My top three Stock Photo Sites and how I use them

No, that’s not me with one of my girls but it shows something amazing about the photography community.

Plenty of fantastic photographers upload their images to stock photo sites and make it possible for creatives all over the world to shape their visions without leaving the house. So especially in times of social distancing this is a wonderful invention.

Beside that, these photographers give up all their copyright to their work which means we can use these photos for free for commercial and noncommercial purposes. We do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or the stock photo site. Obviously it is still appreciated to give credit but you don’t need to.

There are quite many stock photo sites out there but let me give you my favorite ones where photos are not just for free and free of copyright but as well of beautiful quality:

1. https://unsplash.com/

2. https://www.pexels.com/

3. https://pixabay.com/sv/

Let’s get transparent here. How do I use these stock photos? I love taking pictures so I don’t see me as a digital artist only. I try to take as many pictures as possible by myself. It’s fun and I can stay closer to how I envisioned a picture because - let’s be honest - searching for that perfect stock photo can take forever. I had this customer once that wanted her daughters on a dinosaur and a unicorn. We had a wonderful cooperation and it all came together in the end but gosh, how much time I spend finding good stock photos for that commission.

So that said, I use stock photos a lot. I could never work without them. Sometimes I use them as my background, crop them, change light, contrast and color. Then I add my kids or other subjects.

Sometimes I am just interested in a detail and add just that one to my composition in Photoshop and sometimes I combine several stock photos to one like I did with this Stockholm picture.

Whatever you need for your creative projects or your business, stock photo sites are a gift and we should all be thankful to the photographers who provide their work without ever getting credit for it.