Free Stock Photos
In the past few years, free stock photography sites have been cropping all over the web. I was first exposed to these from one of the most popular sites Unsplash and have been using more and more of these services since then.
The problem now is many others have found Unsplash and I’ve scrolled through their list so many times I have them memorized. In order to be different, I’ve started keeping a list of bookmarks to other services that might not be as well known.
Stock Photo Sites
Pixabay has over 550,000 images and the search is pretty good. I can usually find an image here in a short amount of time.
This service doesn’t have as many images and the search is lacking, however, all the shots are high quality and look nice.
This is a new collection I found recently and it features a unique mix.
More than 180,000 photos in the public domain. Most are from many years ago but good if you are needing something in an old style.
Customizing
Once you’ve settled on your photo if you’d like to make it your own here are a few ways of handling it:
This tutorial features a few ideas on making them your own by adjusting colors, cropping, layering, and more.
Buffer created this little app named Pablo where you can upload your image and easily add text over top. It’s quick and I get a ton of use out of it.
Works similar to Pablo but many more styles and layouts for customizing the overlayed words.
Closing
This post just barely touches the surface on apps and sites for free stock photography and if you are not careful you can spend hours looking for a perfect photo. That is why I keep my list small.
Do you have a site or service you are using that you love? Share in the comments.