My Favorite Resources To Find Royalty Free Images
And avoid being tricked into buying stock images in the process…
It’s easy in today’s world to steal someone else’s work. In the world of quick-indexed searches, there are millions of images that you can simply right-click and download. However, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. And, just because you can, doesn’t make it right. And of course, let’s not even get started on the legal issues associated with using other people’s images. That’s a pretty self-explanatory reason why not to use images you don’t have permission to use.
Whenever I create custom graphics or use images in marketing materials, I always check to see if I have images I can use. And, since I’m concerned about not stealing, or accidentally stealing someone’s photos or images, I have a few go-to resources for photos.
Here Are My Favorite Photo Resources:
1. Death To The Stock Photo – Man, do I love these guys! My brother went to college with one of the founders, which is how I originally got connected with what they were doing. You can get more involved with their programs and their photos for sale, but you can also sign up to get their free packs sent to you each month.
2. Unsplash – Some of the photos are duds, but the good majority are amazing! I’ve found some fabulous images to use in marketing materials and digital graphics from their picture packs. They email you the royalty free photo packs every few weeks too! I highly recommend checking out Unsplash for free pictures to use.
3. Gratisography – Looking for something funky and fun? Check out gratisography. This guy has some crazy pics (and some more tame ones as well). While he doesn’t email photo packs to you, I have this page bookmarked when I’m searching for the right picture to use on a fun social media post, or other digital graphics.
4. MorgueFile – MorgueFile is a fabulous site that has easy search tools. So, if you’re looking for a picture of a barn, you can easily find any pictures they have of barns. Their collection of photos is also huge, so you can usually find something you can use.
Of course, each site has a little blurb about how you can use their photos, and often it’s in plain english (yay!). So, I’d encourage you to go check out their sites and get inspired to make some amazing visual content for your brand!