Where to Find Images Online For Your Website?

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 Find Images Online
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As a blogger, we often miss out the importance of images and even if we use images, most of the time we pick it from random Websites. Here I’m sharing some useful resources for beginners to  Find Images Online for free. These Image sites, will help you to pick the best image for your next blog post.

For simplicity’s sake, a lot of writers use photos that they find online. Using images that are owned by someone else is fine as long as you make sure that you won’t be infringing on copyright. It is illegal to borrow an image from another site without getting explicit permission from the person who owns the rights to that image.

What do we mean by explicit permission? If you find an image anywhere other than a free image site, you must contact the site and get written permission to use the image.

Always trace images that you find online back to their original source, and check the copyright information once you get there. If you can’t find the original source, don’t use the image. You risk infringing on the content owner’s copyright if you do. For example, let’s say someone downloads an image from nationalgeographic.com for a blog post. If you find the image and then use it for your article, you will be infringing on National Geographic’s copyright (as did the person who used it for the blog post).

Free image sites take a lot of the guesswork out of finding images, because they have already identified the copyright information you need to know. Many of these sites exist, but always read the fine print in a site’s terms of use before using their images. If the terms say anything about non-commercial use only, you can’t use their images in your articles. For example, PicApp does not allow users to copy or reproduce the visual content on its site or use the visual content for commercial purposes.

Websites to find Images online for Free

Here I’m listing most of the places which you can use to get free images and some paid image site. Though, my favorite is Flickr and I’m sure you would love to pick any one from these big list of Images site:

Google Images

Google images has always been first place to find images, though it’s hard to know what license that image contains. But with recent changes and with feature addition, Google images has become one of the holy grail to find images online.

Google Advanced Image Search
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A new feature on Google Images allows you to restrict your search results to images that you can share, use and even modify. To use this feature:

  1. Go to the Advanced Image Search page.
  2. Enter your search query and then, under the Usage Rights section, select either Labeled for commercial reuse or Labeled for commercial reuse with modification.
  3. Click Google Search. Your results will be restricted to images that have appropriate licenses.
  4. Click on the image you want to use and then open it at its source.
  5. Verify that the image is licensed appropriately.

Note that the credit link should be to the image’s source, not to the Google page. Also, when a photographer’s full name is not given, enter the user name in the Credit field.

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Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is a repository of free images, sound and other multimedia files that tends to be a good source for images of celebrities and sports stars. All of the content is in the public domain or released under free licenses, but make sure you read the license details provided with each photo. Where possible, follow images back to their source.

Flickr

Flickr Advanced Search
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Flickr is a popular photo management website that allows users to share personal photographs. To find images with Creative Commons licenses that you can use for your articles:

  1. Go to the Advanced Search page.
  2. Enter your search query and then click both the Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content and the Find content to use commercially check boxes.
  3. Click Search. Your results will be restricted to images that can be used for commercial purposes.
  4. Click on the image that you want to use and look under Additional Information to verify that the image is licensed appropriately (e.g., Attribution or Attribution Share Alike).

If you find an image on Flickr that doesn’t have a Creative Commons license, you can contact the Flickr member and ask for permission to use it. Most photographers will likely feel honored that you want to use their photos. Let them know how you will be using it and ask how they would like to be credited. Remember to post a comment with a link to your article once it has been published.

Read:

Bigfoto

Almost all of the photos provided on bigfoto have been taken by amateur photographers on their holiday or business travels. You can use the images provided that you include a link to the bigfoto website. The search capabilities on the site are limited, but the images are good quality.

Everystockphoto

Everystockphoto is a search engine that indexes license-specific photos from a variety of sources. The license is almost always shown below and to the left of a photo, and it clicks through to the specific license page. It is your responsibility to review the terms of use before you use an image.

Note that the credit link should be to the image’s source, not to the everystockphoto page.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

FreeDigitalPhotos.net photos may be used for personal, educational and commercial use as long as you credit and provide a link to FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Categories include: animals, business and industry, celebrations, everyday items, food and drink, natural world, people, places, sports and leisure, and transportation.

FreePhotosBank

FreePhotosBank images are posted by both “freephotosbank” and individuals. You can download and use images posted by freephotosbank as long as you credit them. If you want to use an image posted by an individual, use the Contact this photographer feature on the photographer’s profile page to ask permission.

Categories include: abstract, architecture, computers and technology, fruits and food, nature, objects, transportation, and life.

Freepixels

Freepixels images may be used for both personal and commercial purposes as long as you credit freepixels.com.

Categories include: abstract and concept, architecture, nature, objects, food and drinks, travel, and people.

Freerange Stock

Freerange Stock provides images that can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects. You must be a registered user to download photos, but registration is free. Credit the name of the photographer (either “Freerange Stock” or an individual photographer/artist), and provide a link to the page on Freerange Stock where the image resides.

Again, when you are crediting a photographer, the photographer’s user name is acceptable if the full name is not given.

Image*After

Image*After is a large collection of free photos. You can download, modify and use their images for either personal or commercial purposes. No photographer/artist is listed on the photos, so credit “Image*After” and provide a link to the page on Image*After where the image resides.

MorgueFile

morgueFile is a repository of photos that can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Searching for images is easy, and the photographer is clearly identified. Once you have found an image that is suitable for your article, read any instructions that apply to that image. For example, the photographer may ask you to send a message saying how and where you are using the image.

Categories include: sports, nature, textures, still lifes, scenes, objects, animals, and people.

PD Photo.org

PDPhoto is a repository of images, most of them in the public domain. You are free to use the images unless they are clearly marked as being copyrighted. However, be sure to read the license details that are provided with each image as some have restrictions on commercial use.

Stock.xchng

Stock.XCHNG is a gallery containing over 350,000 quality stock photos taken by more than 30,000 photographers. All of the photos have specific terms of use. For example, some photographers want to be notified that you have used their photos; others want to be notified before you use their photos. Always look for the name of the photographer and usage details under Photo details.

Categories include: abstract, architecture, business, computers, concepts, food, nature, objects, people, places, seasonal and events, signs, streets and cityscapes, transportation, and world.

Do let us know which is your favorite resource to  Find Images Online for your blog posts? And if you liked this post, don’t forget to share it on Facebook and Twitter.

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23 thoughts on “Where to Find Images Online For Your Website?”

  1. rapid boy

    Can we use Shutterstock images in our blog to monetize with adsense?

  2. Ahmed Chougle

    Will Google approve adsense application if we use images from other websites by giving proper credits?

  3. shailesh shakya

    Hii,
    thanks again, this is the very intuitive lesson for me.
    I have some queries
    Can I use the screenshot for my blog if required?
    does it ok to make the image from Canva?

  4. Ronald Allan

    Hey, would google adsense approve application for blogs who uses images from google images under the label mentioned here? Thanks.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Yes, they would approve.

      1. muhammadmubashar

        hello sir,can we use a image from any website.if it is labeled for reuse

  5. Santosh Krishna

    Finding images online isn’t a easy deal. If you are infringing copy right laws it may land you in trouble. Its always good to credits so that you are safe. Anyhow thanks for sharing these nice tips for image search

  6. Sascha

    Definitely some nice new examples for me on this list. The other day I came across COMPFIGHT. Nothing special though. They simply browse, like other providers, through picture galleries. However they also provide a neat WordPress Plugin that allows you to insert the pics and credits them automatically. For the lazy bloggers among us 😉

  7. ArpithGJ

    Awesome!! A great list of collection of useful resources. Even searching for the best images that suits our needs in Flickr is also damn easy.

  8. rakesh

    Thanks dear posting this great and amazing list for photographs. A picture always speaks thousand words and and i always love to have such pictures that can speak even more then that.

  9. Astro Gremlin

    I’ve been a little baffled by WordPress automatically deleting URLs I paste it to give photo credits. I started using a plugin called PhotoDropper. It goes to Flickr Creative Commons and searches by keyword for photos with licenses consistent with one’s goal (commercial use). Then it plunks in the photo with a credit right under it. I just wrote an article on the Wienermobile with a ton of PhotoDropper photos embedded.

  10. Naveen

    I’ve been using Flickr and haven’t tried alternatives since I found tons of good images from Flickr, but some times it takes a bit more time finding relevant images. This is brief list and treat for me to tend more sources.

  11. eddy rehani

    i have always struggled when trying to find images i could use. this blog post has made my life very easy. will bookmark this for future reference.

  12. Surender Markam

    I prefer to use Google and Flickr for posts images but other sites are also good for that work. Some sites mentioned above are new for me, now checking those also.

  13. Andrew

    I use Stock.xchang if I need a free image. They really have a wide selection and I rarely have a hard time finding what I need on that site.

    I did not know about the Usage filter for Google Images. I will definitely be using that for some of my image searches. In fact there are quite a few websites I did not know about. I guess I should bookmark this post then.

  14. Kimi

    I have often been confused with images I want to put in my blog, I usually made a simple one from photoshop..but the problem is they are not interesting..

    Thanks for the lists! They are helpful

  15. Tushar

    good list, I frequently use Google Images to search for images. and here some sites are new to me.
    Thanks for this article.

  16. Mani Viswanathan

    I used to use Flickr prior when I started Blogging. Later I realized the importance of having unique images on a posts page. So now I make most of the images I put on the posts page.

  17. Pubudu @ TechHamlet

    Perfect post for me! I have to get into a lot of trouble when I try to find images to my posts! I think this will solve my issue 😀

  18. Ankita

    Its really a great list, and a wonderful and needful share for all bloggers…Shared it in twitter. Thanks.

    1. Nguyen Trung

      Great list, I frequently use Google Images to search for images, thanks to this article that I know a lot more new addresses. Thanks @Healthmango.

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