Now you are getting familiar with posting to your blog (if not, click here to read our post on how-to get started), you might be wondering where to find images, illustrations or videos that are both ‘free’ and ‘safe’ to use on your website, without getting yourself into some sort of copyright strife!
Of course, we believe it’s best practice to curate your own photos and design resources whenever possible, but at times you might need a quick pic to fill a space or add some extra personality to your blog posts, email campaigns or social media.
Your first instinct might be to do a quick Google search and grab the first nice looking image that you see – but beware! Most people think that because it appears in Google images, means you can use it however you want for free but this is not the case. If you’re not careful, photography copyright laws can end up costing your business thousands!
We live in a very visual time so using eye-catching, high quality images are more important than ever to promote your brand or business but for those who don’t have the time or the equipment to take top-notch photos, here’s our favourite 3 go to sites for royalty free images that can enhance your posts and campaigns.
1. Unsplash
Take beautifully curated and well lit stock imagery and add a bunch of warmth and personality – that’s what you’ll find when you search Unsplash’s extensive library of photos. You are allowed to copy, modify, distribute and use the photos from Unsplash for free (even for commercial purposes). Crediting isn’t required, but is appreciated and allows photographers to gain exposure.
Visit www.unsplash.com
2. Pixabay
Pixabay offers a collection of over 1.4 million stock photos, illustrations, vector artwork files and videos shared by a generous community. You can copy, modify, distribute and use their resources for personal and commercial purposes without attribution. Oh and we recommend creating an account so you can avoid the reCAPTCHA for every download.
Visit www.pixabay.com
3. Pexels and Pexel Videos
Pexels is another free stock photography website that’s perfect for bloggers. The offer a huge collection of high quality photography options and even have a sister site for videos!! Images can be modified, redistributed, and used for personal and commercial projects. The site include free high-resolution photos contributed by the world’s most generous a talented community of photographers.
Visit www.pexels.com or www.videos.pexels.com
All 3 sites listed in this article are great resources for free images, illustration and videos to use in your personal and commercial work including your blog, email marketing campaigns and your social media.
For something really unique – we can enhance your images even further by editing them to suit your branding. We can alter colours and lighting as well as include text and graphics – the perfect approach to a marketing campaign that stands out and keeps your branding material consistent.
