How To Find Free Stock Photos
Creating a digital marketing program for any business, especially a small business, is equal parts creativity and ingenuity. And when you are on a budget you have to lean into the latter a little bit more.
For every email blast, blog post, landing page and social media post you are going to need some kind of visual to go with your message and call to action. Many businesses will have a good amount of images of their products and services but what about everything else?
Click! This stock photo is from Unsplash.
What Are Stock Photos?
This is where stock photography comes in. You have certainly seen stock photos everywhere on the internet -- maybe even in this article! Stock photos are usually exceptionally general while also somehow being wildly specific. If you are looking for someone with a pained facial expression you will have hundreds to choose from. Need a photo of a broom? Get ready to look through dozens of images of the same broom in slightly different positions. Stock photos are a great way to add a visual to something you have to say to attract people to the content while giving them a preview of what they are about to read.
Historically stock photos could only really be acquired with a subscription to a photo database that could become costly depending on how many of them you use. In recent years free stock photo databases have been springing up everywhere and the quality has been getting better and better every year.
Where Can I Find Free Photos?
Finding free stock photos is luckily very easy if you know where to look. There are many sites like Unsplash and Pexels that have large collections of stock images that are nearly as good as the pricey Shutterstock. In fact every image in this article is from Unsplash! Cool, right?
Not only are these sites great because they are free but also because they remove all of the copyright confusion that comes with using photos you find online. Every image is free to use wherever you like with or without credit. That free use is important because copyright lingo can become tricky and some photos cannot be used commercially but can be used personally.
For many of these sites you don’t have to sign up for an account to access the images, but it definitely makes it easier to save things for future use if you do. You don’t need to add in a credit card number and can sometimes download in a variety of formats.
What To Know Before You Download
Using images you find online in marketing can be tricky because of copyright restrictions. You will need to know a few terms so you can keep yourself and your business out of trouble when downloading images off of the internet. Here are a few terms you will definitely run into in your quest for free stock images...
You can find photos of just about anything…
Royalty Free
Royalty free does not actually mean free. This means that usually after paying a one-time fee to download an image you can use it as much as you want without having to pay a royalty to the copyright holder after each use. These kinds of images can generally be found on traditional stock photography websites that require a payment for use of images. If you are really looking for something specific and can only find it on a paid site this is a term you will want to know.
Public Domain
Images and media in the public domain are there because their copyrights have been forfeited or expired. If you encounter an image labeled as public domain it is free to use without restrictions. To learn more than you ever wanted to about public domain you can find a ton of information in this article by a Stanford Law professor.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit that works to make sharing media easier. It is also a great resource when you run into copyright terminology that you don’t fully understand. The Creative Commons website can also be a great resource for finding images!
What If I Find An Image I Like On Google?
If you are looking for an image to use to market your company, never take one from Google Images or from a site you are not sure of. Copyright is no joke and you could accidentally put yourself into legal trouble using an image you don’t have permission to use. Believe me, we’ve seen it happen!
Using an image in any of your online marketing for your business is considered a commercial use. Sometimes images may say “free to use” but the fine print shows that they are only free for personal use, not commercial. You will always want to make sure images are public domain, have a Creative Commons Zero license or some other license that explicitly states that it can be used, modified and distributed for commercial purposes.
This is why free stock photo sites that are explicit about all of their content being free use are so great and useful to marketers and business owners. You can use whatever you find on there without having to read the fine print and hope you didn’t make a mistake. Each site has its own terms but they are generally all encompassing so there are no changes in licensing from image to image.
What Are The Best Free Stock Photo Sites?
Free stock photo sites are generally filled with thousands of images of everything you can think of. But some have more specific content than others. It’s worth a few minutes of your time to take a look through a few of them if you are looking for something specific.
Here are a few of the best free stock photo sites to use…
Final Thoughts
Stock photos are a great way to add some visual interest to your marketing materials without breaking the bank. Find a website with content you like, familiarize yourself with their copyright requirements and start creating!