If like me you deal with content day-to-day, then images become a big headache (or cost!).
Over the years, I have used a variety of different resources and I’m sure there will be people that have suggestions to add in the comments.
But here are my top three:
1. Creative Commons
Probably the most varied option out there. I’m not just looking for simple stock imagery, sometimes I want real life stuff. Maybe pro sports stars, for example. This search enables you to find what is out there that you are free to use, with an appropriate credit. Please never just lift straight off Google Images! You can get in copyright trouble, and most importantly, it’s very unfair to the original creator of the image – photographers deserve to be paid too!
2. Unsplash
For those looking for those stock-type images for their business websites, proposals or marketing material, then Unsplash continues to grow as an option here. A lot of the images you see on Casino Sites are drawn from resources like this.
3. Getty Images
A few years ago, Getty Images made their images available for free on WordPress. This was because they had become fed up of bloggers and the like pinching their images, and the subsequent hassle of both identifying copyright breaches and pursuing them.
So what they did, was launch a plugin that allows people to embed (select) Getty Images in to their site. It effectively is placed in to posts as a sort of iframe, which clicks through to the Getty Images photo page (where people can buy the photo themselves).
This is a fantastic, free way round getting live images. What’s the problem? Well, you can’t set them as featured images. Not a major problem when it comes to the article itself, but certainly it impacts on how your site looks given most themes make use of featured images for the homepage and archive pages these days.
Would love to have other recommendations for sourcing good quality, consistent imagery!
Some other suggestions that have reached me via messages recently:
