How and Where to Find Free Stock Photos

Jacklyn Ruth

Digital Strategies Intern for the North American Division

Projects take time to create. Finding the images to support them should not add to the stress. Luckily, there are lots of places online where you can find free stock images for your blog, company, project, social media platform or website.
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Guidelines for Choosing Good Photos

• First of all, any image you use in a professional manner should be high-quality and high-resolution. If you can’t find a photo that works, you can take your own. Cell phones these days take pictures that rival expensive cameras.
• Your pictures should evoke emotion from the audience. Use the picture to tell a story and use bright colors to attract the eye.
• Keep the look consistent if you are using multiple images. A consistent brand lessens any confusion for the audience.
• Be creative.

If you are not a pro with Photoshop or Indesign:  ​

​There are several free (or low cost) image editing and design programs.

• Canva (with social media templates, images are only $1 a piece)
• Lightstock (professional-looking, royalty-free Christian stock resources)
• iStock Photo (royalty-free images, illustrations, and videos)
  
  

When searching for FREE high quality stock images, check out these online resources:

Canva - Free and low cost images
Stock photos provided by Canva.com, a web-based design software ideal for social media and other digital formats.  A great resource for design tools, templates, editing, design tutorials and more.

Burst (by Shopify) - Free
Burst is a resource from Shopify that provides free stock photos for entrepreneurs. It has photos of niche interests, everything from DIY beard oil to Aliexpress LED sneakers, but you can also find more general photographs.

Death to Stock Photos – Free, but pay for premium access
Every month a photo pack of 10 photos within a certain category will be delivered to your inbox. The goal of Death to Stock Photos is to bring you a variety of options to use for your mockups, blog posts, or social media posts. Death to Stock Photos uses their own license which you can read on their webpage.

Epicantus - Free
Epicantus contains free original photography by Daria. You can use these hi-res photos for your landing pages, blog posts, and designs. All photos are released under creative commons CC0.

FoodiesFeed – Free, but pay for premium access
FoodiesFeed offers thousands of beautiful and realistic food pictures in high resolution. It’s the perfect stock photo site for food bloggers.

Freestocks.org - Free
Freestocks has a wide range of pictures, from animals to kids to food and people. All images are released under Creative Commons CC0.

Gratisography - Free
Gratisography offers free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects. New pictures are added weekly and are free of copyright restrictions.

Life of Pix - Free
Life of Pix is a resource created by the LEEROY creative agency, offering free high-resolution photos with no copyright restrictions. New pictures are added weekly.

Little Visuals – Free subscription; donation optional
All photos posted on Little Visuals were released under the creative commons license public domain dedication. They have lots of nature and landscape photos.

MMT STock - Free
MMT Stock is a collection of high-resolution photos provided by Jeffrey Betts. Jeffrey likes to share photos of computers and workspaces as well as flowers and nature. All photos are released under Creative Commons CC0.

Negative Space – Free email subscription and free download
Negative Space provides 20 new photos every week released under Creative Commons CC0. The pictures are searchable and can be sorted by category, copy space, and color.

New Old Stock - Free
These pictures all have a vintage vibe and are separated into categories. They are mostly black and white pictures of people and places.

Pexels - Free
Pexels has lots of free images to use and a wide range of categories, from people to things. It’s very easy to download.

Picography – Free, $15/month for premium
Picography contains beautiful free stock photos submitted by Dave Meier and various other photographers. All photos are released under Creative Commons CC0.

Pikwizard - Free
This site offers over 100,000 completely free images.  

Pixabay - Free
Pixabay offers a large collection of free stock photos, vectors, and art illustrations. All photos are released under Creative Commons CC0.

StockSnap.io - Free
StockSnap.io has a large selection of beautiful free stock photos and high-resolution images. The site also tracks views and downloads so you can find the most popular photos available.

Unsplash - Free
Unsplash has lots of high resolution photos and updates them often. They have lots of landscapes and people.

​Wiki Commons - Free
Wiki Commons has free images and highlights the image of the day. The site sponsors a photography submission challenge and offers a wide range of photos. Be sure to read the permissions on the photos you choose before using them.


When cropping and editing your pictures:
Use the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds, however, is a guideline, not an absolute. Important elements of the picture should be near the intersecting lines and horizons should match up with one of the horizontal lines.

This technique creates tension, energy, and increases interest.
Apps for editing images on the fly:

• Snapseed
• Edit.Lab
• DistressedFX
• Photo Editor
• Layout
• Phoster
• Pro HDR
• Pixfx

These are all low-cost options for iPhone & iPad. Often, platforms like Twitter and Instagram also have photo editing options.
 
Overlaying Text
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​If you want to achieve a similar look to your images as the sample above, there are ways to do it without being a professional designer. There are several apps that will help you place your copy onto your picture.

• Bible App
• Over
• WordSwag
• Retype
• Phonto

 
Click here to learn about copyright and trademark basics.
Leave your comments below and share your creations with us using #DigitalEvangelism.