Whether you are starting a new venture or keeping your current business fresh, you know the importance of vibrant and compelling photography on your website.
But unless you are a professional photographer yourself, it can be hard to find high-quality photos to post to illustrate your products or services. And purchasing stock images can run your budget up quickly.
Luckily, there are numerous outlets where you can find good, top-quality pictures to use online without paying an arm and a leg. Check out these nine sites for excellent stock photos for free.
1. Pixabay
Pixabay offers over one million free photos and videos that you can use on your website or in printed materials without worrying about copyright issues.
If you are just starting up, you should include the careful selection of appropriate pictures as part of your new business checklist. Pixabay offers many different photos of different objects, people, and places which can evoke a wide variety of moods.
You can use these for your site, and also for social media or even print ads. Try to find pictures with a common theme in order to keep your branding consistent.
2. Stock Snap
This website has a huge selection of beautiful free photos. It specializes in brightly colored, often abstract compositions that can beautifully illustrate your messaging.
With an easy-to-use search function, this site provides a wide variety of images for even the most obscure phrases. That’s helpful if you are marketing a service which may be difficult to illustrate in photos, like accounting, law, or insurance.
3.Skitterphoto
Skitterphoto calls itself the “place to find, show and share public domain photos.” It not only services people like you who need photos for their new business ventures or marketing campaigns, but it also appeals to new photographers seeking venues to showcase their work.
This gives the site an artistic air, as many photographers are trying experimental approaches to color and composition. You can find many black and white options, plus creative uses of color and special effects.
4. Styled Stock
Sometimes you are looking for an image for a very targeted market. Styled Stock offers images especially intended to appeal to a female audience.
If you are marketing fashion, cosmetics, or other items and you want to appeal to women, check out this site. It focuses on objects, from shoes to flowers. There are no shots of people in its selection.
You can even filter images by color, which is helpful if you are looking for illustrations that fit a particular color scheme. If you are looking to make a splash for a female-oriented product on a big shopping day like Cyber Monday, refresh your site with images like these.
5. Burst
Burst is offered through Shopify. The tool’s free stock photos are licensed under Creative Commons under Shopify’s own photo license.
Burst is specifically aimed at entrepreneurs. Its categories cover many of the niche areas where you may be launching a business, from dog walking to tech to yoga or food. They have a lot of pictures of extremely hip products, like beard oil.
Its business and tech photos of people in offices are highly diverse, so you can showcase your own company’s youthful energy and racially mixed staff.
6. Pexels
Pexels offers a nice variety of imagery for your marketing needs. It uses the work of identified professional photographers and has a good selection of photos showing diverse populations around the world, natural landscapes, and abstracts.
This might be a good resource for launching a site promoting travel, graphic design, or a lifestyle brand aimed at millennials.
7. FoodiesFeed
Whether you are launching a bakery, a restaurant, or a food product, you want a website and marketing materials that show food in beautiful and creative ways. You want your customers’ mouths to water when they see them!
Food is one of the hardest items to photograph well. There is a whole art to styling and shooting food in ways that make it seem extra juicy, luscious, and tempting. Don’t try this at home!
FoodiesFeed is a specialty stock photo site that has only photos of food. From coffee and cocktails to elaborate five-course meals, you will be able to find images of your products or services which will make them irresistible.
The site is not especially intuitive, but it is translatable into languages ranging from English to Chinese, Russian to Korean. Colors and textures are bright and juicy, showcasing pizzas, fruit, confections and holiday fare.
Whether you are a food blogger or opening a new cafe, you can showcase any number of recipes with images from this niche-focused site.
8. Freestocks.org
This website offers free pix in the following categories: animals, city & architecture, fashion, food & drinks, nature, objects & technology, and people. There is less of an emphasis on more business-like pictures than other sites.
The photos are often moody and atmospheric. Note that the same models are often used in many of the shots, and there is a noticeable lack of diversity among the models.
9. Unsplash
This website offers a dazzling display of free imagery in such varied categories as
Textures & Patterns, Nature, Current Events, Travel, Fashion, Food & Drink, Spirituality, Experimental, and Health.
You will find many images that appeal to a wide age range, from young hipsters to seniors. Its Experimental section offers photos using unusual and non-traditional effects playing with focus, double exposures, and other techniques for an innovative look.
Stock Photos: Don’t Settle For the Same Old Thing
Just because you can’t yet afford original professional photos on your website, it doesn’t mean you have to stick to the same old tried and true. There are many resources out there that can give you the look and feel you want to grab consumers’ attention and get them to click on through to your site.
Finding free and effective stock photos that perfectly capture your brand is an essential way to get your business off the ground and make money.
For more tips on how to market your products or services, check us out.
