If you are a blogger, you know how important it is to have a great looking blog. A great looking blog can reflect your brand and create a sort of ambience that makes readers want to connect with you and become a regular visitor.
If you are looking for great images for your blog, I have the list for you! These are the best free stock photo sites for bloggers that I use almost every day! These beautiful, high resolution photos are going to take your blog to the next level. Every blogging niche can find amazing images on these sites to use on their blogs and to create gorgeous looking pins.
When I first started blogging, I wrote, that’s it. I never added photos at all. When I finally woke up and realized that images where an integral part of creating a visually appealing blog, I made the big no-no of going on to Google or Bing images and searching for copyright free images.
I soon found out through other blogger buddies, who had not so nice letters arrive in their mailboxes, that the photos I was downloading and using were not necessarily free to use. Yikes!
Once I had taken down all the images that I wasn’t sure I could use, I went on a search to replace them. It seemed like all the photos I wanted to use, I would have to pay for. And let me tell you, it wasn’t cheap. Back then, I was posting almost daily so the cost of images was not something I could afford. And being the cheap frugal person I am, I couldn’t justify the expense, even if I could.
The most frustrating part of my search, was clicking on to sites that would come up under the search, “free stock photos”, only to find that there was always a catch. You could download a few photos for free (and then have to pay) or you couldn’t add text/alter the image or you would have to sign up for their spam mail.
Thankfully now, there are hundreds of really good sites that offer legitimate free stock photos, meaning they are free from copyright restrictions or are licensed under the creative commons public domain dedication. This means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including for commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or the site. Most of the sites below, operate under this license. However, it is up to you to investigate.
When using images found on the web, please be extremely careful and stay out of copyright trouble. Even with the list below, some sites/photos may require attribution. Attribution is simple: If you use a photo on on your blog, add text that cites the photographer (“Photo by Jane Doe”) and include a link to his or her site. Always, always check each website’s license page for specific details.
The list below is in no particular order or preference. In fact, this list could be much longer than it is but I found many sites that have a lot of the same images. This list is meant to give you a variety and to cover a wide spectrum of blogging niches. I have only included sites that I believe have professional looking photos of high resolution quality.
Blogging Tip: If you do download photos from the web, remember to rename (for SEO purposes) and resize (WordPress has an upload file limit) the images before you upload to the media file on your blog.
25+ Amazing Sites For Beautiful, High Resolution Free Stock Photos
1.StockSnap This has a huge library with hundreds of new photos added weekly.
2.Gratisography Photos by Ryan McGuire. New images added weekly. Fabulously, unique pics that you can search by category. Check out “whimsical”.
3.IMcreator Smaller library. New feature includes ready made templates that you can edit for your own use.
4.Pixabay This has a massive library. Many bloggers use this site so try to dig deep when choosing your images from here.
5.PicJumbo This site has new photos added daily. Categories include abstract, fashion, nature, and technology. Food bloggers will LOVE the food and drink category.
6.Unsplash This site has unbelievably beautiful landscape images. Great for travel bloggers. 10 new photos are uploaded every 10 days.
7.Morguefile This has a small library but has some of the most creative images. Truly professional photographers showcasing their art.
8.Negative Space Coolest search engine ever! You can search by image colours and copy space (image right, left or centered)
9.Getrefe Need lifestyle or technology images? Check these out.
10.Snapwire Snaps Uploads 7 new photos every 7 days. Small library but amazing photos by talented photographers.
11.Jay Mantri Photographer’s own site. Uploads 7 new photos every Thursday. Fantastic nature, outdoors and travel images.
12.Tookapic Wonderfully crisp, high resolution photos.
13.Picography Unique photos not found elsewhere. All categories but smaller library.
14.MMTStock Jeffrey Betts likes to share photos of computers and work spaces as well as flowers and nature.
15.Kaboompics Categories include abstract, city/architecture, fashion, food, landscapes and more.
16.Epicantus Original photography by Daria includes nature, city scapes and outdoors.
17.New Old Stock Check out these vintage photos from the public archives free of known copyright restrictions.
18.Life of Pix Images by the LEEROY creative agency. New images added weekly. Use the gallery for categories and check out the free license videos too!
19.Free Images Absolutely humongous library. Almost 400,000 photos! If you can’t find something here…
20.Picography Dave Meier and various other professional photographers strut their stuff.
21.Public Domain Archive Both vintage and modern images can be found here.
22.Travel Coffee Book TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL. Do I need to say more?
23.Freerange Stock Over 25 categories!
24.Visual Hunt One stop shop for free images as they do the work for you and hunt for best free images from many online sources and pull them all together in one spot.
25.Pexels Categories include black & white and vintage. Fantastic images.
26.Foodshot I may just do a post about food so I can use one ofhotos! My mouth is drooling! If you own pics didn’t turn out as a food blogger, I would seriously substitute some of these.
Related Posts: Are you ready to customize your free stock photos? How To Brand Free Stock Photos For Your Blog.
16 comments
I spent half an hour visiting all the ones new to me the other day after this landed in my inbox!! Some excellent ones to add to my list. I tend to use unsplash and pexels the most, but some of the quirkier ones here are great for more unusual images. Thanks, Elena!
It is fun to find different sources!
Visiting from #BlogShareLearn Linky Party.
I’m saving this page. Always so hard to find good photos
Valuable Resource – thanks so much!
You are welcome!
Exactly what I needed! Been taking my own photos so I wouldn’t run into legal tangles, but I can only do so much. Thank you!
I envy you. I suck at taking pictures myself!
What an awesome resource this is. Thank you, Elena.
You are very welcome.
Great list of sites, Elena! I already use several of them and am adding a few more for future use. Thanks!
Sometimes you have to check out a couple of sites to find the image that is right for a post so I am glad I gave you a few more suggestions to use.