Many websites share images that are legal to use for editorial and commercial purposes. However, it’s important to verify a particular image’s origin and license information before assuming you can legally use any image.
Also consider what you can (or can’t) tell about how an image was produced. You’ll see that many of these sites tend to have different visual styles, with some leaning toward staged and stylized images that may not be appropriate for journalism.
Doing a basic Google search for images is not a good way to find free-to-use material. However, there is a dropdown option under “Search Tools” to filter results by license type. After finding an image this way, you must still click through to the website to locate the specific permission details. Recently, the results tend to include some foreign websites that don’t seem to be in full compliance with U.S. copyright law.
Make sure to choose the appropriate license type from the “Any license” dropdown on the search results page. All types listed except for “Any license” are types of Creative Commons or Public Domain. On any image, the specific license restrictions are listed below the photo, with the license type linking to additional information about what uses are authorized.
Includes thousands of worldwide images licensed under Creative Commons or verified to be in the Public Domain. Check the license information since there are sometimes international restrictions.
Millions of searchable photos, video clips and textures distributed for reuse without restrictions, with the license details clearly listed on each image page. Watch out for paid stock images that may appear as ads on search results pages. The site was acquired by Canva in 2019.
This site started as a Tumblr blog in 2013 that became popular with creatives. It has been owned by Getty Images since 2021. Watch out for premium Unsplash+ images mixed in unless you filter for free images only.
This searchable collection indexes images from other free-to-use sites, with all photos licensed as Creative Commons CC0. It used to be an anarchic mix of styles and sources, but it's mostly the same as Pixabay after both were acquired by Canva in 2019.
Images are contributed by users, so quality varies. The site is inundated with AI-generated images, but users are supposed to label them as AI.
Not as active or well-known as other sites, but sometimes you find something unique. Licensing is labeled clearly.
Another collection with images mostly pulled from other free-to-use sources, including some that are now defunct. Includes some artsy images and varying quality, with some weird computer-generated content.
Thousands of digitized historic images and illustrations in the public domain with no restrictions on use if you filter for “search only public domain materials.”
Actively curated collection of Public Domain images from a variety of sources. Fun to browse, and includes all source information.
Photos produced by U.S. Government employees are copyright-free. Many federal agencies publish high-resolution photos on Flickr, which also makes it easy to verify your right to use the photo. Here are some additional hubs for images produced by the federal government:
AAP and SELF Magazine released a collection of images related to immunizations for use in media publications and social media. Must include attribution.
Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers have access to Adobe Stock, which includes thousands of high-quality stock images. However, the licenses include restrictions on how the images can be used, and are not free. We will not make use of Adobe Stock in this course, but it’s a good resource to know about if you’re a subscriber.