How to get Free, Quality Royalty Free Images

Author Tools & Tips / Book Covers / FEATURED

As a writer, at some point you will need a cover. As a designer, you need a lot of images for your work. There are many “free” sources for images. Unfortunately, many (not all) are at a lower quality required for a digital ebook or print book. No matter your image choice, remember you run the risk of someone else using the same image for their book.

In most cases, sign up for a photo service is free, and this allows access to the free images offered as well as other tips and resources.

Quality is Key

I use several image companies for my design needs. They range from low to high on their costs per image. However, all are royalty-free, and high quality. And (almost all) offer a free image each month or week. Pretty cool, huh?

Here are just few of the stock places I use:

Shutterstock.com
They offer a larger selection of high quality images and hundreds of new imaes are added every day. The perk is the free weekly image. At an average cost of $20/image, that is really nice.

They have a pay-as-you go service or several subscription levels. For the cost, Subscriptions are best but it can be exhausting trying to obtain the daily limit. I chose the one month for $249US, which allowed me 25 images per day. That’s 750 images, which equates to $3US per image – no matter the size.

I recommend you order your Subscription in the middle of the day, like 1 pm. Your subscription starts immediately and runs for 30 days. By choosing the middle of the day, this allows you to download part of your images in the afternoon and the rest in the morning.

In the afternoon, I usually add images in I am interested in into a Lightbox. Then decide to download the next morning. This also works well if I have a client meeting in the AM, which then allows me to search and download images for projects immediately.

  • “Free Photo of the Week” – Free image lower right of screen under “New and Noteworthy”
  • The cost per images is almost $20 if you choose one at a time.
  • They offer subscriptions or pay as you go service.
  • They are high quality and you can download comp (or watermarked, lower resolution images) to test in design mockups.
  • You can save images into lightboxes for purchase later
  • They offer subscriptions or pay as you go service.

Canstockphoto.com – this is almost identical to Bigstockphoto.com. In fact, many contributors submit the same images to both locations.

  • Free Image download on the main page when you are logged in.
  • The cost per images is minimal ranging from about $ 1US to $10 US depending on the format you purchase.
  • They are high quality and you can download comp (or watermarked, lower resolution images) to test in design mockups.
  • You can save images into lightboxes for purchase later
  • They offer subscriptions or pay as you go service.

Bigstockphoto.com – Same as above as well as:

  • Big Stock offers a free image under Browse > Free Image of the Week. (Part of their 52 card Pick-up game to reveal a % discount on purchases.)
  • Big Stock Image credits EXPIRE.

Other Sources

Free Sources

  • FreeDigitalPhotos.net – To use the images for free you must attribute FreeDigitalPhotos.net where the photo is used. Otherwise pay $3 for a small version and up to $10 for a large version for usage.
  • Clker.com – royalty free public domain clipart.
  • StockPhotosForFree.com

More:

Posted by | 4 comments