HOW TO FIND FREE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND CC0-LICENSED STOCK PHOTOS FOR YOUR PERSONAL BLOG OR COMMERCIAL WEBSITE

Have you noticed that lots of companies and individual photographers have started to give away high-res photos for free? We've taken a close look at these operations and have to admit: today you can get high quality photographs, many of which are imaginative and expertly taken, for use in your blog or commercial website.

These pictures come with a legitimate, public domain license known as a Creative Commons Zero license (CC0) which states explicitly that you can use them commercially -- for example, to support a sales message on a website or brochure -- although you mustn't claim ownership of them and attempt to sell them for a profit.

So, never make the assumption that ALL images on the Internet are "free." You may get away with it as a teenager, sharing pictures on social media, but not in the workplace. Use CC0 images instead.

Welcome to Our Curated List
On this page we provide a curated list of sites offering public domain images, either with a CC0 or a proprietary license that may be even more generous. We've visited and explored each site, in one or two cases contributing a few pictures to see how they work for the photographer.

There are similar, shorter lists out there, but we've actually excluded several sites because they fail to refresh their stock. We've included one or two which offer only small (600px wide) images because they still look good for certain applications. Mostly, today's CC0 sites choose to deliver images at their original size as well as in a range of smaller sizes for web and smartphone.

Where Can You Use Them?
You can use CC0 images for almost any purpose as long as it's legal: advertising, brochures, stationery, letterheading, website design, blogs, cover images, book jackets, business cards, and so on.

Images that come with an alternative license may have certain restrictions, such as "don't use in a company logo." It's usually best to abide by these restrictions to avoid legal problems at a later date. (Apple's cheeky assumption of The Beatles' Apple brand name was a costly exception.)

Do You Need to Attribute Them?
No, not under a CC0 license. However, many people think it's common courtesy to put a name to the work whenever possible, especially now that stock photography is becoming more stylish. That's why it may be better to go directly to a proper distributor or to a personal stock site, rather than to a multi-site search engine which doesn't always give an attribution.

Unsplash, one of the best-supported free stock sites, not only gives you a caption in the form of: "Photo by [name of photographer] on Unsplash," but also puts the photographer's name into the photo's filename. You can even embed a credit badge, although that's not essential (and for some web designers may be a step too far).

PxHere goes even further. It follows the same courtesies as Unsplash, providing a profile page in the style of Flickr, with "Member since [date]" AND a list of the photographer's cameras and lenses, together with Followers and Following.

The CC0 movement is competitive and extremely incestuous. Identical pictures appear on many different sites - and that can be seen as a disadvantage compared to subscription or royalty-based libraries.

Is it here to stay? You bet. Read on to find out why, or scroll down for links to the sites.