Every website needs high-quality images, period. Headers, article and cover images, social media, icons – the list is endless. Even if you’re a photographer, you probably don’t have time to take a photo every time you need one. You could hire a professional photographer, but that costs a lot of money. One great alternative is using free stock photography.

Stock images have a bad reputation for being distracting and unhelpful, but there are plenty of beautiful, professional and entirely free photos available for use by web designers. And we’ve already found them for you – here are some of the best free photography resources out there.

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Unsplash

With over 1,000,000 images, all free for commercial or noncommercial use, Unsplash is one of the best websites to find pictures. Photos are submitted by a massive community of open photographers and semi-strict guidelines ensure quality. If you need nature or portrait photography in particular, Unsplash has plenty of those to choose from.

Pixabay

Pixabay is all about variety. In categories where other free resources may be lacking, such as in abstract works, illustrations and vectors, or technology/internet-related concepts, Pixabay photographers have you covered. There are quality guidelines, but anyone can submit.

Also check out the free stock videos, licensed under the same rules, and with the same variety of content!

StockSnap

StockSnap is another massive collection of free CC0 photos that includes business, nature, people, food, and a huge variety of other topics. StockSnap also has a good selection of more artistic content, such as flat-lay scenes and abstract wallpapers. With new photos every day, this is a great resource for stock images.

Pexels

Pexels gets right to the point: Free stock photos and videos, for use anywhere, any time. Portrait photos seem especially popular. For photographers, photo challenges with prizes and PayPal donations are great incentives to participate, so you’ll see many high-quality photos here.

Burst

Burst is a project by Shopify that brings free photos to everyone – even people who don’t use Shopify. The photos are contributed by the community and categorized for easy searching. Portraits, animals, textures, nature photos and backgrounds are Burst’s specialty – especially ones that are made with business and e-commerce in mind.

ISO Republic

ISO Republic - free stock photography

ISO Republic has a strong mix of trendy stock photos with high quality resolutions. The site also includes free stock video footage with easy-to-use search to filter what type of media you’re looking for. ISO Republic’s photo and videos are released under the same CC0 license.

Flickr

Flickr - free stock photography

Flickr has helpfully categorized its Creative Commons and public domain uploads, down to sorting them by attribution, share alike and other requirements. The website is a simple image sharing and uploading service, so it has no quality guidelines. But you may still find a keeper in here.

ShotStash

ShotStash - Free Stock Photography For Creative Professionals

ShotStash is a great place to find free photographs, with a focus on providing resources for creative professionals. With thousands of free photos in collections and categories from Animals to Travel, you are sure to find what you need for your project here. All photos on ShotStash are licensed under Creative Commons and are free to use in personal and commercial projects.

BONUS: Foodie Factor and Flat Lay Stock

Looking for beautiful free images of food? Check out the new FoodieFactor.com for fresh new tasty looking food stock photos. Need flat lay images for your logo presentations or backgrounds? Peruse the variety of flat lay images at FlatLayStock.com.

High-Quality Free Stock Photography

There are plenty of amazing free photos to use from a growing list of generous photographers. Whenever you use someone else’s work, make sure to check licensing and terms of service carefully. Some stock photography sites are free forever, while others allow you to use photos only under certain guidelines. It’s better to do the extra research rather than end up in hot water.

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