12 Free Photography Resources for Sourcing and Editing Images

Discover online image archives, stock photo websites, and free image editing tools to take your photography projects to the next level

Whether you're just starting to explore the world of photography or you're already immersed in the art form, exploring new platforms and tools can help you to develop your work and push your skills to the next level.

In this article, you'll discover all kinds of photography resources, including images to inspire you or use in your works, and new tools to edit your photos. From online image archives and stock photo websites to platforms for free Lightroom presets and image editing tools, read on to learn more.

Tools to source public domain or inspirational images

1. Openverse

Formerly CC Search, Openverse is a tool—created voluntarily by developers—that has indexed millions of copyright-free photos, making them more widely available. Without a doubt, it is one of the best search tools available.

2. Smithsonian

The Smithsonian shares almost 3 million images available for both commercial and personal use under a standard Creative Commons Zero license. You do not need to request permission from the institution to use them.

3. New Old Stock

New Old Stock offers up an extensive catalog of vintage photographs sourced from public archives, which you can access for free as long as they’re not being used for commercial projects. As you scroll through the library, you’ll feel like you’re traveling through time.

4. LIFE photo archive

Discover millions of inspirational photos documenting key moments in history—covering everything from politics to entertainment—in the LIFE photo archive, created by the iconic magazine in collaboration with Google. All the images are limited to non-commercial use.

Free stock photo websites

5. Unsplash

A hugely popular image bank, Unsplash is an easy-to-use free stock photo website with a huge variety of copyright-free images shared by creatives from around the world. New collections are constantly being uploaded in response to user search trends and current events.

6. Designers Pics

The Designer Pics platform offers up a wide catalog of high-resolution photographs of scenery, spaces, and generic objects, ready for both personal and commercial use, without needing to include credits. There are ten themes, including people, nature, wildlife, technology, architecture, and concepts.

7. FOCA Stock

Launched in 2014, FOCA Stock image bank offers up photographs and videos for personal and commercial use on websites, apps, and many other projects.

8. Rawpixel

Online creative resources platform Rawpixel shares over a million professional photos, alongside other design resources (like vector graphics, PSD mockups, PNG elements, etc) for free. It also features a public domain library, collating a number of works from museums around the world if you're looking for inspiration.

Tools for editing images online

9. Pixlr

An online image editing tool that is great for all levels, Pixlr is very easy to use, but also offers more advanced editing tools. It's accessible from both phone and laptop, and has a wide range of features, including options for filters, creating collages, banners, infographics, and more.

10. Befunky

Befunky is a regularly updated photo editing platform that offers online tutorials and inspirational guides to help you get started. It offers a great selection of tools that allow you to personalize your images and transform them into unique projects.

Tools to discover free presets for Lightroom

11. Photonify

Since 2017, Photonify has offered up preset options for Lightroom for commercial and personal projects, as well as tutorials for installing them onto your devices. The free version is available for iPhone and Android, and the majority of this version is also available for computers. You will need to sign up to access it.

12. Free Lightroom Presets

Millions of users have downloaded free presets from Free Lightroom Presets. They give your work a unique and consistent look, without complications or wasting time.

This article was updated on August 18, 2022.

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