Where To Find Copyright Free Images For Your Blog

I think most people believe that blogging is all about writing.  Whilst that is obviously important, blogging is also a very visual medium.  You need to engage with your audience and grab their attention with striking images and graphics.  But where do you find free images for your blog?  Well we have put this list together to show you.

Copyright Free Images For Your Website

You can get yourself into a spot of bother if you think that you can use any image on your site.  It’s easy to find an image on ‘Google Images’, but that doesn’t mean that it is legal for you to use as there are copyright laws that you need to follow.

Thankfully there are plenty of places online to find copyright free/royalty free images that you can use on your site.  Just remember that you should still add a link back to the original image that you use (if you are in doubt, check the site’s usage info).

Flickr

Image by ‘Doug Wheller’ [Source]

Flickr is a fantastic place to find royalty free images for your blog, in fact I use this site quite a bit for this site.  You can find just about any image that you were looking for on lots of different subjects.

In order to search for copyright free images, you need to do an ‘Advanced Search’ (a normal search shows premium images) and select the ‘Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content  ‘.  That way, you can browse a whole host of images to use.  If you want to find images to modify, make sure you select the appropriate option.

Photo Pin

Image by ‘Sprengben’ [Source]

This site is unusual in that they don’t have any images at all.  Instead, it’s more like a search engine where you can search for copyright free images to use.  Photo Pin uses the Flickr API to search through its vast database to find creative commons images.

Despite it just showing images from Flickr, it does make it much easier to find what you are looking for.

Open Clip Art

Image by ‘Keistutis’ [Source]

If you are after any kind of icon or vector image, then ‘Open Clip Art’ is the place for you.  This site has tens of thousands of images for you to use, and the best bit is that they are ALL royalty free!  This is fantastic as you can use them across your site and in any products that you are creating.

A truly fantastic site for any website owner to check out.

Stock.xchng

Image by ‘Raven3k’ [Source]

This great site has plenty of images for you to choose from.  Though it lists premium images as well on its site, you can distinguish between the two as the premium images have watermarks.  All the images without are free for you to use (though you should always double check to make sure).  The other great thing about this site is that their images are massive in size so if you are looking for high resolution images, then this is a good place to start.

You will need to create an account with the site in order to be able to download any images.

Stock Photos For Free

Image by ‘SPFF’ [Source]

This site has plenty of HD images for you to use.  All of their images are free to use as you like, though you do have to register before you can download any (you can also login via Facebook).  Interestingly, most of their photos are stills taken from HD footage from VideoBlocks.com, though they continue to add more professionally taken images all the time.

Morgue File

Image by ‘mconnors’ [Source]

Yes, despite its rather gruesome name, this is a great site to find high-res stock photos for your site.  They are all free for you to use and they have a huge library to search through on a whole host of different categories.

Images are vital for your site, especially your featured image (learn how to edit your featured image).  Also make sure to check out our guide to properly optimize images for your site to learn how to reduce the file size and keep your site running quickly.

Where do you find free images for your site?  Do you use any of the sites mentioned here?  Please let us know by leaving a comment below.