Unsplash Your Brand: Free Images for Commercial Purposes

Did you know that some of the world’s most iconic advertisements use stock images for commercial use? For example, AlamapBBDO, a Brazilian ad agency, used stock photos from Getty Images to create their Endless Possibilities campaign in 2016. The advertising campaign combined photos of random people’s faces to recreate portraits of famous people such as the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.

Most creative agencies prefer altering stock images in most of their work. This is because it allows them to create campaigns for different companies much faster at affordable costs. Keep reading to find out how to get free images for commercial use in your next project.

Part 1: Download images in loyalty-free sites

Several sites offer free images for commercial use as part of their services. In addition, you do not need to register an account to download the images. The sites typically rely on user contributions and content teams to ensure their databases are fresh and maintain consistent quality. Furthermore, all creative assets they offer fall under the creative commons zero license or a variation of it. Here are some of the sites that offer you images for commercial use for free.

1. Pexels

Pexels.com is a free-to-use provider of high-resolution photos and videos for aspiring creators. The German-based website was started in 2014 by two brothers and has been under the Canva umbrella since 2018.

Currently, the website hosts over 3.2 million images and videos from over 250,000 active contributors. In addition, all the material you find in its library is under the Pexels license, which slightly varies from the creative commons zero license model. Some of the restrictions it enforces include:

You can only use pexels images for commercial use after making alterations to the original image. For example, you can use part of an image to create a collage for your commercial branding.
Furthermore, you cannot use any of the website’s content to promote political ideologies and explicit content, especially if the images contain identifiable subjects.

Pexels is available through the following channels:

Your web browser by typing the URL pexels.com.
The Android and iOS app.
A plugin for other content creation software such as Google Slides and MS Office.
An extension on your Chrome browser.
You can also access the database using the official Canva app.

2. Unsplash

Another website that offers free images for commercial use is Unsplash, a subsidiary of Getty Images since 2021. The website is a favorite among creators boasting over 16 billion photo impressions monthly. In addition, the database consists of over 3.48 million photos from more than 265,000 unique contributors, all under the Unsplash license.

The Unsplash license restricts the sale of its creative assets without incorporating new creative elements, including using them in print media and physical goods such as mugs and caps.

You can access Unsplash from your web browser or request API integration for your application from the site’s owners. In addition, the site also hosts photo walks across different cities, where Unsplash guides show you the best photo locations around the city and the best camera techniques for your work. Some cities to host the event include Boston, Montreal, Tokyo, and Toronto.

3. Freerange

Freerange Stock is an online resource for photos, illustrations, and textures you can download and use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Since 2007, the site has continued to provide high-quality images to its community of over 800,000 registered users.

Unlike the previous examples, all content on Freerange falls under the website’s Equalicense. It grants you broad commercial rights of its stock images while allowing the contributors to retain control of their copyright, image resale, and distribution. As such, you cannot use the images for bulk distribution or print-on-demand works.

Freerange Stock maintains its steady supply of images for commercial use via the following methods:

It has an in-house team of professional photographers who upload images across the different categories on the website.
Freerange Stock also purchases image rights or directly commissions photos from independent creators.
You can also contribute to the website’s library by voluntarily submitting your work to the platform. Kindly note that you will need a verified account to enable this function.
The website also works directly with photographers through a licensing and distribution model, providing them extra exposure on the site.
Finally, Freerange stock aggregates public domain images from other sources, including similar sites and government institutions. It does so by acknowledging the image owner and sometimes lists the image source when the owner is unknown.

Freerange Stock is accessible through your web browser or as an API integration on your app.

4. Vecteezy

Vecteezy is an extensive online library of free stock images for commercial use. Some of the site’s highlight features include the following:

A best-in-class search engine that incorporates multiple filters to ensure your results are extremely accurate. For example, you can sort images by color, style, number of people, and age of the subjects, something other free stock websites do not provide.
All images, videos, and vector illustrations are free for personal and commercial uses. It does so through a property sign and release model with its extensive network of contributors, which protects users from any legal liabilities.
Finally, it employs a content team that manually reviews each photo submission to ensure consistent quality standards for its offerings.

In addition, you can also purchase design resource bundles by subscribing to its Vecteezy pro for as little as $9 monthly. Some of the resources available include the Ultimate Text Effects Layer Styles Bundle for Photoshop, which costs $39 stand-alone or $4.50 when you subscribe to pro.

Part 2: Buy from stock providers

Another way to get images for commercial use is by buying them from stock providers. Some of the benefits of buying images from stock providers include:

You get a wide selection of unique photos from top-tier photographers. Stock providers always seek collaborations with the industry’s finest to edge out the competition.
You receive exemplary customer service with your purchase. Selecting the right image can be confusing for amateur creators. As such, stock image providers have customer support channels to help you throughout your creative process.
Stock images reduce your delivery times significantly. Buying images from a stock provider eliminates the need to invest in photography equipment and the time you need for post-production. As such, you can deliver projects in a fast and cost-effective way.

Despite the above positive, here are some challenges that buying stock images may present:

Not all stock image providers will have the creative assets you need.
Image overuse is likely since every creator will rush for the most popular contributor.

Below are some of the stock image providers you should consider.

1. iStock

iStockphoto.com is an online database of creative resources, including royalty-free photos, videos, audio, illustrations, and clip art you can use in your creations. The website is a Getty Images subsidiary based in Calgary, Canada. In addition, contributors earn royalties depending on how often users download their content.

2. Alamy.com

Alamy.com is a British-owned stock image provider with contributions from photographers and agencies in 173 countries. It compensates its contributors by offering higher than average payouts every time users download their creations. Some popular brands to use Alamy’s services include M&C Saatchi, Microsoft, and The Economist.

Part 3: Shot a Photo by yourself or create one with editing tools

Alternatively, you can get images for commercial use by shooting them yourself or creating them with editing tools such as Figma and Wondershare’s Filmstock. Here are some benefits of using this method:

You get exactly what you want, provided you have the required skills and equipment. Sometimes, getting the right image for your commercial purpose can be challenging. As such, shooting an original photo may be the only option.
You have full ownership of the image.

Unlike obtaining images from stock photography websites, you are free to use the image in whatever capacity you please without any restrictions. For example, sites such as Unsplash do not allow you to use their images in political statements, a restriction you can bypass when using your own creations.

However, you should also consider the following factors when using this method.

It requires a substantial investment

Getting high-quality images for commercial purposes requires specialist equipment. For example, the Panasonic LUMIX GH6 camera, which has 4K resolution capability, costs $2,197 on Amazon. This makes it extremely expensive for amateur creators.

There is a steep learning curve

Becoming a professional photographer takes time and effort. Unless you are creating as a hobby, it will be a while before you can start generating income from your creations.

Part 4: FAQs

1. Do you need a contributor account to get images for commercial use?

Not necessarily. Stock image sites like pexels.com allow you to download images from their website without creating an account. You will only need one if you want to showcase your work on the platform.

2. Can you use your smartphone to get images for commercial use?

Yes. Most stock image providers have device-specific apps that allow you to access their databases from your mobile device. For example, UnsplashPhotoPicker allows you access to the Unsplash library from your Android device.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Bring Photos to Life: 8 Essential Animation Software

FREE 8 Best Tools to Make Animated Photo Easily

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

It’s no wonder that the newest technology that includes animated photos or says GIFs have taken center stage.

What if you want to create some animated photos with free-to-use animated video software of your choice? These loops are hilarious sometimes and can express what words can’t. Are you wondering the same?

Well! You can do this yourself now. With the help of this article, we will make you acquainted with some really useful animated photo makers that will give information on how to animate a picture. Let’s start grasping those tools and begin making our GIFs.

Part1: Best Animated Photo Maker on Phone
Part2: Best Animated Photo Maker to make GIF

Recommended animated tool: Filmora

If you want to have more controls on animation photos, we recommend using Filmora .

You can use cartoon effects to make an animated photo with one click. You need to import your photo to start making animation easily. Besides, color correction and an audio mixer will raise your animated photo to a new level. Free download it to have a try!

Note: You can use Filmora to make animated photos by adding keyframes if you have more controls.

Part 1: Best Animated Photo Maker on Phone

First, we would like to introduce you to some apps that will help you do picture animation on your phone in this section.

1. Animate Me

The first animation image-maker is Animate me, which is enjoyable for only iPhone users. In other words, this app can only be installed on an iOS device.

You can create funny videos, e-Cards, or animate any kind of picture. In the e-Cards, you can add any face to make it more appealing and entertaining. This app can be used to animate yourself, your pets, or anyone you wish.

It is an amazing app that is worth giving a try to make others laugh by creating amazing GIFs.

Features of Animate Me

The app offers more than 100 new e-Cards and adds new cards weekly.
You can add multiple sounds for each character and get them talking too.
In addition, there are ‘Hero masks’ available that you can use on your character’s face.

Cons

Sometimes, the crash happens while you open it
Navigation is not clear between different tabs

2. Loopsie

Loopsie is yet another picture animation maker available for both Android and iPhone users. This is one of the best photo and video creation apps used on a mobile phone.

Loopsie is free to use and is a mix of pictures and videos.

Features of Loopsie

Along with being extremely easy to use, it provides output resolutions that are completely socially ready.
One can do direct sharing on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
There will be no need for a tripod while working with this app to make creative photos or videos.

Cons

The imported videos will rank randomly
Lacks enough guide on its website

3. Picstun

The next picture animation maker is Picstun, for Android device users. This is a professional photo animator app giving awesome animated video effects that can be applied to a picture to animate it.

Download this app and give a creative look to your picture.

Features of Picstun

This app gives the option to crop or rotate your image and numerous animated video effects added to a photo and animate it.
You can preview your file once before saving it. Also, you can save it on your SD card easily.
It allows you to share your output file to various social platforms like Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, etc.

Cons

Sometimes, it will crash if you import too many photos
The animated effects are limited

Part 2: Best Animated Photo Maker to make GIF

This section will update you with the software or programs to know how to animate a picture on a computer. Here are those.

1. GIF Brewery

GIF Brewery is free software for Mac users that offers a simple, easy, and intuitive user interface. Anyone can use it to make creative and amazing GIFs from videos since there is no video-making expertise needed for using it.

You can resize and crop your video and even set the preferred frame rate.

Features of GIF Brewery

You can apply many captions or overlay pictures with this picture animation maker.
Easy saving options and the files can be easily shared with iMessage or mail.
There are amazing filters that can be applied to photos such as color correction.

Cons

You can not remove individual frames while making GIF
Bugs happen sometimes

2. GIFMaker.me

GIFMaker.me is one tool that can help you do photo animation online. This online animated photo maker allows the users to create GIFs, slideshows, animated videos with music effortlessly.

GIFMaker.me supports Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You just need a web browser and need to upload your image.

Features of GIFMaker.me

This tool gives the options of reducing size, reversing or resizing a GIF, merging, or separating multiple GIFs.
There are options to set animation speed or canvas size.
There is no requirement to register yourself to use this.

Cons

The interface is not easy to navigate
The maximum number of images you can upload is 300

3. GIF Toaster

Another GIF maker app is GIF Toaster, which claims to be the best quality GIF maker app ever. You are just 4 steps away from creating your creative GIF when using this app. Choose the photo you want to convert into GIF and then set encoding options. Start encoding and then choose the ‘GIF’ tab to give your picture GIF effect.

Features of GIF Toaster

The app can change any media format into GIF.
It creates the GIF without compromising in quality.
It’s available in English, Korean, and Japanese languages.

Cons

Start and stop arrows are not easy to tap
Rarely it can’t access Camera Roll Album

4. Animated GIF Maker

This picture animation maker or GIF maker is also an online tool. You can upload images up to 6MB. This means you can execute the photo animation online by just moving to your web browser.

Features of Animated GIF Maker

This app allows you to upload multiple files at a time.
It can convert even different formats and sizes into GIFs.
After making GIF, you can customize it by resizing or cropping.

5. 3Dthis

The last, but certainly not the least, picture animation maker on today’s list of best tools to make photo animation online is 3Dthis. With this online tool, you can easily create 3D models and morph animations quite quickly.

Features of 3Dthis

With this web app, you can create print-ready 3D designs.
It allows you to morph your images for 3D modeling effectively.

Bonus tip: Create an Animation Video with Anireel

Anireel provides a faster and smoother animated video creation experience with customizable elements to bring anyone’s imagination to life. Users can create intuitive, fun, and innovative animation-centric explainer videos using many customizable elements for knowledge base and communication. You can use a drag-and-drop editor to add props, actions, characters, and audio to videos. There are pre-set animation templates for the main users to utilize and benefit from.

Final Verdict

We hope your question, “how to animate a picture,” has now the answer. Not one, we gave multiple solutions to this question. We provided you with some best GIF makers, including Filmora, that can be used on different platforms. You can easily get what you long for with these animated photo makers. So enjoy doing animations and creating funny and useful GIFs. Thanks for reading this post.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox