Generally, when you think of stock images you think of them as staged, tacky and unusable…but with a hefty price tag! This doesn’t help when photography is an essential part of your design process and a custom shoot isn’t always in the budget or timeline.
Thankfully, there are more and more beautiful stock photography sites appearing all over the web – and best of all, a lot of them are absolutely FREE!
We did an audit of the Internet’s best offering and present our Top 5 websites for royalty free stock photos.
5. STOCK SNAP
Coming in at No. 5 is Stock Snap – a nice and simple site that’s easy to use and free for personal, as well as, commercial use.
The menu selection makes it a breeze to find trending photographs so your search time will be minimised – a definite plus when dealing with tight deadlines and multiple briefs.
Check out what Stock Snap can do for you: https://stocksnap.io/view-photos/sort/date/desc
4. SNAPWIRE SNAPS
Rounding out No. 4 is Snapwire Snaps.
This site has a variety of nice photographs, with 7 new images every 7 days that are permitted for both personal and commercial use, plus the option of signing up if you wish to purchase images.
Another handy feature is being able to commission particular shots that Snapwire Snap’s own photographers will capture for you – perfect for fastidious creatives.
Here’s what Snapwire Snaps is all about: http://snapwiresnaps.tumblr.com/page/2
3. SUPERFAMOUS
No. 3 goes to Superfamous.
Great for textured images, Superfamous provides a range of aerial, biological and geological shots, which ideal for everything from whacky creative concepts and mood boards to style guides and pesky PowerPoint builds.
Superfamous images are all available for personal and commercial use as long as credit is provided. (Hint: this is where minimum point size is your best friend!).
Take a look at Superfamous: http://images.superfamous.com/ (photographs provided by Folkert Gorter).
2. GATISOGRAPHY
No.2 belongs to Gatisography.
Not only is there a great selection of photographs but what we love most about this site is how the images are divided into sub headings – from animals to nature to people – allowing your search time to be minimised and your awesome picture time to be maximised.
Have a search of Gatisography and see what you think: http://www.gratisography.com/ (all images photographed by Ryan McGuire).
1. UNSPLASH
And the No. 1 spot for best FREE stock image website (according to us), goes to the one and only…Unsplash!
Unsplash is our favourite pick of the bunch and the reason is pretty simple – they upload 10 new photographs every 10 days so we always tend to find exactly what we need. And fast
That’s a 10/10 right there, if you ask us.
What’s more, the abstract photographs also have a beautiful, rich element to them that also complements our designs, which is why we love to use Unsplash whenever we get the chance.
See how Unsplash can help with your next project: https://unsplash.com/
TAKE STOCK
This is just a glimpse of what’s out there…some of our personal favourites that we like to use.
There are a growing number of great resources for free stock photography – so what are you waiting for? Get out there and find that perfect shot!
