There are thousands of places on the Internet where you can find and download your favorite photo, illustration, icons, etc., but can they be used on your personal website or, for example, to print advertising for your company without copyright infringement?
It is possible if it free images and it is stipulated in the license for use. Free images can only be for non-commercial and for commercial and non-commercial use.
Let's make (photobanks), where you can find free images in good quality and see if these photos can be used.
is also one of the most popular and affordable photo stocks among designers. This site has both shareware (from 20 cents for 1 download) and completely free images. Free ones (now there are about 230 thousand of them) can be found in the corresponding section (free section).
FreeImages
FreeImages is considered one of the leaders among free photo stocks ( free stock photo). On the this moment the number of photos and illustrations on the site is approaching 400,000 in 26 categories. The resource is very popular among web designers, illustrators, and graphic designers. Due to this popularity, the use of photos from this site is quite frequent, it is difficult to find a unique photo. You can upload your photos, illustrations to the site. Registration is free for everyone. There is also a premium version, it is paid.
The main feature is that this photo stock allows you to use high-quality images for free for commercial and non-commercial purposes. The emphasis is on quality, not quantity, so this photo stock is not as numerous in terms of number of photos as other large photo banks.
To be able to search and download high resolution photos and High Quality you need to register first. Registration is free. All images are at least 2400 x 1600 pixels.
is a public image archive. Highly recommended by many web designers. Mostly high resolution photos.
- this is a selection of photographs good quality and size. There are currently over 16,000 images. All images are for non-commercial use only, under a Creative Commons attribution license. This photo stock is mainly used by web designers.
every stock photo
every stock photo- a very powerful search engine for free images on photo stocks. To search, you need to enter a keyword in the search bar. In the search results, you can see the type of license for this image, available sizes and resolutions. In order to download photos, you need to register. Registration is free.
Finding free images to commercially post on a website or to frame your next giveaway can be tricky. By simply searching for “free photo hosting sites” or “free stock images”, you will most likely find only a lot of sites disguised as photo hosting sites that require payment for each downloaded image. But we have done all the dirty work for you, compiling a list of 20 resources where you can download free images that are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license, etc. And this means that you can copy, transform and use any photo, even for commercial purposes, without obtaining permission and without attribution.
FREE IMAGES FOR COMMERCIAL USE
All of the sites below have links to the terms of cooperation and the licenses used. We have purposefully chosen sites where images are licensed under a Creative Commons Zero license or similar. That is, images can be used in commercial purposes. But, nevertheless, we recommend that you re-read the conditions under which the images are provided, because. they may change later. Please note that before using a new image, we recommend checking the terms of its license.
1.
Unsplash
What is interesting: every 10 days, 10 images are added to the site.
2.Realistic shots
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: every week 7 new photos are uploaded to the site.
3.Pixabay
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: more than 320 thousand free pictures are available on the site, vector images and artwork.
4. Life of Pix
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: all images are divided into categories.
5 Gratisography
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: all images are in high resolution and with high contrast. New pictures are added every week.
6. Free Nature Stock
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: the site contains only photographs of nature, and it is updated every day.
7. Magdeleine
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: the site distributes pictures by colors and tags, is updated daily.
8. Snapwire Snaps
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: every 7 days, 7 carefully selected images are uploaded to the site, and all this is completely free.
9. Stocksnap
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: a very convenient search for hundreds of pictures in high resolution. The site is updated every week.
10 Kaboompics
License: Images may be used for any purpose.
What is interesting: the site has a search by category, new pictures are uploaded once a week.
11. Public Domain Archive
License: All images are in the public domain.
What is interesting: the site has everything you need to create creative projects, it is updated weekly.
12. Travel Coffee Book
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: every 10 days, 10 new travel-related images are added to the site.
13. ISO Republic
License: The images may be used for almost any commercial project.
What's interesting: Free high-quality photos that are suitable for any of your creative projects.
14. Foodie's Feed
License: use images for commercial purposes, convert them and edit them for free.
What's interesting: Free high-resolution food images. What could be better? Minus: brutal hunger will wake up in you.
15 Furious Camera
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What is interesting: free images of various moments from life, available for commercial use.
16.MMT
License: You are allowed to convert and edit images.
What's interesting: The site has a lot of pictures of nature and cityscapes, and new images appear every week.
Our blog has already published many articles on the impact of images on conversion, blog and website traffic. Remains main question: where to look for free photos of decent quality? Is it possible to find suitable pictures in Russian photobanks?
There are many answers, as well as pitfalls. Almost all photographs created in the last 30 years are protected by copyright, which prohibits the use and reproduction of content without the knowledge of the author.
Despite this, you can still find enough free photos that are covered by public licenses such as Creative Commons. The validity of such licenses means the ability to use the content for personal and commercial purposes with the indication of the author.
In this article, we will cover all the points regarding the use of photos, and give examples of free stock photos and photo banks and various image search services.
What is Creative Commons?
it non-profit organization, which created public licenses to freely distribute content and legally use it.
The public licenses created by Creative Commons range from free licenses—permitting use for any purpose—to non-free licenses, in which certain copyrights are retained.
What is the public domain?
These are works for which the copyright has expired or never existed. But if you find a photo in a Yandex search or in a photo bank in Russian, it is unlikely to be in the public domain and is probably protected by copyright.
These terms will often be mentioned in the article. Always read the terms of use before downloading photos from photostocks and photobanks. Below you will find over 38 free visual content sources.
They can be divided into the following types:
- services with the ability to search by category;
- resources with free search;
- search engines;
- services for creating your own design;
- embedded sources.
Photobanks with search by category
If you need a photo of a certain genre or subject, then foreign and Russian photobanks with a search function by sections will do just fine. In this case, the search was keyword"coffee".
Below is a list of photobanks and photos with the results of search queries for them.
1. Dreamtime
Dreamstime offers search by category, free photos are updated frequently. Registration is required to use the platform.
2. Free Digital Photos
Free Digital Photos - Here you will find many free photos, especially on the topics of "business" and "education". Images small size available for free, large - for the money. Use requires an indication of the author and a link to the site.
3. Free Images
Free Images gives you access to over 350,000 photos. Although the registration process is quite complicated, but the choice is worth it.
4. Free Range Stock
Free Range Stock is a high-quality high-resolution photo service, a free photo bank. Russian words can be used when searching for images.
5. Free Photos Bank
Free Photos Bank provides free access without registration to a good collection of photos. There are several options for searching by sections.
6. Image Free
ImageFree is an open photo bank that allows you to download photos for personal use and for work. The number of free photos is limited.
7.IM Free
IM Free is a collection of photos from free sources for work. Search by keyword and categories.
8 Morguefile
Morguefile is an open photo bank that contains professional works provided to the service by the authors themselves. Registration and a link to the author is required.
9.Pixabay
Pixabay are free, copyright-free photos published under Creative Commons licenses. There is no registration, it is possible to copy, modify, distribute and use photos for commercial purposes.
10. Public Domain Pictures
Public Domain Pictures is a photobank of amateur photographers. Registration required. It is possible to get photos bigger size through a paid Premium download package.
11. Stockvault
Stockvault is a free photo bank of photos and graphic images where photographers, designers, and students post their work for personal, non-commercial use. Registration is not required.
12. RGB stock
Rgbstock created by photographers and graphic designers as a stock of free images. Registration is in one click.
Photo stocks with free search
“Bloggers are often looking for something special to illustrate their posts, and invariably expect good quality images,” says David Sherry, photographer at Death to The Stock Photo.
13 Ancestry Images
Ancestry Images s provides free access to a collection of photographs of historical engravings, maps and artefacts. An example is a photograph of an engraving depicting a New Zealand warrior from 1817.
BigFoto is a photobank for beginner photographers. The works do not require the payment of a license fee to the owner. Registration on the site is not required. The collections are divided geographically. The photo below is from the Copenhagen collection.
15 Gratisography
Gratisography is an image stock that provides free access to high-resolution photographs for personal and commercial use. The collection is updated weekly.
16. Death to The Stock Photo
Death to The Stock Photo free high resolution lifestyle photos. The service is updated monthly.
17.FreeMediaGoo
FreeMediaGoo provides free access to photos with no payment to the author or site. The photo bank supports searching by categories: “background photos” and “texture”. Registration is not required, content can be used for commercial and personal purposes.
18. iStock
iStock releases a series of photos weekly for free. Required free registration, the passage of which is a bit confusing.
19. Little Visuals
Little Visuals gives you the opportunity to receive 7 free high-resolution photos by email in a week. The subject matter ranges from idyllic paintings to industrial landscapes.
20. New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a stock photo bank, a collection of vintage photos from public archives, without copyright.
21.PicJumbo
PicJumbo offers access to a variety of free stock photos. You don't need to register. There is no search function, but the photos are categorized.
22.Pickupimage
pickupimage- big collection images of natural themes that can be copied, modified, distributed, including for commercial purposes. Registration is required.
23. Superfamous
Superfamous is a collection of works by Dutch designer Folkert Gorter licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. You can use the photos for commercial purposes, but with credit to the author.
24. Unsplash
Unsplash gives you a 10-day subscription to get 10 free high-resolution photos.
25. Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a database of 2,1049,775 files that you can freely use and even add your own. The images are carefully organized, but if you're not a fan of Wikipedia, the categorization may not be entirely clear to you.
Search resources
These are not Russian photobanks and not photo stocks in the usual sense, but they make it easier to search on Flickr and photos in the public domain.
Searches and displays results from the Wikimedia Commons database. By clicking on the image of interest, you will be redirected to the source.
27. Compfight
Compfight - Search the Flickr catalog using the Flickr API.
28. Creative Commons Search
Creative Commons Search is a kind of search engine information centre, giving access to Flickr and Google images.
29. Foter
Foter focuses on search on the Flickr platform. Allows you to quickly find the desired photo and find out under which license agreement it falls.
30. Google Advanced Image Search
Google Advanced Image Search is a service for finding free photos on Google.
31. Every Stock Photo
Every Stock Photo is a free photo search tool. The search is conducted through several sources, each photo has an icon, by clicking on which you will see which license the photo belongs to.
Photos remain an integral part of the design. Having spent a lot of time on the selection of high-quality illustrations that reflect main idea project, you may find that they are very expensive. Fortunately, free photobanks have long appeared and continue to develop - sites with stock photos. The pictures in their database are categorized and free from restrictions copyright, they can even be used for commercial purposes. Anyone who from time to time has to select illustrations for designing projects is familiar with such services.
Review of 30 photo stocks with free photos, vectors and videos
1. allthefreestock.com - combines many stocks
The project of seo consultant Seijo George. Allthefreestock streams content from popular photo stocks and other content sites using iframes. Thus, links to illustrations, mockups, fonts, patterns are available in one place. The service allows you to speed up the search for the desired content by narrowing the list of suitable web resources.
2.
A free photo bank containing 40,000 high-resolution illustrations. All photos are licensed Creative Commons Zero, which means they can be copied, distributed, edited and even used on commercial sites.
3.
A large-scale creative community that will be of interest to those who are interested in where to get photos and videos without paying a fee for their use. The site content is licensed under CC0. Pixabay has been translated into Russian and is also available as a mobile application.
4.
Portal with free images created by photographer and designer. Stocks rejected the photos he took, citing the reason for not being enough. a high resolution pictures. Over the 2 years of the project's existence, users have downloaded more than 2.5 million photos from the site. Multiple rates paid subscription portal premium content is available.
5.
Search engine for free and paid stock images based on algorithms artificial intelligence in beta. Visitors to this site with a convenient search can also check the quality of any photo through neural network by uploading it to the site or providing a link.
6.
Photobank with HD quality videos and images, free to use. The slogan of the portal is “Give life to your pictures!” The service regularly accepts photos from users and awards the title of "Photographer of the Week". On the site, you can create a profile with a portfolio and subscribe to other photographers.
7.
A good photo stock created by a photographer who wants to share his work with others. The only action prohibited by the stokpic license is the resale of the photo in its original form. By subscribing to the newsletter, you can receive 10 premium images every 2 weeks.
8.
Free photo database focused on people creative specialties. Since launch, the site has published 3,000 images under a CC0 license, while the database continues to grow weekly. By becoming email subscribers of the site, community members receive a newsletter of fresh photos.
9.
A web resource offering search and download of stock photos. The main interface of the portal has been translated into Russian, the photo bank is free. Freephotos works with third-party content source APIs to make images available for download on a single site.
10. burst.shopify.com
Free photo bank powered by Shopify. The goal of the project is to support designers, developers, entrepreneurs and bloggers in creating quality websites and marketing campaigns. All photos are recommended for commercial use.
underground
11.
A photo bank with over 300,000 free photos generously donated by the community of photographers. The portal specialists daily compile a selection of photos, and the site also has a search for specific requests. You can track the work of photographers by subscribing to them.
The project bears the name of the photographer who founded it. The site content is available for download without registration. Great source of beautiful photos various subjects licensed under CC0.
13.
One of the top stock content resources that has been supplying thousands of free photos to users for three years. The project also gladly accepts quality works for placement in its library.
14.
A photo blog that publishes daily editor-selected "photo of the day". Archived posts form an extensive database with a search by category and colors prevailing in the picture.
15.splitshire.com/topbestphotos
Popular photobank with beautiful photos and video, the main content of which is free. On the main page of the site there is a selection of top photos. The service offers to download photos separately for free or help the project by paying for downloading an archive of 500+ photos.
16.
This photo bank differs from others by the presence of non-standard content, which often does not fit into the concept of aesthetic. If you want a picture of a person wearing a suit easter bunny in the middle of the desert - this web resource is for you.
17. cupcake.nilssonlee.se
Free blog-style stock photo by Swedish photographer Jonas Wimmerström. The HD quality images posted on the blog form a voluminous portfolio divided into categories.
18.
Stock storage of free stock photos intended for public use. AT this moment the library contains 400 thousand images and continues to be replenished with new ones.
Photobanks by category:
19. travelcoffeebook.com - travel
20. photos.bucketlistly.com - selection by country
A collection of 5000+ geo-tagged travel photos. Thus, the site allows you to search for photos by country in which they were taken. When entering the site, auto-location is triggered, and the user sees a selection of photographs taken in his country.
21. - food photo
22. - food photo
A project of food photographers who are interested in transforming the Internet space with food content. Thanks to this photo bank, it became easier for gourmets to find high-quality free images for a food site.
23. superfamous.com/Images - nature
An online collection of free photos featuring natural phenomena and macro texture of natural elements. The site is designed in a minimalist style, its main page is a tile of pictures.
24. - still nature
A blog dedicated to life and work, including a gallery with HD photos in nature. The founder of the blog is an American photographer, designer and developer Adrian Pelletier. As part of the CC0 license, he shares the photos he has taken.
25. nos.twnsnd.co - old shots
A web resource that regularly publishes old free photos collected from publicly available sources. All images are free from copyright restrictions. Photostock is ideal for those who need a retro look.
Free vector pictures (vector):
26.
Volumetric royalty free photobank of vector graphics, which has accumulated more than 8 million images. start page service shows pictures on relevant topics, for example, “ New Year". Thousands of pictures are added to the site every day.
27.
The largest vector graphics community in the world. By joining it, you can no longer think about where to get pictures in vector format for the site for free. Photobank allows you to download images even to unregistered users. Registered community members get the right to discuss the submitted work.
Free videos for websites and videophone:
28.
Stock portal, where you can download free videos HD videos. The CC BY 3.0 license allows them to be used in commercial projects. When downloading a video, you get a zip file containing videos in .mp4 and .webm formats. The video bank accepts requests to add videos on a specific topic.
29.
A library of photos and videos contributed by enthusiastic photographers and cameramen. The system uses integration with twitter account to provide the ability to add videos to favorites and repost on social networks. Users return to the site to borrow free videos to decorate their project.
30 splitshire.com/category/video-2
One of the sections of the Split Shire stock already mentioned above is completely devoted to video clips. They can be used both as a supplement to the text and as a background screensaver. All videos are marked with tags, which makes it much easier to find the content of the desired category.
Can you take another 5 minutes to educate yourself? I advise you to read and template for a subscription 
