A picture tells a thousand words, especially when it comes to social media. And with easy-to-use graphic design websites like Canva, you don’t have to be a graphic designer to create beautiful images. Paying for iStock photos is necessary when you’re looking for a very specific image in a high resolution (for print, for example), however if you have flexibility in the types of photos you can use, it’s well worth looking at free stock photo sites. Bookmark these favourites.
Unsplash
Unsplash is hands down my favourite free stock photo site. It’s my go-to source for images for my clients and my own social media posts, because the variety and quality is top notch. You can credit the original photographer, as each one is listed, and it’s very easy to download high quality images.
Gratisography
Quirky and weird images of people and animals can be found on this site (think a chicken wearing a wig, for example), along with more traditional landscapes. If I’m looking for something a little different, I’ll head to Gratisography. However, the search functionality isn’t the best.
SplitShire
Beautiful, stylised images of people, technology and nature are found on SplitShire. The photos are very professional and slick, often with different perspectives of the same thing, so you can get landscape or portrait size images to use. The download links can be a little hit and miss sometimes (I’ve had a few 404 messages), but the quality of images is high.
Pexels
Pexels has some really lovely, real-to-life images, different to what you might find on other sites. From beautiful landscapes to people in action, there is a great variety of professional photos on this site. This has quickly become a favourite. It’s also really easy to search for what you’re looking for.
I use photos from these sites when I’m creating social media images. If you need assistance in creating social media images to post on your own channels, reach out and let’s chat.