Beware When Looking For Free For Commercial Use Photos
There’s a growing number of photographers who try to trick you into thinking the photo they took is free for commercial use but it’s actually under copyright. If you take the bait and use the photo, they find the photo on your site and send you a scary attorney letter. In most cases, the recipient of the letter settles out of court for several thousand dollars. It sure beats making money the normal way. These folks are pond scum. Calling them human beings insults our race. Don’t fall for the trap, if you see any text on any part of the photo doesn’t use it. Nine times out of ten it’s a trap.
There are Plenty of Free For Commercial use Photo Sites on the Web
It used to be that Istockphoto was the place to go to find very reasonable stock photography. Their very cheap pricing model upset the big players in the industry like Getty. Eventually Getty offered a deal that Istockphoto could not ignore and Istockphoto was transformed into a place to get great photos for expensive prices. This has forced many designers to look elsewhere for photography including myself. Thankfully there are many sources for free photos!
The Evils of the
The List of Free For Commercial use Photo Sites, Enjoy!
- LibreStcok (31K Photos) 100% Free (NEW)
- unsplash.com
- google.com/imghp (click the gear in the upper right then “Advanced Search” then “Usage Rights” at the far bottom.
- pixabay.com
- photopin.com (perfect for blog posts)
- littlevisuals.co
- join.deathtothestockphoto.com
- creativity103.com
- commons.wikimedia.org
- flickr.com (make sure you check “Creative Commons” photos)
- photoeverywhere.co.uk
Don’t use photos that should be purchased. The query algorithms are super sophisticated now. They are so powerful that they can match images by using images so don’t do it. It’s only a few bucks so why bother.
7/21/15
Joyce Jamotillo from canva.com just made me aware of her companies’s list of free stock photos. It’s a killer list. Check it out here!
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