Nowadays, we know that a picture says more than a thousand words, so we tend to use this resource in our daily lives. Whether in an article, in your personal blog or on social networks, we spend the day sharing photographs to say what we do, where we are or to complete information. Moreover, as experts in digital marketing, we know that an image attracts more attention than a text alone, and hence its importance.
But, what happens when you don't have time to make your own photographs, infographics, etc.? In many occasions we skip the legal framework, ignoring the image rights and we use borrowed documents. It is an easy way out of the lack of time and imagination that sometimes you may have, but it can bring you legal problems, besides, sometimes you "steal" images of dubious quality. Now with social networks, especially on Instagram, where people share their photographs, there are controversies about the use of images without the author's permission. Therefore, you should be careful.
That's why we bring you a post where we show you a list of the best free image banks, for when imagination and lack of time don't allow you to create them yourself.
1. Pixabay
This image bank is the first on the list because it is one of the few that we can find in Spanish. It is true that when searching in our language it throws up a large number of images, which is nothing compared to the number of results that it throws up when searching in English.
The licenses of all its images are public domain Creative Commons Zero (CC0), which will give you all the freedom to do whatever you want with them without having to ask for any permission .
The website not only stands out for its extensive catalogue, but also for the quality of its content, and this is due to the fact that the images are reviewed beforehand. Furthermore, when downloading, you can make a donation to the author if you wish.
Pixabay has a very complete collection of images, as well as incorporating videos, graphics, illustrations and vectors, which are perfect for your projects.
2. Unsplash
Unsplash is possibly one of the most famous image banks. Like Pixabay, it is CC0 public domain, and contains high quality photographs at no cost. As a difference with the previous one, if you like a particular artist, you can click on that author and it will take you to the list of images that he/she has uploaded to the page.
In this image bank, if you subscribe to their newsletter you can receive 10 new photographs every 10 days, and if you are a photographer, you can share your images so that they can be used by other users.
The best thing about the app is undoubtedly the variety of images and their high quality, but it may have a drawback: it is very well known and therefore its content is widely used.
3. Pexels
It is a free image bank, which has thousands of contributors and users. The creators of this website have the motto "empowering creators", so they offer a wide range of good quality images that you can use for any project.
No registration is required to download the photographs, which makes it easier if you don't want to create a new account. All their images are licensed under CC0, which, as you have seen in the other two examples, means that they are in the public domain.
The best thing about Pexels is its updated images and multitude of filters, as well as having a version that contains video. The worst thing is that there are updates every week, but not on all themes, and that it accepts photos from other sites, so there is the possibility of copyright infringement.
4. Gratisography
This is the perfect image bank if you are looking for good resolution photos for your projects. You can find new content every week, and it is divided into 6 different categories: people, animals, nature, objects, urban and whimsical.
Gratisography is a favourite of many users because its images are original and different, with a humorous and geeky touch, which takes you away from the typical generic photographs.
The best and worst thing about the app is the same point, the amount of images and filters it has, which like everything else, can come in handy or stress you too much. And finally about this app, is that like the rest of examples, its license is CC0, ie, its use is free and without the need for permission from the author.
5. Life of pix
The last image bank on our list, but not the worst. Like all the others we have mentioned, its images are of high quality, professional and varied, although landscapes and nature in general predominate.
Using their search engine you can find thousands of photos that you can download at the click of a button. The authors of the photographs are linked, in case you are interested in searching for and obtaining more information about a specific artist, and even giving them the corresponding credit.
Like all of the above, they are licensed in the public domain, not subject to copyright, but this image bank does not allow mass distribution.
What we like most about Life of Pix is its artistic content, and if you are looking for images of natural landscapes this is your website of choice.
In short, as you know, any visual element helps to attract the attention of your users to your brand, and content with images, whether they are photographs, graphics, videos, etc., will help you in your content strategy.
And sometimes lack of time does not allow us to create quality visual content quickly and efficiently, so we turn to image banks, which will allow you to find what you are looking for without having to worry about copyright, as the licenses of these pages are in the public domain.
Now we encourage you to browse through each of the examples in this post so that you can choose your favourite, although remember that you can combine several image bank sites, as each one offers different things.
we hope you enjoyed the reading!
