Where can I find free images in 2020?

Free image resources have changed

If you’re looking for free images for your website, you’ll find some great resources here. I first wrote about free images back in 2015. There have been a lot of changes in the last 5 years. More people are taking and willing to share their photos. As a result there are a ton of new resources you can access, so I thought it was time to rewrite an updated article.

Why are images an important part of your website?

High quality images are an important element of most websites. Images draw people in and can create an impression about your business in a way that words never could. I would always recommend having personalised photographs and images where possible, showing you, your workplace and tools, your customers and anything else that may be of interest to your potential customers. Helping your visitors to understand who you are, what you can do and what you’ve already done helps to build trust. Why is that crucial? People only buy from people they trust. Commissioning a professional photographer doesn’t always cost as much as you’d think and the results will always be better than those of an amateur, even with the development of high quality smartphone cameras. A great image isn’t just about technicalities like lighting, focus, exposure etc. It’s also about composition and this isn’t something your smartphone can help you with.

I can’t afford to hire a photographer

If you don’t want, or can’t afford, to spend money on a photographer or stock images, you have a few options available. Take photographs yourself, ask a friend who’s an enthusiastic amateur photographer, or try and find an image that is free and legal to use. Finding these can be tricky. Licensing and copyright information can be difficult to establish when looking through Google images and it’s not worth getting the wrong side of a legal battle over copyright, so I’d stay clear of these altogether.

My top 10 resources for free images

So where can you find images that you can can legally use for free? I’ve put in a lot of legwork and here are the results of my efforts. It has to be said that for some of these resources, the quality of the images might not be quite as good as those found on websites that sell them. That’s not true of them all though, there are still some great, high quality images available for free.

So here they are, my top 10 recommendations in 2020. Make sure you read and understand the terms and conditions of these resources before using any of their images.

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