How to Find Modern, Free Stock Photos for Your Business
Photo By Fineas Gavre on Unsplash
In an ideal world, we’d all have a photographer on staff who we could send out to get amazing, high-quality photos for our websites and blogs. Or maybe we’d always know we needed a photo far in advance, so we’d have time to hire a photographer when we decided we really needed some great photos of women laughing at salads.
(Side note: please don’t use photos of women laughing at salads.)
When you’re a small business, though, staff photographers aren’t an option in your budget and your projects and deadlines can show up without warning.
That means you need access to beautiful stock photography—and you need it fast. Luckily, there are a few reliable sites you can visit to find the free stock photos your business needs.
My favorite free stock photography websites
The three stock photo sites I use regularly are Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. These sites are community-sourced, which means that photographers around the world upload their work here to be used for free for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
I find that Unsplash has the most variety and quantity, so I usually start here. If I can’t find a beautiful, modern stock photo that catches my eye on Unsplash, then I’ll try Pexels and Pixabay.
The benefits
The photos are high-resolution, high-quality stock images, so they look beautiful on-screen or in print
The stock images feature diverse subjects, increasing the visibility of all kinds of people and making it possible for you to mirror your specific community
They go beyond the typical limiting images of women as “the dieter, the multi-tasker, the mother and the sex object”
Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay are all very user-friendly, making it quick and easy to find and download free stock images
Images can be used with or without photographer citations, increasing the flexibility of your design
The drawbacks
Limited search functionality
The search functions on these stock photo sites aren’t very intuitive, and I often find the results of compound searches lacking. Searching for “businesswoman writing,” for example, might result in some photos of women in suits or women in office spaces, and other photos of notebooks and pens. Their search engines don’t understand that I want to combine the two ideas: Where is the photo of a woman in a suit, writing in a notebook?
Image popularity
Lots of people use stock photos, whether from a paid service or a free photo search engine like Unsplash, Pixabay, or Pexels. That means that the photo you select will show up across the internet on other businesses’ websites and media. For most small businesses, that’s a small price to pay for high-quality, free stock photos.
Most people only scroll through the first few rows, though, so if you want to gain a little bit of an edge in the “uniqueness” factor, you can scroll further down before selecting your shot. That way it’s more likely that you’ll choose a more unique stock photo for your own media!
Ready to find your perfect stock photo?
Cathlyn Melvin is a writer and editor specializing in copy and content marketing for coaches, social enterprises, and other mission-driven businesses. To learn more about her work and how she can help you reach your ideal clients and grow your business, please visit www.rightcatcreative.com.