How to download images for free? If you don’t know the answer, this article is for you. There are several methods to get images for completely free of cost. You don’t have to pay a single penny as well as you do not have to worry about the copyright issues. We are not talking about those sneaky methods to cheat the premium image hosting websites. But just giving you some methods to download copyright free images for free of cost. In other words, we are just making it easier to find and download copyright-free images online.
Download Images for Free
You can try any of these methods to download free images for your personal or commercial usage. As long as you are using free images, you do not have to worry about any copyright issues or other actions. So, it is always recommended to use free images instead of using the copyrighted images which can get you in trouble at any time. So, make sure that each one of the images on your website, blog, or whatever place you use them are copyright-free. Here are the methods to download images for free.
1. Using Google Image Search
We all know that Google Image Search is the perfect solution to find images. But what about free images? How can you use the Google Image Search for finding free images? Well, if you already don’t know, Google Image Search has a filter option which allows filtering the search results based on certain criteria. To access this,
- Navigate to the Google Image Search.
- Search for your image.
- Click on the Tools button. It will bring you the filter options such as Size, Color, Type, Time, Usage Rights, etc.
- Click on Usage Rights and choose “Labelled for reuse with modification” or “Labelled for reuse.”
- That’s it, now all the images listed in the image search will be copyright-free, and you can use them without getting into any trouble.
Note that, Google doesn’t save this setting. So, you will have to repeat this once you close the browser tab and want to get some free images again.
2. Use Free Image Download Websites
There are tons of free image download websites out there. They list free images from the photographers or creators under free reuse license either with modification or without modification. Which means you can use those images for any of your personal or commercial usages. You will not get into any copyright-related trouble. Even if they are free, the quality of the images provided will be top-notch. Also, some of those websites have even more than a million free stock photos in their database. So, do not underestimate them. To find out such websites, check out our list of the best websites to download free images.
3. Look for Offers and Deals on Premium Image Marketplaces
We all know the image sharing websites like Shutterstock where we can buy premium images by paying tens of dollars for each one. But all of the images hosted there doesn’t cost you money. Such websites often run offers and discounts on their products in order to attract more customers towards them. Usually, they will tell you to complete some certain steps such as sharing their link on social media or completing a survey. Doing that is not a problem at all. All you have to do is following the steps as instructed by the website.
If you successfully complete them, you will be given particular coupons or some free images which are actually premium. You might be thinking that it doesn’t worth all this effort to get a free image. But if you ever visited the Shutterstock and similar premium image marketplaces, you can understand that each one of the listed items are of high-quality and has some beauty in it. So, it definitely worth a try.
What you should not do to get free images?
Now, you know some methods to get free images for your website or blog. But, the bitter truth is that the premium images will always have better attractiveness and quality when compared to the free images. So, naturally, you will try to trick the systems or download and use copyrighted materials. This is just inviting trouble. So, here are some of the things that you should never do to get free images.
Downloading and using Premium images without a license
Like already mentioned, using premium images without a license can get you in trouble. The companies like Shutterstock continuously hunting down such use of copyrighted images without a proper license. So, today or tomorrow, you will get in some serious trouble. So, do not take a chance. In the urge of getting premium images for free, do not directly download them from any websites and start using it.
Transferring or Exchanging free images even if you have the license
A license may be of different types. For example, the companies like Shutterstock will only allow the image license for a single person. Which means, having a license to use an image will not let you distribute the image to anyone even if they are your friends. A little more simple words, a license can be only used by a single person. So, do not let anyone use the images that you have the right to use. Even if the current technologies are not completely accurate in finding who shared the images, the other person without the license may get in trouble. Which you may not want to happen.
Like the same, exchanging the images is also against the policies. For example, you and your friend both have a Shutterstock account, and you two bought two completely different images and decided to exchange those images together. It still violates the policies of such companies. Coming back to the point that I mentioned before. A license is meant for a single person.
So, always play safe and avoid such mistakes to get some free images. Even if you stay safe for some period, they will catch such thefts one day. I hope this article helped you to download free photos as well as to avoid some common mistakes.