Let’s talk about blog images!
(… specifically, where you can get free stock photos to use on your blog.)
Full disclosure: I don’t use stock photos often— the vast majority of photos I use on my blog are my own work. The rare exception to this is generally in the realm of “official” media provided by a company for promotional purposes. That said, not everyone is into taking their own photographs for their blog and social posts, and that’s okay! To avoid getting in hot water for improper attribution or copyright violations, you need to make sure that you have permission to use the images you’re incorporating into your content.
Top 3 FREE websites for totally legal-to-use free stock photos
The following three stock photo sites offer a wide range of high-quality (and free!) stock photos that you can use in your blog posts, articles, and social media feeds.
While giving credit to the creator isn’t required when you use an image from these platforms, attribution is an excellent acknowledge artists’ hard work (example below)— while earning some karma points, to boot! (Note that other terms might apply, so dig into each platform’s FAQs to review them.)
Unsplash
Pexels
Pixabay
Bonus: Librestock
Librestock is an aggregator rather than a direct provider of stock images. Still, they deserve a spot on this list because they make it super easy to quickly find free-to-use stock photo gems across multiple platforms.
Top 3 PREMIUM websites for stock photos
Can’t quite find what you’re looking for among the sources for free stock photos? Check out these paid premium services for subscription and one-off options.
Adobe Stock
Death to the Stock Photo
Creative Market
*While Creative Market isn’t a stock photo provider per se, this digital artist marketplace has a tremendous assortment of high quality, premium stock photography for sale.