings.
- Download all the files you require a few hours in advance, so you can stay focused and have a small batch of images at hand.
- You need to familiarize yourself with the licences that you find, so you understand to what extent they can restrict you.
Now that we know which images to use and how to get the most out of them, let’s get into the websites that we recommend to find free stock photos for your business.
Canva
Not only they offer a fantastic tool for your business graphic needs, Canva also have free and paid stock photos, videos, music and much more.
Pexels
Like their website says: Pexels offers Stunning free images & royalty-free stock.
Unsplash
One of the biggest sites out there to look for new royalty-free stock images. Even big companies use Unsplash to upload their product images there for people to use.
Burst
Burst is a stock photo website made by Shopify to attract new customers, which works wonders. They have a big library and integrations with their eCommerce sites.
Pixabay
Pixabay has over 2.4 million+ high quality stock images, videos and music shared by their talented community.
Death to Stock
Death to Stock is a project that aims to deliver 20 free authentic non-stock photos for your projects every month.
New Old Stock
New Old Stock aim is to recapture history. Vintage photos from the public archives. Free of known copyright restrictions.
Summary: The best websites to source stock images for your business
You now know where to find various stock image websites, so it’s time to improve the look of your ecommerce store. You’re not limited to just using one of these stock image platforms; you should take advantage of all of them.
In summary, here are the best stock image websites to use in 2021 for your business:
- Canva
- Pexels
- Unsplash
- Brust
- Pixabay
- Death to Stock
- New Old Stock
If you have any questions related to stock image websites, or designing the website for your business, let us know– we’re happy to help!