What began as a conversation on Twitter, eventually became this guest post by Jordan Gillman! Jordan is an experienced Web Designer and Developer. He is part of the award-winning team at fervr.net and is a specialist in building WordPress websites for Churches, Non-Profits and Startups. We were extremely pleased with his work on stfaiths.net and I would recommend his work to anyone looking for quality design at a reasonable price. Keep an eye out on his excellent blog and also a new project – ChurchSites.co – that will make quality church websites even more affordable. I’ve already begun to use the websites that Jordan recommends below.
Whether you are working on a slide for a new sermon series, a flyer or newsletter – a great image can really make a difference. But sometimes it’s hard to find the right one.
There are load of stock photography around – but they’re often filled with cliched examples and can get quite expensive. Luckily there are some great places you can find free images that won’t make you cringe.
A quick note on licensing and copyright – always make sure you’re allowed to use the image. Most of these sites allow free use for both personal and commercial work – but some might require that you provide a credit in the design. It always pays to check.
Check them out…
Gratisography
A great range of high quality images of abstract objects and interesting scenes.
Little Visuals
Get great images emailed to you weekly
New Old Stock
A great collection of vintage images that out of copyright restriction.
PicJumbo
A great collection of images, categorised to make life easier
Unsplash
High Quality, slightly hipster images.
Wikipedia Commons
A collection of images from wikipedia with a creative commons license
Stock Exchange
A good collection, but make sure you check the license
MorgueFile
A great range of unused photos from designers and photographers
Death to the Stock
Images in your email monthly
BONUS:
Lightstock
Lightstock isn’t free – but they’re very reasonably priced and have a wide range of ‘Faith Focused, Cheesy Free’ images. Really great for any ministry related design work.
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Thanks Jordan! Make sure you check out his blog. Feel free to leave any other sites you know in the comments.
I’m surprised that http://www.creationswap.com/ was not on this list, it has a mixture of free and paid images aimed for churches.
hey andrew,
i’ve featured them many times on this blog:
http://davemiers.com/creation-swap-free-stuff-for-church-design/
http://davemiers.com/?s=creationswap
http://davemiers.com/free-photos-and-graphics/
http://davemiers.com/creativemyk/
personally i think the quality is getting worse. but maybe that’s just me.
Any ideas on how to organise stock photos after you’ve downloaded them so they’re easy to find again?
At the moment I’ve just got a folder where I put the weekly free image from lightstock each week (if it’s any good) – but there’s got to be a better way…
hey daniel! good question.
i’ve been doing the exact same with light stock!
i basically do the same for things i’ve downloaded from the above websites in different folders.
i know that with finder on mac you can do tagging, that would be the best way if you did it along the way. i’d find it annoying to go back and do it now though!
i also keep the original file name on my computer in case i need to find the image online again to check copy right etc.
i’ll see if jordan has any ideas…
hope you’re well bro.
peace
Hey Daniel,
i’ve been thinking the same thing myself lately. Certainly the suggestion from Dave of using Finder tagging (on mac) works.
You could also use iPhoto (mac) or Picasa (win) to tag images – or there are a bunch of paid apps out there for media management for both platforms.
good call on the iphoto and picasa.
thanks again for the great post!
Thanks – I’ve made an event in iPhoto called ‘Stock Photos’ and have started tagging them now.
And thanks for the heads up on these sweet resources.
nice one. good job.
Thanks Dave. exactly what I have been looking for!
you’re welcome (thanks jordan!)
Hi Dave,
thanks heaps for putting these up, it is something i have been looking for for a while.
Phil
No worries Phil. I hope they’re useful for your work in Inverell! Peace
Thanks for including http://www.gratisography.com in your list. I enjoy sharing my pictures and I’m happy to hear they are being put to good use.
Ryan! Thanks for leaving a comment. Your work on gratisography is exceptional… Thanks for sharing so generously. Peace.
Dave
Ps gratis is probably my favourite of the above list!
Dave,
Thanks for these they look great, will be very useful for lots of church stuff. Just wondering if you know any free vector stock art sites as well?
Matt
hey matt,
hope you’re well!
i’m not sure on where to find many vectors, i know there are sites around.
http://www.creationswap.com/ does them, some are paid.
but i’ll see if i can get jordan back here to make some recommendations
peace
dave
This post is GOLD!
pretty useful stuff!
Great list. Thanks, Dave.
Don’t forget to also visit http://search.creativecommons.org and especially https://www.flickr.com/search/?l=cc as these give you links to millions of images, and they’re all Creative Commons.
Jodie.
hey jodie,
thanks for the comment!
they’re good places too.
i find with flickr, you have to sift through average stuff, and some of the CC licenses you have to check closely for rules on attribution.
hope you’re well!
peace
Thanks so much for this post, very useful information and a great help for working on a low budget trying to produce good quality material.
Do you have any similar ideas for finding music tracks of similar quality on a low budget for use in short videos and testimony interviews. I often find myself in need a track at short notice and struggling to find something suitable.
hey tim,
thanks for the comment.
i don’t have any recommendations, but I have just lined up a friend who knows a whole bunch of them. so stay tuned for another gust blog post like this one! it will take a month before it’s available online.
keep trusting Jesus,
dave
That’s great, thanks very much Dave.
Look forward to it.
Hi Dave,
You have put up a great list here. You may also interested in Creativeplatoon.com/free-photos/, a library of free stock images that I have put together. There are some great shots for website backgrounds and post images in general, and new images are posted daily.
Cheers,
Nick
hey nick,
looks like you’ve got some great shots on your website. appreciate you sharing.
peace.
dave
Hey Dave,
Great article, we are big fans of a lot of those sites and use them regularly. Thought your readers and followers might like to know about our site too.
Free CC0 images specifically for churches. Basically a cross between Lightstock + Unsplash.
Check it out.
God bless,
Daniel
this is great! thanks so much for sharing daniel. i look forward to checking out more of your photos.
peace
Hi,
Also check out http://www.goodfreephotos.com for thousands of unique of public domain photos, especially scenic and travel photos. Appreciate it if you could add it to your list of resources, thanks.
hey bob, thanks for sharing your photos. peace
tks so much @@
Margaret Says
17th June 2016
Good evening Mr Miers (Dave)
I am an assistant to the Editor of Our Parish Church Magazine here in Chepstow South Wales and I’ m looking for free images that I can use during the Church year. Our Church Magazine only comes out 4 times a year – Easter, Pentecost, Advent and I think Christmas . Our Mothers’ Union does a report and I re-type with all the cartoons included, so this is why I am looking for Church images I can use. Are these sites COPYRIGHT or are they FREE copyright?
I thank you and all the other contributors for their comments.
Free to download
Free to use.