If you make anything on the Web, odds are you’re at risk of using generic, cheesy stock photos like these. We’ve all been there: you write a blog post, or design a site, and realize you need some sort of imagery to accompany your work. Unless you already have access to an extensive catalog of photographs, you’re stuck.
That’s why this happens:
In reaction to photos like the one above, a number of sites have emerged that offer extremely high quality, high resolution photographs for free. Look no further than below for our eight favorites.
Unsplash
Let’s kick this off with the most popular site on our list: Unsplash. Since it’s debut back in may, this site has garnered quite a bit of attention and now represents a growing distaste for generic stock images. As its name suggests, Unsplash photos serve as particularly great background images on splash pages.
There are only two downfalls here: 1. you cant search the images and 2. because of its popularity, you may see these photos on numerous sites.
Picjumbo
While the site itself isn’t a beaut, the photos Picjumbo houses are quite good.
Little Visuals
Complimenting Unsplash, Little Visuals again offers gorgeous, background-friendly photos at absolutely no cost — that includes commercial use.
New Old Stock
Taken from public archives, New Old Stock is a curated collection of photos and illustrations with no known copyright restrictions.
Superfamous
If you’re not averse to linking back, this site is worth a look. These photos are for personal and commercial use, so long as you give them credit for it.
Gratisography
Gratisography is a free, albeit small collection of photographs created by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design.
Free Use Flickr
Flickr’s collection of copyright-free images keeps growing, and this group is a stand out.
Death to the Stock Photo
Still in its early days, you’ll have to subscribe to Death to the Stock Photo’s mailing list to take advantage of it.
As a bonus, we’d also like to highlight Stocksy. Its photos, sadly, aren’t free, but the site embodies this post’s ideals with their tagline: “your stock photos shouldn’t look like stock photos.” True dat.