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FREE Image Sources

Disclaimer: Elise Ho, aka “Dr. Ho” is a Holistic Health & Life Coach. Dr. Ho is NOT a medical doctor, licensed therapist, lawyer, or a bevy of other things. Products or services that Dr. Ho believes in are the only ones that she recommends. Dr. Ho may receive compensation, product, or an affiliate commission on anything you see on this site. This is a personal Website solely reflecting Dr. Ho’s personal opinions. Statements on this site do not represent the views or policies of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

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FREE Image Sources

Are you looking for FREE image sources for great royalty free images?

Perhaps you are confused about what that even means.  

Let’s end the confusion and find those great images.

To begin we must start at the beginning. It is time to clear up the confusion that the idea of “Free Image Sources” brings to mind.

 Even more, confusion is apparent when terms such as “royalty-free”, “usage rights”, “digital ownership”, “attribution” and “Creative Commons” are thrown about.

So what does it all mean?

  • Free Images Sources are just that. These are photos that you can use without paying any royalties. Royalties are fees that you pay for use of someone else’s property which in this case is a photo.
  • Royalty Free means that you do not have to pay any party for the use of the property. Do note that the owner still owns the copyright to the merchandise.
  • Usage Rights refers to the rules governing the use of a product which in this case is the rights for using something in which you do not hold digital ownership.
  • Digital Ownership refers to proprietary rights over virtual assets.
  • Attribution refers to giving credit to the person who owns the rights. 
  • Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.

Now that you understand the terminology, let’s go hunting for some Free Image Sources.

  1. Morgue File
  2. Flickr
  3. Pixabay
  4. Free Digital Photos
  5. Photoeverywhere.co.uk
  6. Openphoto
  7. Stockvault
  8. Unprofound 
  9. Dreamstime
  10. Free Range Stock
  11. Free Photos Bank
  12. Public Domain Pictures
  13. Your own Photos 🙂 As in taking some photos 🙂

This is exciting stuff. You now understand how to find and use free images, but you want to personalize it. How do you do that?

It is easy with such services as PicMonkey and Canva.

For example, Canva is a simple, drag-and-drop, design software that’s completely online and free to use. I really think it is a pretty great. There are also paid accounts so click over there (and to PicMonkey too),  play with the free editing tools and then decide if you wish to pay for the upgrade.

After all this, if you really do not want to go through the efforts of finding the right picture, editing it and making sure that you are using it properly then consider using a virtual assistant to help you, or a service such as Fiverr.

Keep in mind that the placement of a photo in a post can drive up your social media shares by as much as 50% so do not skip this important step.

Do you have great resources to add to this list? Please comment below so we can keep the resources up to date. Thank you.

 

 

Please use the comment section below to share your tips, questions, and/or thoughts about this post.

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Naturally Yours,
Elise Ho
Ph.D., D.N. Psych.
Behavioral & Mental Health Specialist

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38 thoughts on “FREE Image Sources”

  1. Free stuff is always great stuff! Bloggers can always benefit from free image sources as they will not have any difficulty in taking photos and turning in them into blog banners for every blog post. Not only that, but it could also be of help to the photographers who took the photos. Their works could be seen by others hence, can improve their online presence.

  2. Hi Elise,
    That’s a great list of websites which provide free images. And let me tell you that even I have started a small website named http://www.pixaocean.com where I aim to provide free images. It would be great if you are adding my website to this amazing list of yours.
    Thanks for the share.
    And have a good week ahead.

  3. I just discovered this older post, but it’s really valuable! Definitely bookmarking it! I know about some of the photo sites you mentioned, but not all of them. Thanks for sharing!

  4. Hi Elise,

    Thank you so much for clearly explaining all of the photo options out there!
    I try to use images for my soc media posts, blog posts and especially my website, but it can get very confusing on what can / can not be used.
    As a result, I’ve started taking my own pictures and do use picmonkey and fotor to edit the pics 🙂

    I had not heard of stockvault, thanks so much for sharing this info!
    Best,
    Monisha

  5. Elise
    This is great information. I have heard so many horror stories about people getting sued for using photos that other published on line, I have stuck to either my own photos or iStock. Great to see that there are other options out there!! Thank you for sharing

  6. Excellent resource list Elise! I normally get my images from Fotolia – it is not free but very low cost. I do have a few resources for free images, but always go back to Fotolia because I am very fussy about the particular look and color of the images I use for branding purposes and I can always find what I need there. Of course that means I have a small fortune invested in stock images but I reuse them a lot so I feel I get my money’s worth. Thanks for the inspiration!

  7. Deborah A. Ten Brink

    Hello Elise:

    Thank you for the clarification of the various usage licenses. Thank you also for a list of free resources! Always looking for free images for marketing. My favorite way is to create my own, but I don’t always have the time.

    Will be checking out the ones that are new to me! 😀

    Deborah

  8. Hi Elise,

    Thank you for taking time out of your oh so busy schedule to create this post. You have linked to many wonderful places whereby we can get free images. I know that takes some work and I do appreciate that.

    I sure will pass this on!

    -Donna

  9. Hello Elise, What a great list of free image sources, I like to find an image and then add something to it with Photoscape or Abobe
    Thanks for sharing.. Chery :))

  10. Hi Elise,

    Thank you for sharing these great resources for “free” images 🙂 Always looking for places other than Google….Great share 🙂

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About The Author

Dr. Elise Ho

Dr. Elise Ho

Dr. Elise Ho is a Holistic Health & Life Coach with a special interest in emotional health, life alignment, and energy flow.

Elise will partner with you to align your mindset, your energy, your home and your career so that you can live your life's desire with freedom and love.

Elise offers 30 years of experience and multiple certifications and degrees including a Ph.D. in Natural Health and a doctoral degree in Naturopathic Psychology.