Three Royalty Free Stock Sites

These are five sites I use to gather free stock images. I use them when I am creating photomanipulations or creating a pamphlet for a company who has no images for me to use. The people who share their images are wonderful and even though they don't have to be credited you should still list the site where you got them from. They take the time out of their days to take pictures that people use for free. They save so many people from spending money on photos when they can't afford to do so. Below are the top five sites I use. Click on the names of the sites to be directed to them. 

How are they all free? 

They are under the creative commons licence for the most part. Each site shows you the license they have as you can see by the images below, at least some. By clicking on it you can see just exactly how they are free. Most of the time they are under a cc which allows you to use them for personal and commercial use. Even when you click on an image on some of the sites they will tell you what exactly you can do with the image. I'm not the best at explaining it so if you want to know more check out the sites licensing before downloading. You should do that anyways, it's good practice. 

Pexels

Pexels offers a wide variety of photos for you to choose from. They also below their searches offer sites you have to pay for like shutterstock. So when you click and think it's theirs just look carefully. I've done that a few times not paying attention and then clicking on an image that took me to another site. Though they do make it obvious if you pay attention. They offer such a wonderful variety of pictures that people upload for others to use, completely free. The photographers who post there really take their time to create a wonderful picture. Just type what you want and you'll most likely find it. It's the one I use the most. Once you download it will ask if you wish to donate to the site / photographer. If you click on the arrow next to download you can pick the size you want, you don't need to create an account to get the full size, which is nice. I also like that it tells you what you can and cannot do with the image above the download button. 

Unsplash

 Unsplash offers you high quality photos for free just like the other sites. Just type what you want and bam, instant photos of wonderful quality for you to pick. Just click on the image and it gives you the download button and other images you might like to see. A nice feature it has is when you download a little window will pop up telling you that you don't have to credit but perhaps give the artist a nice thank you / shout out to give them exposure. In this case exposure is good. You don't have to create an account to get the images what so ever. You instantly get the full sized image upon downloading but unlike the other two sites it doesn't tell you the copyrights with the image when you are seeing the image. You can however, click on info to see more about it. 

PixaBay

Pixabay and Unsplash are almost exactly the same. To be quite honest all the sites are almost the same. They give you photos, they tell you the copyright, and they ask if you'd like to shout out or donate. Pixabays layout is the most fluid to me. I like how smooth it works and how easy it is to navigate. Not that the other two aren't but sometimes the others can lag just a bit. I've had no issues with Pixabay what so ever. I love when you click on the image it tells you what you can and cannot do with the image. Like Pexels it let's you pick the size of image you want to download but if you wish to download the full res size you must create an account with them.