Getting Awesome Images For Your Website - The Right Way
Here at Pebble, we have been using images/photos for years when building websites. Having fantastic images on your website not only enhances your actual website but this, in turn, translates into making your business look professional. However, images don't come for free and we have lost count of the number of times people have come to us saying they have been fined or threatened with a fine because they thought that because they were on Google, they are free to use. This is wrong!
Place You Can Go For Free Images
1. Take them yourself!
If you have time, get your best camera out and take your own photos. You may enjoy it and get the exact shots you need. Don't forget to compress your images for your website, we have a really useful post to read here:
2. StockSnap.io
There are thousands of images available on StockSnap which you are free to download and use. The licensing they use on StockSnap mean that all images are governed by Creative Commons CC0, meaning that the person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
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3. Unsplash
A website dedicated to photographers whose passion is to share their photographs to the world, free of charge. They grant you an irrevocable, non-exclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer.
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4. Pixabay
At Pizabay they claim to have over 1.5 million photos to download free of charge. Again, they use Creative Commons CC0 meaning that you are safe to download use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist.
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Summarising...
Don't download your images from Google and even though images can be free to download from the sites listed above, not required but we always recommend giving credit back to the photographer, it is important that you give this recognition and it will make their day!
Credit for our post image goes to Andrew Neel