To learn more about why you should avoid using clipart and copyrighted images, check out "Stop Using Ugly and Copyrighted Photos!" on pastorwill.net.

A note about usage licenses. If you use these photos, please take a moment to read the usage license on the website. Most of these sites give you total permission to use their resources any way you want. Others put some limitations like asking for attribution or limiting modification. Since people are offering their work for free, it is appropriate to make sure we are following their guidelines. With that, here we go:

Freely Photos – www.freelyphotos.com

Image Courtest of Freely Photos: http://www.freelyphotos.com

Freely is made for churches and, as its name implies, it is free! They have photos in categories like Bible Study, Worship, Prayer. etc. It is all available under a Creative Commons Zero license meaning it is totally free to use any way you want.

Saltful – www.saltful.com

Image Courtesy of Saltful: http://www.saltful.com

Saltful is a project of Word Revolution, a Christian Communication Agency. The images are not categorized or searchable. However, they are beautiful, very useful and come with a Creative Commons Zero license meaning they are free!

Unsplash – www.unsplash.com

Image courtesy of Unsplash: http://www.unsplash.com

After Freely and Saltful, we move on to photo sites that are not specifically Christian or necessarily for churches. However, sites like Unsplash have a ton of free images to use for free under a Creative Commons Zero license. In other words, again, use them pretty much however you like. Their search bar makes is very easy to find the sort of image you are looking for.

Negative Space – www.negativespace.co

The Creative Commons Zero License allows you to modify and image when reusing it. Adding text to an image is one way of modifying it. Image courtesy of Negative Space.

I really love Negative Space. The offer beautiful images and, again, a Creative Commons Zero license. They also have a great search option that allows you to sort photos by category, color, and copy space position. I love the copy space filter. It is great  when I am trying to create a graphic with text on it and want that copy in a particular place.

SplitShire – http://www.splitshire.com

Image courtesy of Splitshire: http://www.splitshire.com

SplitShire has some absolutely gorgeous photographs and again free to use under the Creative Commons Zero License. You can search by category or by word or phrase.

Pexels – http://www.pexels.com

Pexels is a little different from the others in that it is more of an aggregator. The images come from a number of sources, including those listed above, and from user submissions. They are still all covered under the Creative Commons Zero license so they are free to use.

Life of Pix – www.lifeofpix.com

Life of Pix offers a treasure trove of beautiful images brought to you by LeeRoy Advertising Agency in Montreal and its network of photographers. As a serious bonus, they offer Life of Vids, free videos, clips and loops also under the Creative Commons Zero license. Great for video and worship production.

Here are a few more that didn’t get a full write-up but are worth checking out:

StockSnap.io

GRATISOGRAPHY

Good Free Photos