Is Free Stock Photography Royalty-Free?
Having a high-quality image is essential for sales presentations, social media ads, and even blog posts. It will make your marketing materials more enticing, and help you stand out from the competition.
However, not all images are free. Some of them will require you to pay a one-time license fee before using them.
1. iStock
iStock is one of the oldest stock photo sites in the world, and was founded in 2000 before being bought by Getty Images in 2006. Its collection features 148 million photos, illustrations, videos, and music files. It also has a large contributor community of over 300,000 photographers, illustrators, and video makers.
iStock allows you to search by keyword and tags, as well as category. You can also filter by age, ethnicity, and visual dimensions to find the perfect image for your project. Its search feature also includes curated collections and recommended categories.
The site also offers a variety of subscription plans and credits on-demand. They can be purchased for a single image or for a whole collection, and the prices are comparable to those of Shutterstock and Adobe Stock.
They have two types of subscriptions: Essential (basic) and Signature (premium). The latter is more expensive, but it offers a wider range of media. The cheapest plan is $40 per month, which lets you download 10 images from their Essential collection. However, it won’t allow you to download iStock’s more expensive Signature collection images.
While it doesn’t have as many images as Shutterstock or Adobe Stock, iStock has an impressive collection of high-quality photos and videos. It’s especially useful for those who work in marketing and graphic design, but it’s also a great option for anyone looking for images to use on their website or in e-commerce.
In addition to offering subscriptions, iStock also allows users to purchase credits on-demand, which can be used for a single photo or for a whole collection. It requires one credit for an Essential collection image, three credits for a Signature image, and six credits for vectors and videos.
It’s easy to create an account on iStock, and you can access the database anytime you like. You can also save and share your own content, or create boards to store your favourite images, videos, and other media files.
The company has a good contributor dashboard, which gives you real-time information about your content’s performance. You can also track your download location and get updates on your earnings. The commission rate for iStock contributors varies from 15% to 45%, depending on the number of downloads. The best part is that iStock accepts contributions from around the world.
2. Morguefile
Morguefile is a community-based, free image exchange website. It was originally created as a place for teachers and creative professionals to find free images for use in their work. This mission remains the same today, as the site still contains thousands of photos contributed by a wide range of creatives around the world.
Unlike many stock photo sites, Morguefile is completely free to download and uses a simple yet highly functional social media system that allows users to follow and message the artists who contributed the images they find. This is a big deal for creative types because it allows them to establish relationships with the people who helped them produce their masterpieces.
The free stock photos on Morguefile are categorized by keyword, which makes it easy to search through their extensive library. You can also sort the results by date, rating, color and more to get a better idea of which images are most relevant to your project.
While the photos on Morguefile are not curated and don’t have as many professional shots as Unsplash or Gratisography, they are all high quality and well suited for a variety of projects. In addition, they offer a large number of vectors and illustrations as well.
They also have a unique feature that lets you crop any of their images to the size you need, so you can easily insert it into your project or blog post. They also have a community that encourages feedback and comments, which is another great way for creatives to engage with the people who helped make their project possible.
All of the photos available on morguefile are under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license, which means that they can be used in both personal and commercial projects. You can also cite the author by providing their name, the title of the image and the date it was created. However, you should not use their work without crediting them.
Like all royalty-free stock photo websites, Morguefile is affiliated with some of the larger, more comprehensive stock image providers like Getty and Adobe, so you may be able to find images you’d otherwise have to pay for elsewhere on their site. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to check out their offerings if you are looking for a source of royalty-free imagery.
3. Daniel Nanescu
In the course of almost ten years of photography, Daniel Nanescu has accumulated many files. This has led him to create SplitShire, a site that offers free photos with the simple aim of giving life to images that would have otherwise stayed in a hard drive and gathered dust.
This is the site to go for if you are looking for free stock pictures that will help your project stand out from the crowd. Its database has over a million high-quality, public domain images. It also has a handy search feature which makes it easy to find exactly the image you need.
The website itself is a one man show and it does a lot of work to make its collection of free photos and videos shine. Its videos are well made and they even have cinemagraphs that can be incorporated into your presentations to make them more engaging.
They also have a neat search function that lets you search by category, tag or a specific keyword. Despite being a bit outdated, their search engine still delivers results with a fair level of accuracy.
Another site that has a surprisingly large number of quality, high-resolution free images is PicJumbo. This site updates their photo library daily and is a great place to start for finding the perfect image for your project.
Its free high-resolution photos are of a good quality and are available in multiple file formats. The best part is that they are all free to download and use, no strings attached!
In the words of the founders, this is “a media file repository for images and sound in both the public domain and Creative Commons”. It is a Wiki site, meaning that anyone can use and modify the content as they see fit.
4. Startup Stock Photos
In this competitive world, it’s more important than ever to provide the right visuals to your audience. That’s why more and more brands and marketers are turning to stock photos to elevate their content, campaigns, and websites.
One of the most popular and effective ways to do this is to use royalty-free images. These are free to download and can be used indefinitely without having to pay any royalty fees. However, it’s essential to read the license of each image before using it on your website or marketing materials.
If you’re looking for a large library of quality startup photos, then check out Startup Stock Photos. This is a great place to find photos of young entrepreneurs and teams working in offices, co-working spaces, and other creative settings.
Their collection is curated and is constantly updated with new and trending photos. You can even follow your favorite photographers to receive a notification when they upload new pictures.
You can also browse their gallery by theme or topic, if you’re more interested in a certain type of photos. This way, you can save time by finding the best photos for your project.
Besides offering free stock photos, Startup Stock Photos also offers subscription plans for those who want access to more images. The monthly subscription gives you ten photos to download for each month, while the annual plan offers more than 500 high-quality photos and can be used for as long as you like.
The site also features an extensive database of illustrations and vector graphics. Plus, it has an excellent search engine that can help you find the exact photo you need in a matter of seconds.
This is a great resource for small businesses, bloggers, and publishers who want to get their content out there quickly and easily. They also offer a premium plan for those who are looking to power up their templates, emails, and landing pages with exclusive imagery.