The 5 Best Sources for Free Stock Photography
AI-generated imagery is all the rage and quite magical. But I don’t think it will ever quite replace the realism and range and art of professional photography. And let’s be honest—sometimes it’s much quicker to simply grab a good stock photo rather than plod along with endless prompts and tweaks to maybe end up with a generated pick that might tick all the content needs, but may just not feel real.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on stock or even any money at all. These are my 5 favorite places to get free, high-quality, legal imagery for presentations.
5. Vecteezy
Vecteezy is a massive collection of both free and for sale images, vectors, videos, and more. But unlike many sites that tempt you with a few freebies, Vecteezy actually has quite a large selection of free to download assets. And if you do come across items that are not free, you can take advantage of the site’s very reasonable rates.
<a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/3d-business">3d Business Vectors by Vecteezy</a>
4. Office Stock Images
You may not realize it, but when you’re working in PowerPoint (or Word or Excel), you have instant access to thousands and thousands of high quality, professional stock images you can insert with a single click from the Pictures dropdown on the Insert tab. And they are absolutely free to use so long as you have an M365 subscription and keep the images within Office. (You can’t extract the imagery to use elsewhere.) While you certainly do not have the breadth of imagery you can find on dedicated stock sites, there is plenty here, it’s all keyword searchable, and it’s a good solution when you just need something quick and aren’t too picky.
Also, don’t forget that from this insert panel, you can also find icons, cutout people, stickers, videos, and illustrations.
3. Pexels
With over 3 million images and videos and growing, Pexels is one of my go-to sites for high-quality professional stock. The site is well-maintained and updated and even offers integrations with software such as Canva, Google Slides, WordPress and even PowerPoint through an in-app add-in. It is owned by Canva.
Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-beige-long-sleeve-shirt-using-macbook-pro-4065876/
2. Pixabay
With over 5 million photos, videos, vectors, and even music clips, Pixabay is a longtime source for free creative resources. With a large diverse library, good search, and the ability to download without even creating an account, the Canva-owned site is one to bookmark and check in on regularly.
1. Unsplash
Though it has been bought out by iStock, and a portion of the catalog is now for purchase under the Unsplash+ tag, Unsplash is still the coolest and most stylishly curated site out there for free images. Even though I pay iStock every month for access to their catalog, I still consistently head to Unsplash for hip, stylized shots on all sorts of topics.
Photo by Redd Francisco on Unsplash