Stock images for your website, social media or digital profiles, can get pricy! We are sharing our favourite free stock image sites with you. Yes, you read that right, FREE stock images.
I can see some of you are super pumped, others a little sceptical. Rightfully so! If you have ever used someone's image without their permission it can get very expensive! Most people are happy as long as you take it down. Some are not and will send legal letters.
With the free stock images, they are uploaded by amateur and professional photographers all over the world. They submit their work to these sites knowing it can be used by downloaded by anyone. You can link back to the photographer or even send them a tip if you like. We normally give them a shout-out as a professional courtesy BUT you don't have to. The image we have used in the header is by Photo by Krisffer Aeviel Cabral on Unsplash
Here are two sites we use often for ourselves and clients:
Paid stock images
If you are looking for paid stock image site we use Adobe stock. Great for web designers, content creators or company that use a lot of stock images. We have also used:
Stocksy
Shutterstock
stocksy
Our stock image experiment
As an experiment, we started an account with Pixabay and uploaded 3 images. Have a look below at how many times they have been seen, downloaded, liked or commented on. These images were taken on one of our many trips to our home town.
Highly recommend setting up an account if you are a budding photographer, you never know where it will lead you! Although it is an experiment for us it is also getting our name out there in a creative space. We will have libraries down the track! Misfit stock sounds cool, don't you think?