One of the key ingredients for a quality blog post is images, followed by a great headline.
Why?
Blog articles with images appeal more to readers as compared to those without them. That explains why such content gains an increase in total views by 94%.
In addition, content with images can even boost your conversions by over 300%.
As you can see, including pictures in your blog post is crucial.
In this blog, we’ll cover everything about images for blog posts, including the best places to get free and paid images.
Read on to find out!
Why Shouldn’t You Use Any Image From The Web?
You can’t use whatever image you get from the internet for your blog.
Whether you download it from social media, stock photo sites, or Google, every image receives copyright the second it’s created.
Therefore, it’s essential to ensure how or if you can even use the picture without violating copyright.
Violating copyright leads to some serious consequences, including:
- You could end up paying a hefty fine of up to $150,000 per infringement.
- If your case goes to trial, you’ll also be responsible for all court costs and attorney fees.
- In extreme cases, you could even face jail time.
Some photographers search for individuals who use their photos improperly and then sue them to make money out of them.
If you’re lucky, the photographer may just request you to remove the photo from your blog or to give credit.
Nevertheless, it’s safer to avoid using a photo unless you’re certain that you can. Plus, you need to give credit wherever necessary.
So, How to Use Photos and Images on Your Blog Legally?
Simply put, you can avoid photo copyright infringement by determining which license is attached to the photo.
There are essentially three main types of legal images available, they include:
- Public Domain: With public domain images, you don’t have to worry about any restrictions. That’s because such pictures have no copyrights as they have forfeited, expired, or are inapplicable. Although you may have to provide attribution, it’s not mandatory.
- Royalty-Free: Despite the name, royalty-free photos aren’t necessarily free. There are some stock image sites that provide royalty-free pictures for free. However, in most cases, you’re required to pay a fee. Do keep in mind that you can’t resell or edit royalty-free photos.
- Creative Commons: This license enables photographers and creators to release their material to the public for use. However, in most cases, attribution is required.
Besides the licenses mentioned above, there are several other license types available.
As such, it isn’t easy to determine which license an image is under. For this reason, it’s always safer to get your photos from trusted sources.
22 Trusted Sites To Get Free Images For Blog Posts
We know that it can be quite tricky to pick a reliable source to get free images for blog posts.
That’s why we have listed the 22 most trusted sites where you can obtain free pictures for your blog below.
1. Unsplash
Unsplash is an excellent place to start when looking for blog images that’s free and high-quality.
They boast an extensive collection of over 1 million photos and are among the best places for free stock pictures.
The site also adds ten new photos regularly, with the best ones showcased on their homepage.
On here, you’ll find high-resolution pictures for every category, including fashion, health, nature, people, and many more.
In addition, Unsplash features its own custom license that allows:
- Free download, distribution, modification, and use of all images.
- You can utilize the pictures for non-commercial & commercial purposes.
- You don’t need any permission from Unsplash or the photographer.
But the Unsplash license doesn’t allow selling the photos without significant modification.
2. Shopify’s Burst
Developed by popular e-commerce company Shopify, Burst boasts many high-quality photos related to different niche topics.
For instance, you can find free pictures on technology, fashion, lifestyle, etc. The search feature is an added benefit as it lets you find topic-specific photos easily.
Burst features two image licenses, including a custom and the CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) licenses. Both these license permits:
- Free usage of all photos for commercial purposes without permission.
- You can even use licensed pictures for offline marketing.
- You can edit, crop, resize, add fillers and texts, or even modify the images as you deem fit.
3. IMAGO
IMAGO is a global visual content provider with headquarters in Berlin.
Over 300 million images and videos from News, Sports, Entertainment and Creative can be licensed through IMAGO.
Their global and constantly growing partner network delivers over 200,000 new pieces of content every day, enabling the latest coverage of major events from across the world.
In addition, an extensive and diverse selection of stock photos and archive material is available at IMAGO.They offer a vast library of high-quality images for every need. The content remains relevant and in line with the trends through their curated, updated and categorized library.
They offer easy licensing through webshop and enterprise solutions.
There are both royalty-free and rights-managed options to suit varying budgets and requirements. The licensing prices start from 9 USD for Creative images and 29 USD for Editorial images.
4. Pexels
If you’re looking for free photos that have no copyright restrictions, Pexels is worth checking!
On Pexels, you’ll find a plethora of free stock photos, and you can use them anywhere.
The site also makes it easy for you to find a suitable image. For instance, you can look for a specific photo by keyword.
Pexels also boasts its own custom license, which dictates how you can & cannot use the pictures.
Here’s what the Pexels custom license allows:
- Use the content for free for personal & commercial use.
- No attribution is required, and it isn’t necessary to provide credit to Pexels or the photographer, but it’s appreciated.
- You can edit the images any way you like.
5. Pixabay
Pixabay offers a massive photo collection on several subjects, including animals, monuments, business, and many more.
On their site, you’ll find 2.4 million+ free stock pictures readily available for you to use on your blogs.
In addition, the stock images on Pixabay are royalty-free, and you’ll even find videos, vectors, & illustrations.
In terms of the license, they publish all their images under their proprietary license. As per this agreement, you can:
- Download, use, copy, adapt or modify the images in any way you prefer.
- Use the content for both non-commercial and commercial purposes.
- Use the photos without crediting them to the photographer or Pixabay.
The Pixabay license also restricts you from doing certain things, so be sure to check their license page.
6. FreeImages
FreeImages is another excellent provider of stock pictures with 400,000 illustrations and photos ready to share.
They also offer free membership and even let you download both free and paid photos to use anywhere.
Like all the best stock image platforms, FreeImages hosts a massive photo collection of different categories. You can find thousands of royalty-free pictures on arts and business. Here you can also find images for home décor, religion blogs, and so on.
The site makes your search easier by letting you browse photos by photographer, subject, or even camera.
FreeImage has their proprietary license, which permits:
- Use of the stock photos on your social media, blog posts, TV commercials, etc.
- You can edit, synchronize, reproduce, copy, and modify the content.
- You can also use the pictures for commercials.
Please make sure you check their Content License Agreement to learn more about what you can and can’t do with the images.
7. Kaboompics
Kaboompics offers over 22,000 free stock pictures on several subjects.
You can find free top-notch quality images on fashion, city/architecture, food, and much more on their site.
Furthermore, the site adds new high-quality pictures every day.
One unique thing about Kaboompics is that they boast a feature to check the color palettes present in each photo.
Kaboompics features their own custom license, which is pretty similar to that of CC0. However, you aren’t allowed to redistribute the photos from their site.
The license, however, permits the following:
- Free use of all images for commercial & personal use.
- No attribution is required but appreciated.
- Modify or edit the pictures any way you like.
8. StockSnap.io
On StockSnap.io, you can find bold and fresh photos for your blog content.
You can scroll through an entire gallery, look for photos, or check the Trending or Categories pages on their homepage.
Furthermore, you’ll really appreciate their unique system of tag-based categories. That’s because it lets you browse and find pictures that convey the most appropriate sense, feeling or message for your needs.
It’d also ease your mind knowing that every image uploaded on the site falls under the CC0 license. As such, you can use the pictures without worrying about copyright restrictions. Other advantages of this include:
- No credit or attribution is required.
- Use the content for any purpose, including commercial projects.
- Publish, alter, copy, share, and revise that picture.
9. Life of Pix
Another reliable source worth considering when looking for images for blog posts is Life of Pix.
Created by LEEROY, a digital marketing agency, Life of Pix hosts a beautiful free, top-quality photos collection.
While comparatively less, the site does offer a decent number of stock photos on a range of popular categories.
Best of all, the photos offered by the sites have no copyright restrictions.
On Life of Pix, you’ll find quality images of people, cities, objects, food, animals, and several others.
In addition, all the stock photos are available to the Public Domain. As such, they aren’t subject to copyright.
Here’s what the site allows:
- Use the pictures for commercial projects, free of cost.
- No attribution is required.
- Edit, modify, or alter the photos any way you like.
10. Gratisograpghy
If you’re searching for unique and exciting blog posts images, you should definitely check Gratisography.
On Gratisography, you’ll find free top-quality stock images that aren’t available on most platforms.
The pictures are so unique and creative, and they’ll surely help your blog posts stand out.
You’ll find quirky images like photos of people making weird faces, garden gnomes to a teddy bear in shades, and more.
Plus, new cool photos get added to the site every week.
And the great thing about all of these is that all the images are free to download.
In addition, Gratisography boasts a proprietary license that has similar terms as the CC0, including:
- Free download of photos, with no copyright restrictions.
- Use your pictures for almost anything, including commercial purposes.
- Modify and adapt the pictures as you like for your blog post, ad campaigns, etc.
11. Flickr
Flickr is among the most outstanding online photo libraries out there.
The site boasts over 5 billion images, with submissions from both professional and amateur photographs worldwide.
You can also type the keyword for the image you’re searching for on the search bar, and thousands of relevant photos will pop up. Moreover, the site also has a Trending and newly added images section.
When using Flickr, one thing to note is that you can’t use every image for free, particularly for commercial purposes. Nonetheless, it’s pretty easy to find the ones that you can.
Additionally, all images published on Flickr follow the terms of the Creative Commons.
Note: There are different Creative Commons license types available, so be sure to check the terms of each. The different types include:
- Attribute.
- ShareAlike.
- NoDerivs.
- NonCommercial.
- Noncommercial-ShareAlike.
- NonCommercial-NonDerivs.
12. The Jopwell Collection
If you need high-quality, business-centric images for blog posts, the Jopwell Collection is worth checking.
The Jopwell Collection includes over 100 free-to-use stock images featuring the Jopwell community’s leaders at work, financial analysts, techies, editors, marketers, and social entrepreneurs.
Moreover, you can browse photos by different categories, including career, events, technology, workplace, etc.
As such, if you want to put photos of people at work on your blog, you’ll surely find a suitable image on this site.
Furthermore, the images fall under the Creative Commons Attribution agreement, which means you can:
- Download the images for free.
- Edit or modify the photos as you like.
- Use the pictures in your blogs.
Do note that the Attribution license requires you to attribute to the original creator of the images.
13. CreateHER Stock
Another great website where you get authentic stock pictures is CreateHer Stock.
Neosha Gardner launched CreateHER Stock to create a platform to help people find stock images related to all women of color.
While the site is a typically paid stock image platform, it offers a decent number of free photos ideal for business or lifestyle-related blogs.
The team at CreateHER Stock has manually curated over 300 top-quality photos of different women of color. You can also subscribe to their newsletter and receive weekly new images for free.
Do note that the photos on this site are only available for personal use. As such, you can’t redistribute or sell the picture to any 3rd party. Remember to check their license for more details.