2 min read
Free stock photos to use in web design concepts
As a busy creative agency, we often get client who don’t have photography but want their website to look as professional as their competitors site who, because they are more established, have quality images. I have compiled a small list of sites we regularly use on new websites, sometimes as placeholder images, but often as final images in the live site.
Starting with possible the fastest growing website of this type, Unsplash is the standard go-to website when we are looking for quality media, with a vaste selection. The website design is simple, concise and reallly easy to use. There is a function to sign up to their emailing list to get 10 photos every 10 days emailed directly to you. Over the last few years, since it's creation, Unsplash has constantly grown as a company and their website has grown with them. Their current site has the added feature of liking photos which are compiled into a list for you.
StockSnap has a similar look as iStock, which for me is a little dated, this does not have any impact on any of their images though. The search functionality is soo easy to use, and the side bar has filters which I have found expecially helpfull when I am looking for a particular style or type of image.
Jay Mantri is basically a tumblr account with some really high quality, creative imagery. The diverse selection of imagery puts this 3rd on my list of top free stock photos. I would like to see this have it's own website in the future, this would add to the overall user experience and feel of the site.
Gratisography is another of my commonly used stock photo sites, a lot of their images have been manipulated which give them character which some of the other stock photos sites just don;t have, I have found tonnes of playful, and funny images which are just what I'm looking for on some types of website projects.
Splitshire offers exceptional exclusive free stock photos. Every image is free stock and available for instant download. Splitshire also has a huge collection of free stock videos for you to download.
As with many of the above websites, Life of Pix offers an unlimited number of free stock photos and videos for you to browse and download as you please. They also have a 'photographer of the week' every single week which is great for finding photos you may have missed.
I have not really spent much time on PicJumbo, but I plan on using it in the near future, I have a big list of go-to bookmarks when searching for images, and for no particular reason this is at the bottom of that list. By the time I get to this site I have usually found what I am looking for. This doesnt mean to say I do not like the site, it still makes it onto my list of top sites and I would highly reccomend checking it out!
Hiya, I'm Mike - Web designer at Shape. My articles usually consist of design related stuff.
