Quality images are a major component of successful marketing collateral and websites. Most businesses don’t have it in the budget to produce a photo shoot to generate proprietary and professional images. But fear not! Online stock photography is a booming industry. There are plenty of free and low cost images available online. So if you are in need of marketing images, there is a very good chance it is already available (and possibly even free).
Check out these free and low cost online stock photo providers:
1. FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Free Digital Photos
This provider offers a nice variety of quality images. Their images are targeted for business related industries and they have nice illustrations. In order to use these images, a credit with a link to the photographer's web page is required.
2. SXC.HU
sxc.hu
This site is a massive commuity where individuals upload their photos for free use. Because of this, the quality varies by photographer. There are around 400,000 photos to choose from. In order to use these images, you must create an account and then provide an image credit with a link to the photographer’s web page is required.
3. FreeStockPhotos.biz
Free Stock Photos.biz
4. Free Range Stock Photos
5. Every Stock Photo
every stock photo
6. Shutter Stock
This isn't a free site, but one of the most-used royalty free photo sites. They provide high quality stock photos with over 16 million options available. Subscriptions are available and make sense for many stock photo purchases. For minimal uses, you can purchase five high resolution images for $49.
7. Getty Images
getty
Getty is not a free provider, but rather the stock photo industries leader. Getty offers a vast selection of images, but is one of the most pricey stock photo providers out there. If on a tight budget, I would recommend using Getty Images as a last resort. Their pricing starts at $100+ for low resolution images. However, their selection is amazing.
8. iStock Photo
iStock is not a free provider, but also an industry giant. It provides a vast library of quality photos, illustrations, videos and flash animations. Even better, it is one of the most affordable stock photo providers on the web. They sell credits at around $0.95 and a small website appropriate photo costs around three credits. Higher resolution images require more credits.
