As a pro blogger you need to have adequate sources to cover your need of images. You don’t have to always buy images everytime you need the new ones as it is not too good for your pocket. Why not considering free royalty free images? But where you can get them?
If you want to a bit more endeavor you can actually find some good services that provide free royalty free images. This kind of service mostly have a photographers community who kindly release their works for free under a certain license. CC0 is a common lisence that is adopted by them.
Works (images in this case) with a CC0 license are free to use without any meticulous restrictions. You can use them for any purpose, even commercial.
As I mentioned earlier, there are several services in the world of internet that provide you free royalty free images. And I am going to show you through the following list.
1. Pixabay
There are countless reasons why Pixabay should be your first destination for free royalty free images. Probably this is the best source where you can get royalty free images without having to spend any dollars at all. All images hosted at Pixabay are available for free under the CC0 license, which means you can download and use them for any purpose, even commercial. Attribution is also not required for every image you use.
Images available at Pixabay are not limited to photographs but also vectors, cliparts and illustrations. Even videos are also available in Pixabay. If you run a WordPress-based blog, Pixabay helps you to effortlessly insert photos via a Pixabay Images WordPress plugin. If you have a photography hobby you can also take part at Pixabay photographers community.
2. Unsplash
Based in Canada, Unsplash is also a great source you can rely on for free quality images. Same as Pixabay, all images available on this site are also released under the CC0 license, which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer.
Images on Unsplash are collected based on category. This will ease you discovering the images you want. A bit different to Pixabay, Unsplash focused on providing high-resolution photos. No other image types available on this site. You can also upload your collections if you have ones.
3. Pexels
Again. All images available at Pexels are released under the CC0 license so you can use them for any legal purpose without having to spend your dollars. Pexels also focused on providing quality photos, instead of vectors or cliparts. In Pexels you can discover photos from a certain photographer.
There is a Photographer Leaderboard page that shows most-downloaded photos during a month. Of course you can also become a Pexels photographer if you consider your self has a good photography skill.
4. Picjumbo
This site is created by a young Czech photographer Viktor Hanacek. All photos available in this site are photographed by the photographer, at least until today. Even so, this site has hundreds (or thousands) collections that you can use for free. Many bloggers already using this site for their photo needs.
Unlike the three above, Picjumbo didn’t adopt a CC0 license for the released photos. Instead, this site has its own rules of how users can use the photos. However, the rules are similar to CC0’s where you can download and use the photos for any purpose, including commercial. You just don’t be allowed to resell the photos and make website with picjumbo images to download.
5. Morguefile
There are over 350,000 free stock photos available in Morguefile. All are can be used for any purpose with very limited restriction. Morguefile also has its own license but it is generally similar to CC0. Commercial use is also allowed as long as you not sell the photos, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or redistribute.
6. Life of Pix
Life of Pix consist of photographers who kindly release their works for free. You can also register to become a Life of Pix photographer, by the way. The photos at Life of Pix can be seen as grid or by line. All photos in this site are released under the CC0 license. Make it clear how you can use the available photos. Similar to Pexels, you can also discover the photos in Life of Pix by photographers. There is a good navigation that you can use to explore the photographers based on name. The photographers name are arranged alphabetically.
7. Freerangestock
Just like the name suggests, this site provide abundant free stock photos. You can explore the photos at this site per category starting from animals, architecture, interiors, landscape, people, nature and a lot more. If you wish it you can also register to become a photographer at Freerangestock as photos available in this site coming from photographers. You are also allowed to use all the stock photos for free with various purpose, including commercial. You just disallowed to sell the photos you have downloaded or redistribute them.
8. StockSnap
Another great site to find a free royalty free photos. There are over 300,000 free photos offered by StockSnap. All are released under the CC0 license. And you’ve understood the rules when works are released under the license. In StockSnap you can discover photos based on views, downloads and favorites. You can also see which photos are currently trending.
9. Gratisography
Gratisography is tend to be similar to Picjumbo. All photos on this site are submitted by a single photographer, Ryan McGuire. The photographer kindly releases his works for free. There is no exact license applied to his works but he described all photos he offered are released under similar terms as CC0. There is also no exact number shows how many photos offered by this site but, once you explored the site you will find that Gratisography has abundant enough collections.
10. Freestocks.org
Another work that use CC0 as the license. At the front page of this site you are going to see that photos in Freestocks.org are dominated by women-related. But, once explored deeper you will find other categories like animals, city and architecture, nature to people. Although its collections are limited enough but there no bad to explore this site to find the photos you want.
11. SkitterPhoto
Last but not least. Another good place to discover free royalty free photos is SkitterPhoto. As described at the front page, this site a place to find, show and share public domain photos. Public domain means that all photos are free to use for any purpose. You may download and edit photos and even use them commercially. There are several categories available on this site such as animals, architecture, travel, sports, tech, people, landscape and a lot more. If you wish it you can also join to become a one of the photographers at SkitterPhoto.