05/09/2016

14 Sources for High Quality Free Stock Imagesmavsocial.com/high-quality-free-stock-images/

Fake a custom photo shoot with these 14 sources for top-notch free stockphotosWe all know that on social media, visuals matter. However, creating or sourcing those visuals is another story. Evenif you have photogenic products or work in an industry that lends itself to visuals, sometimes you just don’t have thebudget or resources to get a lot of custom images. This is where the humble stock photo comes into play.

But sometimes even stock photography isn’t in the budget, especially for small business owners or startups. Sowhere can you find all sorts of stock photos that guaranteed to be free of copyright restrictions? We’ve got youcovered with these fourteen sites that offer plenty of amazing images for an equally amazing lack of price.

1. Flickr

Chances are you’re familiar with Flickr already; perhaps you have an account already via Yahoo and use it to postpersonal pics of vacations, holidays, and other special events. However, did you know that Flickr is also popularamongst photographers and other artistic types, and that they can license their photos via Creative Commons forcommercial or other uses? Just use the search parameters to limit yourself to images with the appropriate licenseand you’ll find a treasure trove of useful pictures.

2. Kaboom Pics

Kaboom Pics has plenty of useful stock photos that are nicely organized into common lifestyle categories like food,1/6

fashion, architecture, and more. So if those kinds of images are what you’re seeking, you’re all set—just rememberthat you can’t alter or sell the images in any way.

3. Death to The Stock Photo

The name of the site alone makes it pretty apparent that these aren’t your typical stock photos. In fact, manyof the images on Death To The Stock Photo are a little more on the alternate side, reminiscent of popular memes orways to otherwise signal your brand’s social media savvy.

The business model is a unique one: you pay the company, who then pays creatives to go on photographyadventures.

Here’s a sample:

4. Pixabay

One of the largest free image and video sites out there, Pixabay stands out because it is home to an extremelyactive community of creatives contributing content to the site, and there’s even an easy way to get in touch withphotographers for special requests.

5. Pexels

Another popular free stock photo site with a significant community of photographers contributing images; all theimages on Pexels are licensed via Creative Commons for commercial usage and modifications in nearly any wayyou see fit.

6. Gratisography

Need some high-resolution images to use in your marketing endeavors? Gratisography is the place to go if you likethe owner/founder Ryan McGuire’s somewhat hipster, contemporary yet whimsical style (since he took all theimages himself).

You can’t beat a cat in a tie! The coffee shot—the blog header image for this post that was sourced from

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Gratisograpy—is pretty incredible too.

7. Free Images

The concept is as simple as the name—Free Images is home to tons of free images in a bunch of categories, easilysearchable and available for free usage in all your various content strategy and social media projects.

8. PicJumbo

A stunning collection of free high quality, high-resolution stock photos from leading photographers and graphicdesigners have made PicJumbo a darling amongst leading content creators, who tend to enjoy using this carefullycurated collection of images to add a visual punch to their branded posts.

9. MavSocial

MavSocial’s stock image store includes free and paid options. Powered by Pixabay Images, Pexels Images andImageAfter, our stock images include gorgeous pics, funny gifs, and pop culture moments. MavSocial users cantake advantage of a variety of images available within the platform (and edit them, schedule, and post them tovarious social networks right inside our software.)

Here’s a photo that an image search for “happy” pulled up:

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10. Albumarium

Albumarium is a place for photographers to upload and share albums of photos with an exceptional nichecategorization system. It’s perfect for when you need the stock photo of a relatively specific item(s)s or a series ofphotos that share a distinct style.

11. Photype

While there are plenty of stock photo sources on the web, Photype offers the unique option of letting you see what aphoto will look like cropped in various ways or at different resolutions before you download it. So convenient,especially if you’re posting images on multiple platforms all with their individual requirements.

12. New Old Stock

These vintage photos are now in the public domain and free for you to use ; this site organizes them all in oneeasy-to-search place for your perusal. New Old Stock might be the perfect site to peruse if you want to add ahistorical feeling to your brand’s social media presence.

Sure, most of these photos won’t work for most brands, but if you get creative with captions, you can bring a lotmore style to your feed:

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13. FreeStocks

This site is another that features exactly what the name says—FreeStocks has tons of free stock photos that youcan use for essentially whatever you want, all released under Creative Commons with zero attribution required.

14. UnSplash

Known for their more inventive and stylized images, UnSplash is not necessarily the place to go if you want thestandard sort of stock photos, but their creative imagery simply can’t be beaten. Ideal for brands or users who wantsomething that’s edgier or more unusual with an artistic bent.

This photo submitted to UnSplash by Alexander Rotker is amazing:

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The free stock photo user need-to-know

Finally, there are two important things to be aware of before you start posting stock photos on your company’s socialmedia accounts.

First, you’ll need to make sure that you use the correct attributions for the images you post. A few of the free stockimages you find on the sites we listed might require that you credit the artist or photographer responsible for the workvia a name and/or a link to their portfolio, so check out the site’s terms and conditions or the creative commonslicense attached to the photo if you aren’t sure.

Second, be sure that the site’s or image’s licensing allows for editing that if you alter or modify the picture in anyway. Even adding text over an image can be against the rules, so be careful you’re not about to get your company inlegal hot water.

When used properly, stock photos can be an excellent and extremely affordable way to create a visually-rich andcompelling digital presence for your brand.

MavSocial is the leading social media visual content management & publishingplatform for brands and agencies. Sign up for a Pro account here.

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