Where to find free images for your website or blog may be a challenging task if you don't know where to look. And even if you find such images, a million questions come to mind: are the images copyrighted? May I use them on a product I want to sell? Do I need to credit the photographer? In this MasterNewMedia guide I would like to help you by sharing a) some recommendations for all independent web publishers out there and b) a list of the best free and paid image libraries available on the Internet.
Photo credit: Darren Hester
Let's start with some tips:
- Do not look for your images on Google or other search engines. If you are a serious publisher you may want to rely on traditional stock photo libraries like iStockPhoto or on trustable authors and photographers who have made their work available on the Internet, either for free or for a fee. But you do not want, in any case, to browse the web and steal indiscriminately images from other websites.
- Always provide full credit and a link back for any image or photo you download from the Internet. Even if you purchased it. By giving credit you respect other people's work, you prove to be an ethical publisher and you also provide visibility and exposure to the producer of the image you are using.
- Pay greater attention to the license of the image you want to use. Depending on how the photographer released her work, you may not be able to use the image commercially, to make edits to it, to display the image more than a x number of times, and so on. Check carefully what you can and cannot do with your images.
- Distinguish between "free" and "royalty-free": these are two completely different animals. A free image is free to download and use for as long as you want and wherever the author allows you to. A royalty-free image instead is an image that you pay for once and then use where and when you like without spending an extra dime (unlike traditional copyrighted images where you pay royalties every single time you display an image.)
And now my updated collection of online image libraries, personally checked and reviewed:
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All You Can Stock
http://www.allyoucanstock.com
All You Can Stock is a web-based marketplace where you can upload and sell your own photos or buy the best images for your online projects. The service will pay you a royalty rate of 75% of the picture value each time someone downloads one of your images. All You Can Stock also features an area for free images on the website that you can download with no cost at all. Registration is mandatory.
All photos are available in JPG format and prices vary according to the image size. You can also customize the picture size and pay accordingly.
Cepolina
http://www.cepolina.com/
Cepolina is an online collection of images where you can find over 20.000 photos that you can download for free. You can browse through 1400 different categories or use the search engine to find a suitable picture for your commercial and personal projects. Registration is not mandatory to utilize the service.
All images in Cepolina are available in JPG format and in six different resolutions (64 X 48 px, 150 X 113 px, 640 X 480 px, 1024 X 1068 px, 1280 X 960 px and 1600 X 1200 px). To save the photos to your computer, just go through a simple right-click action.
LIFE Photo Archive
http://images.google.com/hosted/life
LIFE Photo Archive is a web-based initiative from LIFE magazine and Google that you can use to find over two millions of photographs dating back to the 1750s up to the present time. The service works as a search engine where you can find pictures by adding people's name or browsing through categories, such as events, sports and culture. You can print and use images for free in non-commercial projects. To have a full usage license on the images from LIFE Photo Archive, you must click on the link "Buy framed image" to check the picture purchase availability. All images are available on JPG format.
Ingimage
http://www.ingimage.com/
Ingimage is a web-based service that you can use to search for and download a great variety of images and vector graphics under a royalty-free license. Registration is free, but you need to add your credit card number or enter your Paypal account to finish the process. After validating your free account, Ingimage will grant you a 7-day trial period including 5 free downloads per day.
All photos on Ingimage are available in the JPEG format and in high resolution. Prices range from $99 (for ten images only) and $899 (for a 12-month subscription and 250 downloads/week).
Stock Free Images
http://www.stockfreeimages.com/
Stock Free Images is a free online library where you can find all images completely free under an unlimited license of use for any kind of web projects. Stock Free Images also offers photos from different services which you can buy on the original source. You need to have an account to download the pictures on Stock Free Images and add a link back to the image author.
All files are available in HD and JPG format. Once you find the image you are looking for, just hit the "Free download" button and save it to your computer.
Kozzi
http://www.kozzi.com/
Kozzi is a web-based agency that distributes and sells exclusive quality images from professional photographers. It proclaims itself to be the first online photo library to support advertising. Using Kozzi, you can download up to 30 images a month for free. You need to create a free account to use the service.
All pictures are available as high-quality JPGs and they vary in size. Prices range from $0.99/month to $9.95/12 months (to download 25 images/day), $2.49/month to $24.95/12 months (for 75 images/day) and $7.49/month to $74.95/12 months (for 250 images/day).
Getty Images RF
http://www.gettyimages.com/CreativeImages/RoyaltyFree
Getty Images RF is the royalty-free version of the popular digital library Getty Images, where you can find a wide variety of pictures, vectors and illustrations, both for personal and commercial use. You need to register to use this resource.
All images on Getty Images RF are available in the JPEG format, and their resolution ranges from 72dpi to 300dpi, according to their size. Prices for each picture vary from $5 to $525.
F11Digital.com
http://www.f11digital.com/
F11Digital is a web-based image collection dedicated to digital photography, where you can browse and download royalty-free images to use for complementing your creative projects. Registration is mandatory to download, to vote and to comment the photos.
All images are in high-resolution, in the JPEG format, and they are available in different sizes. You can download the pictures to your computer by clicking the download button below every image (a ZIP download option is also available), or by sending them as an e-card (a digital postcard). F11Digital also allows you to save the images you like most while browsing the collection, with a digital lightbox (a non-intrusive digital notebook who follows you around the site and keeps track of all the photos you ask it to "remember").
FreeFlowerImages.com
http://www.freeflowerimages.com/
FreeFlowerImages.com is a website that collects images of flowers that you can use for your commercial and personal projects. You can browse through the photos by using either the search field or the list of categories. You can also find the pictures you need by looking at the colors of the flowers.
All the images are available in high-resolution, JPEG format and a size of 640×479 pixels. You can download them with a simple right-click action. The images contain no watermarks and you can request the website owner a larger version of your favorite photo in case you need a higher resolution.
Hoover Stock Photography
http://www.hooverstock.com/
Hoover Stock Photography is an online image library where you can purchase / download beautiful pictures for your web projects. Two kinds of pricing levels are available: Free (requires that you link back to the service) and Pro ($1 to $2 for each image and no link back required). You don’t need to register to download the images but you must create an account if you want to make a purchase.
All pictures are available in high-quality, JPEG and EPS formats, and they vary in size according to the resolution they were shot.
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