70+ websites for free stock images

One of the most frequently asked questions from bloggers is "Where can I find images for my posts?" Since we are not all photographers or designers, we remain the second option, namely to use pictures from the internet. It is now getting into the ranks of copyright and, above all, their misconduct. There are not one or two cases when emails or physical mail arrives from law firms discovered that a site violates the copyrights of their clients. Naturally, there is a clause on how out-of-court dispute can be resolved by financial transfer to their clients' account. In order to avoid such situations, it is better to use sites with free images and here we will focus on the most commonly used sites.

Before we proceed, we'll explain a little about the licenses under which the images are distributed. The most common licenses are CC0, PD, CC.

The first license is the PD - Public Domain- the creative work was created when copyright laws did not exist or the works were explicitly excluded from the law (formulas, facts, discoveries, etc.). A separate work may become public when 70 years have elapsed since the author's death. Then everyone can use it, remix it and share it for free and commercial purposes without permission from the author and without violating its copyright. It is also possible for an author to create a work in the public domain. This is an extremely liberal license with no limitations.

The second license is CC0. It is like a PD but is used specifically for countries where there is no explicitly defined PD. For example, in German copyright laws. Therefore, it is purely technical to assume that the two licenses are the same for Bulgaria.

The third license is CC (Creative Commons). Here, however, there are several licensing options - CC-BY, BY-SA, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND. And the different letters have different rights:

• BY - Attribution - the license is only valid when we point out somewhere in our work that we use copywriting by another author by name;

• SA - Share-Alike - The license is valid only when our works are licensed under the same license. Without the SA, the derivative work may be licensed under another more restrictive license;

• NC - Non-Commercial - the license permits the use of the work and derivative works only for non-commercial use;

• ND - No Derivate Works - the license does not allow the creation of derivative works.
  In fact, if we want to use, modify, or distribute a work for a free and commercial purpose, we may only use licenses licensed under CC-BY and CC-BY-SA. Of course, we must explicitly (BY) say that we use the author's work.

After this introduction, here is a list of sites containing photos licensed under PD, CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA. There may also be copyright photos under other licenses or other restrictions. Get to know the copyrights of the photos you liked before using them.

Free Image Sites:

Wikimedia Commons – Various licenses but all of them are free

Flickr – Various CC и PD

Unsplash – CC0

Pexels – CC0

PublicDomainPictures –  – CC0

Pixabay – CC0

SplitShire – CC0

1 Million Free Pictures – PD

Viintage – PD

Gratistography – CC0

PDPics – PD

The British Library – PD

Flickr “The Commons” – PD

New Old Stock – PD

Pickup Image – PD

Public Domain Archive – CC0

Yeah!Stock Photos – CC0

FreeRange – CC0

VisualHunt – CC0

Startup Stock Photos – CC0

GetRefe – CC0

Jay Mantri – CC0

Magdeleine – CC0

Travel Coffee Book – PD

Moveast – CC0

Barn Images – Various licenses

Free Images – Various licenses

Shot Stash – Various licenses

Free Images.Red – CC0

Re:splashed – CC0

A Digital Dreamer – Various licenses

Mega Pixel Stock – CC0

StreetWill.co – CC0

PolarFox – CC0

Skitterphoto – CC0

PicoGraphy – CC0

Photos Public Domain – PD

Foodies Feed – PD

Jeshoots – Various licenses

Cupcake – CC

Stokpic – CC0

Morguefile – Various licenses

Kaboompics – Various licenses

DesignersPics – Various licenses

ISO Republic – Various licenses

Snapwire Snaps – CC0

StockSnap – CC0

PicJumbo – Various licenses

Life of pix – CC0

Imagebase – Various licenses

Death to stock photo – Various licenses

Libreshot – CC0

Shutteroo – Various licenses

Good Free Photos – CC0

The Light Painters Loft – CC0

Dreamstime – CC0 and other licenses

Free Digital Photos – Various licenses

Free Photos Bank – Various licenses

Image free – Various licenses

Photo Everywhere – CC

StockVault – Various licenses and CC0

RGBstock – Various licenses

Free Media Goo – Various licenses

Superfamous – CC

FreeJPG –  CC and PD

Albumarium – CC

Burst – CC0

NegativeSpace – CC0

FreeStocks – CC0

MMTstock – CC0

Raumrot – CC0

Free Nature Stock – CC0

Realistic Shots – CC0

Search Engines:

The Stocks – Various licenses

CC Search – CC + CC0

Compfight – CC + CC0

Foter – CC + CC0

Stock Up – Various licenses

EveryStockPhoto – CC + CC0

ImageFinder – Various licenses

PhotoPin – Various licenses

StockPhotos – Various licenses PD and CC

Epicantus – CC0

SplashBase – CC0

Free Photos – Various licenses CC0 + CC

EveryPixel – различни лицензи

Google Image Search – Various licenses

Modules for WordPress:

WP Inject
Instant Images
WP Pexels
Pixabay Images
Dreamstime Stock Photos

Editing tools

There are two easy-to-use image editing tools, namely Pablo and Canva. Both allow the image to be edited quickly by adding text above, contrasting effect and recording in popular size formats - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram.

A few years ago, finding free images was relatively difficult, nowadays there is nothing easier than that. If you know another free image resource, you can share it here in the comments.