As a designer its essential I know where to go to get the right image for my customers. So here are my 7 free high quality stock image web sites I go to every time.
This video will show you how to download royalty free images and videos from the most reputable sources.
Video : High Quality Stock Image Web Sites
Timestamps For Video Above
- 0:30 Introduction
- 1:00 Overview
- 1:10 Pixabay.com for free Videos and Images
- 1:55 unsplash.com for slightly different free stock Image
- 2:40 unsplash is limited
- 3:00 Quirky free stock photos with gratisography.com
- 4:02 One of my favourite high quality royalty free stock websites is fotolia.com
- 4:45 Free trial with fotolia.com and good choice
- 5:10 bigstockphoto.com comes with 7 day free trial
- 5:30 Good medium choice of video or images
- 6:03 Getty produce istockphoto.com
- 6:25 has a credit system to make it affordable
- 6:44 High resolution royalty free images quality and search is excellent
- 7:18 Can just use google.com/imghp
- 8:01 Google Images also has some useful filters
What I like with my choice above is many are free. But if not then they normally have a trial for a week or for 10 downloads. with most of the free images using creative commons or a royalty free licence, this will help keep your business costs down without getting a huge fine from companies like Getty.
High resolution royalty free images are essential if you don’t have a good library of photos for your business. I would recommend getting a good local photographer to take several photos if possible and build up your own library of photo images. Then use these resources to enhance your catalogue of high quality images.
Use the search filters for images
Although having free images is a great option. It’s not always the best option. A high quality image that is exactly what you want is far more valuable than a photo that is on every other page and looks a little cheap and tacky. So being fussy and paying for the right image is also an important part of the choosing process. Do use the filters as it would take a lifetime to manually review each photo. Also if you can filter out old photos, that will help as fashions, hairstyles and technology is constantly changing and you may find older photos look dated.
Running a quick test on my favorite 3 for quality image web sites i find the following results if I search for “Small Business”
FOTOLIA #1
Total Results: 429,421
BEST COST PER IMAGE : £0.50
5 best filters
– Depth of field
– Vivid Color
– Image Type : Photos Vectors Illustrations
– Sizes
– Orientation
ISTOCK #2
Total Results: 368,327
BEST COST PER IMAGE : £1.50
5 best filters
– Orientation
– Upload Date
– Color
– Image Type : Photos Video Illustrations Audio
– Number of People
BIGSTOCK #3
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/
Total Results: 253,501
BEST COST PER IMAGE : £0.23
5 best filters
– Orientation
– Category
– Exclude a keyword
– Image Type : Photos Vectors Illustrations
– Number of People
If you want to locate my High Quality Stock Image Web Sites then here is my list.
I get my high quality royalty free stock images from these websites
- https://pixabay.com/
- https://unsplash.com/
- https://gratisography.com/
- https://en.fotolia.com
- https://www.bigstockphoto.com/
- https://www.istockphoto.com/
- https://www.google.com/imghp
What does royalty free images mean?
Royalty-free images may have a copyright or other intellectual property rights. But may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each usage. This makes it a much easier and cost effective method of use as paying for every time someone visits your website would be an expense most business wouldn’t want.
How to download royalty free images
The web is full of royalty free image libraries. So here are my 7 image library web sites I commonly use. To access them and find the best image, find your photo under the search option by using relevant keywords. If you are looking for icons and professional logos it’s a slightly different type of search and you may want to chose the vector or clip-art filter.
Located your image? Then check to see if there is an introductory promotion or a promocode. if not, then you can normally purchase them by buying a small amount of up front credit. Just follow the direction given and always download the highest quality image possible as you may want to use it in the future for print.
It’s worth realising that high quality images can always shrink to lower quality, but this doesn’t work the other way round. If you purchase a free stock photo without watermark at the size you require and then you need it enlarged you will never get the quality back without repurchasing – so my top tip is always buy the largest version possible.
Conclusion
So in Conclusion, there are many options and free high quality stock image web sites out there. My advice would be to stick with the main 3 above and Google Image search. Use them along with the filters and you will have a lot of high quality images enhancing your website.