Stock Photography & Video: Why you need to think before you download
A few years ago, I started this list to help my clients avoid the dreaded “demand letter.” People were downloading unlicensed photos and getting hit with massive legal fees.
Today, the stakes are different. It’s not just about copyright; it’s about representation and innovation. While I’ve always valued diversity, a colleague recently pointed out that our own imagery wasn’t cutting it. I realized we needed to be more intentional.
The AI Check for 2026: Before you post, ask yourself: Does this image reflect the real world? And could AI make this more unique? If you want to stand out, use the bolded inclusive resources and AI tools below.
AI Image & Video Production
In 2026, you don’t always need to find a photo, you can make your own. These are the top tools for creating custom, commercially safe content.
Best for AI Video Production
- Google VEO: Easy to use can be as cheap as $8 a month to $250 a month
- Runway (Gen-3): For high-end, cinematic video clips that look like a Hollywood production.
- Adobe Firefly Video: The safest bet for SEO and legal. It’s trained on licensed content, so you’ll never get a demand letter for AI-generated clips.
Best for AI Image Generation
- Midjourney (V7): Still the king of pure artistic quality and photorealism.
- DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT): Best for when you need specific text inside an image or a conversational editing process.
- Canva Magic Media: Perfect for beginners who want to generate an image and drop it straight into a design.
Here are some of our top picks for finding stock photos free
- Unsplash.com: find free photos at unsplash.com
- Nappy.co for beautifully diverse photos
- genderphotos.vice.com is a free creative commons stock library offering authentic photos of trans and non-binary people representative of all identities.
- Photopin.com – Make sure you select commercial images if you will be using the photo for your business. Once you find an image, just follow their easy instructions for appropriate crediting. They have photos of local places, too, many from Flickr, etc. Do a search, and you’ll see what I mean. We highly recommend this site for finding stock photos free that are OK to use and easy to credit.
Visit http://www.photopin.com/ - Videos, photos and Illustrations at Pixabay
- FreeImages – You will need to create an account, but it’s a good resource for free images. You won’t need an account to check the site out, only once you want to download a photo. If you don’t see what you want, it also shows you results for “premium” images from IStockphoto.com that are not free. So you can kind of compare the free ones to the ones that you have to pay for and see if the cost is worth it.
Visit https://www.freeimages.com - Creative Commons
- Dreamstime free photos and illustrations, try https://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos
- PICoGraphy, Stocksnap.io
- artgrid.io
Free resources for specialty images like illustrations, icons, patterns, health and wellness photos, historic images and animated photos and gifs.
- Looking for food pics? We love Foodiesfeed.com
- Public Health Images from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention + the National Images of Health – History of Medicine
- Looking for a historic photo? Check out the New York Public Library Online Collection
- Lifestyle Health and Wellness Images
- Looking for patterns? This is the ultimate free pattern website – The Amazing Pattern Library
- Looking for free animated GIF’s … Try Giphy
- https://www.iconfinder.com/ – Here you can search for any icon you are looking for; just make sure to select “For Commercial use”, and like PhotoPin, just follow the instructions for proper crediting.
Here are the best places for inexpensive (ie: cheap) stock photos & illustrations and videos
- StoryBlocks is a great site for people who are integrating video into their marketing on a regular basis, they have subscription plans that are affordable starting at $15/month for 5 downloads. Video often can tell a story in ways that flat images can’t.
- https://www.canstockphoto.com
- https://tonl.co/ offers incredible stock photos that promote inclusion and diversity
- (They have a large selection, and if you buy their credits, extra-large photos would be about $2.50 and smaller photos $1.25)
- Fotalia
- https://createherstock.com/ a beautiful stock photo subscription for melanated women
- https://www.tetraimages.com/
- http://www.crestock.com/
- https://www.masterfile.com/
- https://www.bigstockphoto.com/
- https://morguefile.com/
Still can’t find the right stock photo?
When you can’t find what you want in the cheap and free options, try these; they have the best selections for quality stock photography:
When this doesn’t work, find a local photographer; they can either take a photo for you, or they may just have what you need!
Why not create your own graphic and image?
- Use PicMonkey.com this is a great tool for making your photos fun with words and graphics. You can make great collages as well.
- I love www.canva.com for creating graphics with sayings and photo collages.
- SomeEcards.com is great for making your own sharable greeting card graphics.
- Remember, read the fine print, some images and tools are free for personal use and not for commercial use.
Related reading: Images & Copyright – What To Look Out For
Credit: This article was updated to share some of the photography sites that offer diverse images to support diversity and inclusion, they were first shared with us by Oomph, an award-winning digital services firm.
