How to Find Free Low-cost Images For Your Blog
First of all, we need to recognize that creators have a ownership rights to their images, and we can’t just copy an image from another website and use it without permission. That is stealing, just like shoplifting is stealing. Thus, when we do not have a large budget for images, we think of finding free-to-use or low-cost images. Most sites that feature such images also offer images for purchase, and they may not be as expensive as you might think.
Photo by Alisa Dyson from Pixabay.com
We use a lot of GoodSalt images because they are beautiful, we have an affiliate agreement with them, and they are easy to find. However, we are not limited to GoodSalt images. When no suitable image is at GoodSalt.com, we need to look for a suitable image that is free to use. Please review “Plagiarism: Images” before using images you find on the internet. Some suggestions for finding free and low-cost images are below. The first are articles.
We don’t always need “Christian” images, and for those posts some of the others sources below may have suitable images. You will soon find your favorite sources.
(Contributed by Inge. Originally published Jan 15, 2015. This page still needs more updating.)
- Free High Quality Image Resources for Creating Professional WordPress Sites
You can use Irfanview to resize and optimize. (Must be logged in to view these instructions. But see Irfanview.com to download this powerful free image editor.)
Short List of Free-to-use Images
Pay attention to the “credit” requirements.
There’s more below, but the ones above are good bets for starters.
Search Engines:
- Google Advanced Image Search (In Usage Rights specify “Creative Commons LIcense”)
- Search.CreativeCommons.org Search for licensed free images. (Be sure to comply with attribution requirements.)
- EveryStockPhoto.com The search bar now just goes to StockPhotos.com, which carries images for sale. But check Table of Contents for proper use of images.
The following are individual sites. Most worthwhile sites require a free membership. We suggest not using your main email address but using a “disposable” address instead. Please comment below on which ones you find to be good for what purposes, which not so good.
Specifically Christian Sites:
CreationSwap.com
Free Church graphics, photos and videos
Most old paintings are in the Public Domain. (Check to be sure. Use Google or use another search engine to search for “Artwork of David” or “Paintings of Moses” to find a list of paintings. It helps to spend time browsing the paintings to become familiar with the styles of different artists. Some may be suitable for our site, others not so much.
We once had a list of religious sites here, but now they seem to load excruciatingly slowly, and the are quality is not worth the wait.
Secular Sites:
Most of these are indexed in the Search Engines above. Please leave comments indicating which are not indexed or which are indexed where.
- AncestryImages.com free historical prints
- Freerange Stock.com requires membership, but images are free
- CreativeCommons.org copyrighted photos licensed for free usage (check requirements)
- DreamsTime.com sells photos but has a good selection of free images. Requires subscription.
- FreeDigitalPhotos.net thousands of high-quality photos of people in settings ranging from weddings to business situations. Site contains both free and “royalty-free” (premium) photos. Site is currently agonizingly slow. (July 11, 2024)
- FreePik.com free vectors and photos. Requires sign-up. (Use disposable address.)
- FreePixels.com relatively small site with quality images, particularly of nature
- Flickr.com “Creative Commons” archives
- HistoricalStockPhotos.com as the title says …
- ImageFree.com
- MorgueFile.com all completely free images, most nature-themed high-resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use.
- OpenPhoto.net high-quality photo sharing platform created in 1998. Contributors offer their images for free under terms of Creative Commons licensing and usage conditions vary from image to image.
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Kids Praying Before a Meal from Pikwizard
PikWizard.com is a relatively new site. Like most sites offering free images, it has free images to draw you in, followed by images for purchase. Watch for the “Premium” label, indicating images for sale. - RGBstock.com high-quality free stock photos. Requires a free membership.
- StockVault.net free quality images, but includes ads for paid-for images (Click carefully.)
- Vecteezy.com The bestiImages from searches tend to go to IstockPhotos.com, but site offers Free and Pro membership.
- Wikimedia.org Loads of free images. Pay attention to licence requirement.
- Wikiart.org Genre: Religious Paintings Note that a number of artists are listed. If you click on the links, you can see their paintings. Some are suitable, others not. (Most of the paintings feature an ascetic Christ harmonizing with the Roman Catholic view.)
- Sample: Abraham Guarding His Sacrifice by James Tissot (I don’t think this is true to the biblical account.)
- God’s Promises to Abraham by James Tissot. (Image of Abram praying, with realistic context of tent.)
Be sure to read and follow the license requirements for each source of free images. Usually you can put a link under the image and give credit in the caption, since we do not usually use captions for other purposes.
Commercial site worth checking out:
- PixaBay.com lists high-quality public-domain images plus links to www.istockphoto.com images, which are not cheap. Usually there are “sponsored” images at the top and bottom of the page. If you’re looking for free images, you have to scroll down a bit.
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(I hope I got that attribution right!) 123rf.com offers reasonably-priced one-off downloads and much better prices with a subscription. I like the fact that their search function works well enough not to bring up thousands of irrelevant photos at the top of results. If you write for Sabbath School net and find images there, let Inge know, and she can pay for a subscription. - StockPhotoSecrets.com I once thought this was good enough to subscribe to it. Check it out and let me know what you find.
About Image Copyrights
To review what “copyright” means in regard to images, here are a couple of good sites that explain the subject:
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A comprehensive guide to fair use images, | February 17, 2020
Copyright laws about images haven’t changed much in the last 10 years or so. But now there are AI images. Just keep in mind that if you transform someone else’s work with AI, the original better not be traceable if you don’t want to infringe on copyright! (AI images may look good at first glance, but they can still have major flaws. Real photos are still best!)
Note: Although this page may not be completely up-to-date, most of this information is good. If you find dead links, please post in comment section. Also let us know which links work best for you.
Also see https://ssnet.org/blog/testing-free-assets-library-plugin/ (Only logged-in users.)
