Introduction to best website images.
Be it a blog or website, wonderful photos are needed. Needed to accompany the words, to elucidate the points made, as proof of what you are writing and to do what words can never do sufficiently, to express visual beauty, to announce aesthetics. You can write thousands of words about the beaches of Mauritius but can you really make the reader realise how blue the ocean is or how the white sand spreads for miles….unless, of course, you use a photo or two?
1. Stock Photo Sites
This point being established, the question arises, where to get the photos. First and best option would be for you to go to a paid professional photo buying website like;
Stock Photo Site | Quality | Variety | Pricing | Unique Selling Point | My View | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Getty Images | High | Wide | Premium | Large, high-quality selection. | Best for high-budget projects needing exclusive images. | Try Getty Images For Free |
2. Shutterstock | High | Wide | Premium & Subscription
Check Pricing |
Huge library, adds new images regularly. | Best for businesses requiring diverse and high-quality images regularly. | Try Shutterstock For Free |
3. Adobe Stock | High | Wide | Premium & Subscription | Integrates seamlessly with Adobe Suite. | Best for Adobe users, provides a range of high-quality images. | Try Adobe Stock For Free |
4. iStock | High | Wide | Premium & Subscription | Exclusive, high-quality images. | Best for those needing exclusive, premium photos. | Try iStock For Free |
5. Alamy | High | Wide | Pay Per Image | Large collection of diverse photos. | Best for unique and diverse image needs. | Try Alamy For Free |
6. Unsplash | High | Good | Free | High-quality photos for free. | Best for anyone on a tight budget needing high-quality photos. | Try Unsplash For Free |
7. Pexels | High | Good | Free | High-quality, free-to-use images. | Best for startups and bloggers requiring high-quality, free images. | Try Pexels For Free |
8. Pixabay | High | Good | Free | Extensive collection of free images. | Best for general purpose images. | Try Pixabay For Free |
9. Canva | High | Good | Premium & Free | Includes an online design tool. | Best for DIY social media and blog images. | Try Canva For Free |
10. Freepik | High | Wide | Premium & Free
Check Pricing |
Includes vectors and graphic resources. | Best for designers needing vectors along with images. | Try Freepik For Free |
11. Dreamstime | High | Good | Premium & Subscription | Holds contests to keep photographers active. | Great for diverse stock photos. | Try Dreamstime For Free |
12. Depositphotos | High | Good | Premium & Subscription | Flexible payment plans. | Best for cost-effective high-resolution images. | Try Depositphotos For Free |
13. 123RF | High | Good | Premium & Subscription
Check Pricing |
Over 90 million stock images. | Best for high volume users. | Try 123RF For Free |
14. Bigstock | High | Good | Premium & Subscription
Check Pricing |
User-friendly interface with good selection. | Best for those looking for an easy-to-use platform with diverse images. | Try Bigstock For Free |
15. StockSnap.io | High | Fair | Free | High-resolution photos for free. | Great for high-quality, general use images. | Try StockSnap.io For Free |
16. Rawpixel | High | Good | Premium & Free
Check Pricing |
Carefully curated, unique images. | Best for unique images for social media and blogs. | Try Rawpixel For Free |
17. Picjumbo | High | Fair | Premium & Free
Check Pricing |
High-quality, unique photos for free. | Best for bloggers and freelancers. | Try Picjumbo For Free |
18. Kaboompics | High | Fair | Free | Free photos with a unique style. | Great for unique, stylish photos for blogs or social media. | Try Kaboompics For Free |
19. Life of Pix | High | Fair | Free | Free high-resolution photos. | Best for artistic, high-quality photos. | Try Life of Pix For Free |
20. Burst (by Shopify) | High | Fair | Free | Free photos, great for ecommerce. | Best for Shopify users and ecommerce businesses. | Try Burst For Free |
These website have a large collection and they are all professionally captured, high definition images. The images are completely royalty-free and you can search for any topic you wish and these sites have that covered. You can find dozens of images for every topic and every photo is there for reuse, with modification, if you wish.
Advantages:
- Large collection of photos on every topic.
- Professional, high definition photo.
- Vector images available.
- HD video clips are available.
- Reuse allowed, with or without modification.
- Easy search.
Disadvantage:
Ok it is not free BUT, the fee is not exorbitant and I believe that you get what you pay for. You don't have to search hours for copyright-free images on the next numbered Google or Flickr. You don't have to deal with low quality images or camera captures of the amateurs. If you are serious about the blog or website you are building, these images are certainly worthy of the investment. As not everyone is willing to pay for photos, your images are rather exclusive as well.
2. Google Search.
So the easy way would be, yes, you guessed it right, to go to GOOGLE!! You can search for anything and Google would find you hundreds of thousands of images, instantly. You can easily use them in your blog or on your website. WRONG! While we tend to indiscriminately use images, it is not only morally wrong, it is punishable as well, due to the copyright protection acts, such as DMCA. You can not simply lift a photo and use it. You would be violating the copyright of the owner. Indeed, someone put efforts in creating that photo and you are simply using it, doesn't make moral sense either.
If the morality doesn't bother you, know these things. Firstly, the original owner of the image can easily sue you and he would win the case, as you are directly violating the website. Secondly, he can complain to Google and other search engines (yes, people do search on Bing and DuckDuckGo etc.) that your site is using his copyrighted images without any permission. Trust me, Google takes copyright violation very seriously. The best case scenario would be instant manual penalty of lowering the rank of your website. This would lead to loss of traffic and you certainly don't want that as traffic translates into revenue, for any website. The worst case scenario would be Google removing you completely, from the search results, which is almost doomsday. We would never want any of these happening to our websites, would we!
What would be the workaround? You can actually Google for photos and use those. However, you need to be careful. First search for the images of whatever you need. Then, click on TOOLs, which is located just under the search box. Then click on usage right, then select the third option which says, labelled for reuse. These are the images which you can use freely on your website or blog.
Advantage:
- Free
- Easiest searching
- Large repository
Disadvantage:
- Very limited image labelled for reuse.
- Not unique, which means anyone can use those images, making your website lose any uniqueness.
While Google is the panacea, there are far more dedicated websites for photography and images.
3. Flickr.
Flickr is the most known name among all and indeed it has the highest collection of image available on any particular site. However, again, not all images are for indiscriminate reuse. You need to check which images are allowed for commercial reuse.
To do that, search for the images you require, after signing in (recommended). Once the search results appear, click on Any licence and then select commercial use allowed. If you find something which fits your bill, you are in luck. Else, from the same drop-down, select no known copyright restrictions. You will see the search results changing and only selected images appearing after you choose either of these filters. If you are in luck, you can probably find the image you are looking for.
Advantage:
- Free
- 13 billion photos in total
- Easy search.
Disadvantage:
- Very limited image labelled for reuse.
- Not unique, which means anyone can use those images, making your website lose any uniqueness.
Flickr also suffers from what Google generic search suffers. Either the images are not for commercial reuse, or, these images are everybody's property, which means, anyone can use those. Do you wish to use those for your website and look like an amateur?
4. Take your own photos.
Another good start would be to grab your camera and go photographing, however, this is easier said than done. Often this is simply not possible. You can also try editing your own photos, especially for technical write ups, but that would require you to have professional photo editing skills. Now, who would want to go there and do that if his or her expertise is something else, completely.
Conclusion and recommendation to finding best images for your website.
Considering everything, I would say, every serious website or blog owner should use these mentioned professional image selling websites if they want to flourish in the long run.
That's all for now:
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