25+ Places to Find Royalty Free Pictures and Images for Your Blog and Social Media Posts
I’m a sucker for beautiful images. Sadly, I am not a great photographer or illustrator, so to make my blog posts look good, I use royalty free pictures and images from the web within my blog.
However, when you are looking on the internet for pictures to use in your blog, you need to be hyper-aware of the ramifications of using an image with copyright.
You put yourself and your business directly in harm’s way by using someone else’s image without their direct permission, which in turn can lead to a hefty fine. And trust me, none of us want that!
To help you, I’ve compiled a list of royalty free pictures and images that you can use in your online space (however, remember to do your due diligence and confirm that the items are still available for use. It is your responsibility to make sure you can use an image and that you give proper credit as required by the image owner).
One content creator was fined $8,000 for copyright infringement. Read the story and learn steps to avoid this here.
Unless you’ve received express written permission or have purchased the usage rights (and make sure you document with receipts, etc.), you can not use copyrighted photos.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse in this case and you will not get notified to take down an image ahead of time.
So now that I’ve scared the bejeezus out of you, where can you find royalty free pictures and images for your blog?
Aside from taking your own, which a lot of bloggers already do, here is a comprehensive list of websites that provide photographs and illustrations that are safe to use on your blog (remember to always double-check before you post).
1. Pixabay
With more than 870,000 photos, vector images and illustrations, Pixabay is my hands down favorite site for royalty free pictures and images and, in fact, their website posts the following: “All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty-free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.” This is exactly what you want to find when looking for images, because it requires the least amount of legwork on your part. I have used many of their images on my blog.
Pixabay has become so popular that it integrates with the Instabuilder 2.0 plugin for WordPress and the Kalatu Viral Business System. In addition, it is the main photo source for the popular mobile app, WordSwag.
2. Pexels
This is my next go-to site for images. Under Photo License they state the following:
“It’s hard to understand complex licenses that is why all photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose.
- The pictures are free for personal and even for commercial use.
- You can modify, copy and distribute the photos.
- All without asking for permission or setting a link to the source. So that attribution is not required.
The CC0 license was released by the non-profit organization Creative Commons (CC). Get more information about the license on the official license page.”
This website is a great resource for your blog with links to other websites that offer copyright free images, too.
3. Morgue File
This site has a nice library and includes a tool to crop and resize the photos you want to use. Just remember to credit the photographer if required. Read through the FAQ’s on the site to make sure you follow their guidelines.
4. Free Images
Big selection of images, terms vary from photo to photo.
FreeImages.com/Robert Wilkinson
5. Creative Commons
Here you can search Flickr, Wiki-media, and other sites for Creative Commons licensed images.
Photographer: Marc Cooper
6. Every Stock Photo
This library includes photos from NASA and the Library of Congress. I find this site somewhat cumbersome to use, and the attribution instructions can be a little confusing, to say the least. But there are TONS of great images, like this one from the Tower of London!
Copyright, 2017. Randy Robertson
7. Picjumbo
Another great site with beautiful images. The search bar on the top right makes it easy to find photos in the category you are looking for.
IMPORTANT: Always check the terms and conditions or usage rights for each site / picture in case anything has changed from the time this post was written.
8. Wigflip
Generate a variety of custom graphics with your own text on them, including text bubbles, sticky notes, and street signs.
9. Flaming Text
Set your text on fire, make it brushed metal, or try one of dozens of other effects. The tool is free to use, but leaves a watermark unless you purchase your design.
10. Cool Text
Similar to Flaming Text but also allows you to put your text on buttons. Here I just created my name in one of their presets and copied the HTML code into this post.
Image by Cool Text: Logo and Button Generator — Create Your Own Logo
You can also download and insert as an image, if you prefer, so that you don’t have all the other stuff underneath your image. Pretty cool, huh?
11. Fake Magazine Cover
Put yourself (or any photo you’ve got) on the cover of dozens of different magazines. I used a picture of my great-grandparents — boxing was a big deal in my family and that’s why my great grandfather had a black eye — it’s one of my favorite photos!
12. Dreamstime
This website has affordable paid images, but also has a section of free images, with clear instructions as to how they need to be attributed, which is why I included it here. They are definitely worth a look.
© publicdomainstockphotos | Dreamstime Stock Photos
13. Free Digital Photos
This site has beautiful photos and illustrations with clear instructions how to attribute photos to the original artist. I love the way the categories are setup.
Image courtesy of Hywards at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
14. Unprofound
You can search images by color, which is great if you are following a color scheme. Here’s what I chose for “red” …
15. Free Range
Very nice selection of free high quality photographs.
Image courtesy of Amy Thomas | FreeStockPhoto.com
16. Image*After
You can find free images and free background textures here. It’s probably the “ugliest” site to get beautiful images from, the interface is not that user friendly, but it does have some beautiful photos and backgrounds.
17. Photogen
Another nice catalog of photographs.Totally free.
18. NOAA
Lots of landscapes and nature photos from NOAA. I found a pretty iconic picture of a Chesapeake Bay lighthouse — anyone who has been to the area has seen one of these …
Photographer: Mary Hollinger, NODC biologist; Photo courtesy of National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Commerce
19. Public Domain Photos
I found some beautiful images of food on this site (as you can see below). They also have a collection of clip art images you can use.
© 2015, Public-domain-photos.com | Author: Jon Sullivan
20. Unsplash
It says right on the home page “Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.” I say, “go for it!” Images are submitted by photographers (both novice and professional) from around the world, and they are simply stunning.
Courtesy of Victor Camon
21. JayMantri.com
Jay Mantri has beautiful, original images that make a statement. This site, however, does not offer any search options. But I got my hands on this secret link that takes you to the image archives.
22. Little Visuals
This site is no longer updated and has not been since 2013, when the owner of the site passed away suddenly. However the images remain and they are stunning!
23. Magdeleine
This website is easy to navigate and includes a search option for keyword, color, or category. Please note that some of the images are attribution-required, meaning that the image needs to be cited. It’s easy to filter out the CC0 licensed images, or you can use this link.
24. Gratisography
In a word — Quirky. Gratisography is a site of CO0-protected images by Ryan McGuire, a New York-based artist. The images are off-beat, fun, and (sometimes) just plain weird. This site is updated weekly.
25. Picography
As Picography says: “Free high resolution photos. Use them however you like.”
26. Splitshire.com
You can use images from SplitShire freely since they are all released under a CC0 license. The only thing you cannot do is sell unedited versions of photos to anyone, and do not give/sell images to third-party stock photo websites.
27. Kaboompics.com
You can easily search for an image you want using categories or keywords. Every image is cute, unique and high quality.
28. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art
According to this blog post on The Met’s website, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art just released (as of February 7, 2017) more than 375,000 pieces of artwork from it’s collection to use without restriction. These digitally cataloged works of art can be found using the following instructions:
“To help find these images on our website, we’ve added a feature that allows users to filter searches to only those works that we believe are public domain; all of these Open Access images are marked with the CC0 logo on their respective object page.
Alongside the images, we’re also making available under CC0 each artwork’s key information, otherwise known as tombstone data — title, maker, date, culture, medium, and dimensions — on all 440,000 artworks that the Museum has digitized to date; this data is now available as a downloadable file on GitHub. By making this information available in a clear, machine-readable format, we are making it easier for the world to search for, play with, and explore the breadth and depth of the Museum’s collection. (We don’t yet have an API, but we’re working on it!)”
Just click the link in the title and you will get access to the main Met archive. You can search from there for images. Check out this vintage advertising image I found from 1888:
29. Superfamous
All kinds of cool images are available on this site and they state very clearly their usage terms:
“The Superfamous Images are available under the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0license. This means that you can use the work for your own purposes if credit is provided.”
The site consists mainly of landscape images, but they are very dramatic and quite beautiful. Here’s an image I found that I liked:
Copyright, Superfamous Studios, http://superfamous.com
Bookmark this post for updates and leave me a comment below if you found this helpful. Now you have no excuses to not have an image in your blog! :)
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Originally published at www.dianagartland.com.
