{"id":164,"date":"2016-10-11T06:30:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T10:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greentreemedia:8888\/?p=164"},"modified":"2019-01-09T07:22:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T12:22:52","slug":"5-resources-for-free-website-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/5-resources-for-free-website-images\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Resources for free website images"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Images are an important part of a web page. They help break up content and add a bit of visual \u201cpop\u201d to otherwise boring blocks of words.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve previously\u00a0covered how to resize and optimize images for your website, but the question that always comes up is where<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0find images you can use? Unfortunately, you can\u2019t just grab images off the web anywhere you please and drop them into your website.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve probably thought to yourself, \u201chow would any one ever know<\/em> if I just borrowed<\/em><\/strong> an image from somewhere else, the internet is a big place and I just have this little old website.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to services like TinEye.com<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s pretty easy for people to find where images are being used on the internet. Bigger companies like Getty Images<\/a> have their own methods for finding where their images are being used on the internet. Now, you might be thinking \u201cSurely they\u2019ll just send me\u00a0a cease and desist and I\u00a0can remove the offending image and go on with my life, right?\u201d and you would be correct.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just kidding. They also notify you that they intend to\u00a0sue you to the tune of somewhere between $750 to $950 PER\u00a0IMAGE\u00a0for copyright damages<\/strong> if you don\u2019t settle with them (usually). Yikes. For using an image? Yeah, for using an image. Getty Images isn\u2019t the only company serious about copyright infringement. It\u2019s best to\u00a0make sure you have the proper license for the images on your website.<\/p>\n

Where to find free images for your website<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re a small business owner or operate\u00a0a personal blog, the idea of paying for images is a tough sell. Luckily, I\u2019m going to share with you 5 of my favorite websites that provide completely free images for you to use as you wish. That\u2019s right, free images. Note<\/strong>: What makes these images different is that they are provided under a special license called Creative Commons.<\/a>\u00a0For those of you too lazy to click on that link, the Creative Commons license means the owner of the item (in this case the item is the image) has given people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created.<\/p>\n

The following are my favorite websites (in no particular order) that I use and recommend to anyone looking for awesome images to populate their website or blog.<\/p>\n

Unsplash<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/unsplash.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Unsplash is a great website if you\u2019re looking for outdoor shots or some creatively arranged spaces, like offices and buildings. While they do have some awesome images of people caught in candid moments (for an image of a genuine smile or laugh), their strong suit is breathtaking\u00a0landscapes or amazing urban views. Unsplash is definitely a favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

Pexels.com<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Pexels feels like it has a wider offering than Unsplash although I have no idea if that\u2019s true or not. A quick cursory search for things like \u201coffice\u201d or \u201cautomotive\u201d returned a pretty good amount of images that I can see working really well on a website as either a background or a supporting image. Definitely, check out Pexels.com.<\/p>\n

Pixabay<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/pixabay.com<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for more than just photos for your website, Pixabay is where you want to be.\u00a0Beyond photos, they also have a lot of illustrations, icons, clipart, video and more.\u00a0Personally, I don\u2019t think a lot of the clipart fits the image of my websites so having it in the search results kind of clutters the results in my opinion, however, if you\u2019re looking for some great 90\u2019s-style clipart, you\u2019ll find it at Pixabay. Their selection of high-quality photographs is pretty solid too.<\/p>\n

PicJumbo<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/picjumbo.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

PicJumbo has a great mixture\u00a0of landscape and building shots as well as photos with\u00a0people in them, usually doing something active like working in an office, checking their mobile device or interacting with each other. Pretty much all of their images\u00a0have a solid, professional feel to their lighting and angle\u00a0which will really make your page look top notch.<\/p>\n

For the people who aren\u2019t opposed to spending a little money on their images, PicJumbo does offer a premium membership<\/a> where they will deliver some of their more exclusive photos directly to your inbox monthly.<\/p>\n

Realistic Shots<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/realisticshots.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Realistic Shots probably has the smallest photo inventory of all of the websites I\u2019ve mentioned in this article but they are adding more every week; 7 more each week to be exact. They have a great selection of images with people doing everyday things and a great selection of beautiful landscapes making it a pretty well-rounded resource for images.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

There are plenty more websites out there that\u00a0offer images under the Creative Commons license and a quick Google search for \u201ccreative commons images\u201d will point you in the right direction.<\/p>\n

One final note I should mention \u2013 don\u2019t use images from Google Images on your website. Those images are simply images that Google has cataloged from around the web. They are still subject copyright laws\u00a0determined\u00a0by the owner of the image. It\u2019s best to avoid them altogether.<\/p>\n

Have a resource for free images other than these 5 or have you experienced success using one of these? Let me know about it in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can’t just use any image you find online on your website, you will likely be sued. However, here are 5 totally free resources for high-resolution, quality images you CAN use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greentreemediallc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}