The Best Stock Photo Finds
Need images for your site to punch up your design, but hate slogging through all the stock images that are available? We completely understand! Not only can it be a time consuming process, but an expensive one as well. We’ll let you in on a little secret, there are sites out there with great stock photos of good quality. Instead of visiting every stock site known to man, you can drastically narrow your search among these top eight choices.
Death to the Stock Photo. This is a pretty popular website and for good reason. You can become a subscriber and receive free photos every month by email or you can go premium and pay $10 for extra photos and exclusive benefits. There is a wide range of photos available and all are top notch in terms of quality and creativity.
Little Visuals. The images here tend to be a bit more abstract and conceptual, but they still provide a great source of high-resolution photos. They send you a zipped folder with 7 images every 7 days straight to your email. Talk about convenience!
Start-up Stock Photos. This is one of the newer websites out there offering free stock images. Here you will find photos that lean toward people working in coffee shops, capturing the always present laptops and mobile phones. Do you have a freelance or startup business? This site would be perfect for you!
Life of Pix. If you need images for background and pattern purposes, make sure to check out this website. Images are available for personal and commercial use and are updated weekly. You can search by gallery in such categories as beach, sea, city, industrial, and black and white.
Gratisography. In the mood for quirky, unique, and out of the box images? This is where you need to be. Gratisography is updated weekly and contains a wide range of images. These images would be great for a blog post or to break up lengthy content with some humor (provided they fit within the theme of what you are writing about).
Picjumbo. It can be tough to find quality stock images, but this site contains them ten fold. And as a bonus, they are completely free for you to use in your commercial and/or personal projects. The creator of Picjumbo encourages attribution, but it isn’t necessary, just appreciated.
Albumarium. This is a great choice for high-resolution photos. Their stock images tend to run more toward close-ups images of animals, nature, and people. The style of photos varies between modern and vintage. Within this site, you can search by album and view a full collection of images for each subject.
Unsplash. If you are looking for free high-resolution photos, this is the site for you. Photos are often updated and contain a mixture of urban and rural landscapes. You can also find images of close up shots of objects and growing things.