How Do I Find Images To Use On My Website?

The Web is a wonderful resource of imagery. However, not every image found on the Web is available for public use off the site where it has originally been found. It’s considered bad etiquette (and can be construed as theft) to re-use images without permission on another website. Does this mean that all images found online can’t be used somewhere else? Absolutely not! There are many high quality sources of free stock images on the Web, images that can be downloaded and used for either personal or professional uses. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the top five sources for free stock images that you can use on a blog, website, newsletter, or other Web project.

If you need a truly gorgeous stock photo that is of the highest quality, you will want to visit Stock.XCHNG, now known as Free Images. All you need to do in order to use the site is register (for free), then log in. Search for something using words that are somewhat vague in order to get the widest range of results; i.e., instead of using “teacher receiving classroom grant” try just “teacher” or “classroom”. Once you find something you like, you can download it to your computer and resize it as necessary. Over 350,000 stock photos are available here on a wide variety of subjects, and if you’re a photographer, you are invited to submit your photo to the database as well. Premium photos are available here for a small fee, but most people will find that the free photos suit their needs just fine.

EveryStockPhoto is a stock photo search engine. This means that they look at hundreds of different stock photo websites and sort images by license, so not all the photos that you will see in your search results will be free (however, you can filter your results to include only freely available, public domain images). All photos are presented with a host of useful information: what kind of license they offer, if they are public domain, how big the photo is, different attribution, if it costs money or not, if it’s free for commercial or private (or both), and the original source. This is a fantastic resource for anyone who needs a very specific kind of stock image, simply because there are so many possible sources from which to choose from.

StockVault differs a little bit from the other sites in this list. It exists as an online community where photographers, designers, and students can share their work for public and private use. Search for a photo and you’ll see both premium and free for use images. A free image comes with quite a bit of information: who took the original photograph, a brief bio of that person, the option to donate to that artist if you particularly enjoy the photo, usage guidelines, and file dimensions. The site offers a bit less in total number of images than others in this article, however, the photos are of very high quality and definitely worth a look.

FreeFoto offers one of the largest collections of stock images available on the Web today. These stock photos are available for both private, commercial, and non-profit use,and are easy to download. They do differ in one important way from the other sites on this list: if you use one of their photos, they ask that you link back to the site with proper attribution. Both commercial and non-profit clients can purchase their photos (at different pricing levels) if they do not wish to provide a link back.

MorgueFile offers gorgeous,high quality stock photos that have been contributed by a number of artists and photographers for free use both commercially and privately. The images are free to use in creative projects, but ownership of the image is not implied by using the image (this means you can use it, but you’re still not the owner. A link back to the original owner is always appreciated.). These photographs tend to be in a very high resolution making them ideal for websites and other online projects.