Where can I find images for my website?

This is one of the most common questions my clients ask. They have textual content, but don’t know where to look for photos, graphics, and illustrations. Here are some options.

Custom photography, graphics, and illustrations

There are many reasons to go down the route of commissioning a photographer, graphic designer or illustrator to create custom images. Especially where we’re telling customers about our unique approach and trying to sell ourselves, if we’re then using the same stock images found everywhere on the web (including our competitors websites) then the messaging is going to jar. The prohibiting factor is often cost, though, so it depends whether your budget will stretch to hiring a professional. Creating your own images and doing a poor job is likely to look even worse than using stock images.

One option for getting graphics and illustrations designed on a tight budget is to try commissioning an artist on sites like Fiverr. As in all things, be discerning and check ratings, reviews, and samples. But if you find a good supplier and build up a relationship, you can find it is a great option.

Stock websites

Stock images are existing photographs, graphics and illustrations which the creator has made available to license. What type of license you can buy will vary from image to image. There are some sources of free stock images, where either a commercial or non-commercial license has been granted without the need to pay a fee. You should check the details, though, to see whether you’re required to credit the artist and what the stipulations are for use. Even if you’ve paid, that doesn’t mean you can use the image in whatever way you like. There may still be restrictions in terms of whether you can make modifications, and what specific uses you’re licensed for. Soe examples of stock websites are listed below.

Free

Note: some of these sites have both free and paid options

• Unsplash (photographs)
• Freepik (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• Flat Icon (graphics)
• Pixabay (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• Pexels (photographs)

Paid

• iStockphoto (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• Adobe Stock (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• Creative Market (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• Shutterstock (photographs, graphics, and illustrations)
• PhotoDune {photographs)
• GraphicRiver (graphics)

Within the paid options, some sites will have multiple levels. For example, on iStockphoto you can buy from their library of essentials or signature images. Signature images are more expensive but only available from iStockphoto and therefore less widely used.

2 March 2022