Website Images and Photos: 20 Places To Get Awesome Pictures For Your Web Design Project
f you are creating a website, or if you have someone else design your website then a collection of photos and images ready to use is a must. If there is anything that is worth investing in for your business, it is a professional photoshoot.
However, if you don’t have the time or money for that option right now, then you are going to need some options for your website.
Here are my top free and paid recommendations for finding high-quality images for your web design project.
Chapters :
Where can I get free stock photos for my website?
Pexels.com
Pexels is a great place to start. It has a search bar that displays plenty of options in its results.
You can download images in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Pixabay.com
Pixabay has a ton of high-resolution photography and images and gives you a bit more control of the type of quality and size of the photo you can use. Pixabay is at the top of my stock photo sites because you can also download stock videos that you can use on social media sites.
You need to sign in to an account in order to download these images.
You can download SVGs or standard vector graphics for some images as well.
Free for commercial use and no attribution is required.
One thing to look out for is that Pixabay will usually first show iStock photos in the search results. These are paid, so don’t get too excited by the first row of stock photography you see unless you want to pay for them.
Unsplash.com
Unsplash is another solid option for free images. If you have a Squarespace website, you can actually access all of these photos automatically with the image block options for free.
You do not need to sign in to an account in order to download these images.
You can download SVGs or standard vector graphics for some images as well.
Can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
No permission is needed (though attribution is appreciated!)
Picjumbo.com
Picjumbo is unique in that it makes it easy to find collections of photos around a similar topic. Generally, when you are using free stock photo sites, it can be hard to find collections of photos of a similar theme, however, downloading a collection does require a monthly fee.
Therefore, you can download individual photos for free, but downloading collections comes at a cost.
You can download images in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Negativespace.com
Negative Space has a good selection of free photos that are open to the public domain. They also have a series of click traps that try to make you sign up for Adobe stock too, so be on the lookout for that.
You can download images in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Gratisography.com
The cool thing about Gratisography, other than the fun colors of their website is that they only show photos that are unique.
The photos I saw here using the search function were unlike any of the photos I saw in other places.
Also, these photos tend to have an abstract and artistic vibe to them. So if you want to stand out with something a little different this could be a good bet.
You can download images in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Stocksnap.io
Stocksnap has a great variety of photos that also branch out from the typical display you might see on something like Unsplash. They do have an onsite editor that you can use to modify the photos in their gallery.
You can download images in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Vintagestockphotos.com
Here you can find vintage photos that definitely do not look like stock photos. Their image library is not super big, but if you are looking for unique black and white photos or if you want a random picture of a living room from the seventies, this is a good option.
You’ll need to create an account, but once you do, images are free to download in different resolutions.
Morguefile.com
Morguefile is a photography website that has a good selection of images that are outside of your typical stock photography look but it won’t give you a ton of options. Also, it has a lot of places that look like they are photo options but when you click on them they redirect you to another site.
You need an account to download photos.
After downloading they are free to use for commercial projects.
Free places to get graphics and icons for your website
Tech startups and niche bloggers might run into the problem of not having a collection of images that really represent what they do. Therefore, many web designs, including Headspace, Zoom, and Google’s Skillshop, turn to graphics and icons to be able to symbolize their content.
If I can’t find graphics that I dig on my paid Canva account I turn to these websites.
Undraw.co
Here you can get simple, modern, and minimalistic graphics to use on your website. They have a solid amount of options, and you can easily change the color of the images by inserting your hex code.
You can download images, including SVGs (standard vector graphics that won’t get blurry even when viewed on a larger screen) in one click without having to create an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Blush.Design
What I love about blush is your ability to customize unique-looking graphics beyond the simple color change.
They do have a paid tier where you can unlock even more graphics and templates but if you don’t have the time to do the graphic design work yourself then this could be a huge time saver.
You can download images, including SVGs (standard vector graphics that won’t get blurry even when viewed on a larger screen) in one click after creating an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Flaticon.com
Flaticon is a great place to find an enormous selection of icons and stickers for your website. Perhaps the greatest part about Flaticon is that you can search for catalogs or groups of icons and only be presented with ones that fit your needs.
I especially love the animated icons that can give a bit of subtle movement to the browser on your website.
You can download images, including SVGs (standard vector graphics that won’t get blurry even when viewed on a larger screen) in one click after creating an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Storyset.com
Storyset allows you to search for unique character drawing images and graphics that you can customize through color changes, add and delete elements, and even animate them.
The thing I like most about this content is the ability to filter based on illustration style. When it comes to character drawings you want to make sure your website and brand are consistent, this allows you to do just that.
You can download images, including SVGs (standard vector graphics that won’t get blurry even when viewed on a larger screen) in one click after creating an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Partially Free stock photo websites For your website
Shutterstock.com
Shutterstock has a huge library of images, but you can only download ten for free. Out of all the stock photo websites I use Shutterstock the least because I find it has limited options and can be costly if you are trying to use it consistently.
You can download up to 10 images in one click after you have created an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Rawpixel.com
Rawpixel has a lot of great and unique images that you can download for free with a daily download limit
You can download up to 5 images a day after you have created an account.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
CreativeCommons.org
The Creative Commons is probably my least favorite place to find royalty-free images for a few reasons. Its home page is a little tricky to navigate, and when you click to try and find stock images to use it takes you to Wordpress.org.
Sometimes you can find some truly unique new photos because all kinds of folks upload stuff here.
Each photo has its own license creative commons license, each with different copyright restrictions and you need to read the fine print to see if you can use it for your site or not.
So though this is technically a place to find free stock images, it can be very hit or miss.
Note: the creative commons cc0 is supposed to be a universal license attached to all images within the platform. But the legal jargon around this also very difficult for most users to navigate.
Paid photo sites for your website
I don’t use these websites, but they can provide some unique photos that can only be purchased. So if you have more money than time these could be good options for you.
Benefits of these sites:
Unique videos and images.
Better search options. The AI one these sites will generally give you what you are looking for without having to do a ton of scrolling.
Commercial use for all of these images comes standard so that you don’t have to worry about getting flagged by search engines if you don’t give attribution.
Three SEO Best practices for images
Images are great, but even if you find the perfect photo there are few things worth doing to ensure that your blog or webpage will appear in search engines.
Reduce your image size below 500 KB (Kilobytes). Slow loading pages are usually caused by huge image sizes. By reducing the image size below 500 KB you create a faster loading page, and Google likes faster loading pages.
An easy way to compress an image is using the free website TinyPNG.com. Simply drag and drop the image into the upload feild and it will tell you how big the image is before and after compression.
The paid tier of Canva also allows you to compress files before downloading which can be helpful.
Lastly, if none of that helps and your file is still too big, open the picture on Mac and go to the top menu bar and click tools and then reduce image size. You can do something similar on PC as well.
Have an image at every scroll depth. Every time someone scrolls down on your webpage it should have a picture. The more value that picture adds the better.
Charts, graphs, and diagrams work well for some industries because they are highly sharable and help people digest information in a new way.
Give images alternative text (alt text). Not only is describing your images helpful for people who have vision impairments or images turned off on their browser, but it also gives you a seo boost.
Describe what is happening with each picture, remove filler words, and be intentional about using keywords without keyword stuffing.
Squarespace makes this super easy.
Click the image, click the pencil icon, and then describe the image where it says image alt text.
What photo editing software should I use to edit my photos for my website?
Canva.com
I love Canva with all my heart and soul. I could not create websites without it. It makes graphic design way more intuitive and accessible to folks. Canva’s free version allows you to use shapes and elements to create truly unique high-resolution images.
I design everything from my YouTube thumbnails, to website backgrounds using Canva. Their paid tier is around $13 a month and gives you unlimited access to a huge library of high-quality stock photos and an awesome video library.
You can even filter your searches by graphics, photos, and elements. Using Canva makes it so much easier to modify photos and graphics, layer items, change colors, and way more, all without photoshop. Though there is a free tier, the paid version is worth every single penny.
You can create unique graphics and upload your own photos for free use.
All images here are royalty-free meaning that you can use them everywhere and use them for commercial use under the paid tier.
Their license says that you don’t need to give the photographer attribution.
Befunky.com
Befunky is a more user-friendly version of photoshop with a twist. You can use incredible filters to make your images look truly unique and artistic.
This is especially helpful if you are trying to make images have a more hand-drawn or cartoon-like look.
Another helpful tool is that you can replace the specific color of an image with another color, something that Canva doesn’t yet have.
I use Befunky, especially when creating thumbnails because it can make your content really pop and also make your images look more click-worthy.
Image sites that source other image websites for you.
Kaboompics.com: This website allows you to search for photos using the search bar and displays photos from other image sites. The only thing I like about this is that you can search for images by color, otherwise it’s kind of a labyrinth.
Lifeofpix.com: Similarly, it sources photos from other places but mostly adobe stock. It has additional search qualifiers like industry, orientation, category, and color, but it often comes up with no results when using the image search.
Written by Clint Mally