It’s not at all difficult to talk about technology on the internet, but it can be extremely difficult to actually show what technology looks like. Stock photos of tech products can tend to look sterile, especially in a world where our device interactions are becoming increasingly integrated with our daily lives. Sometimes, the biggest challenge can be to find high-quality, free photography that you can use for your own purposes without having to worry about royalty fees.
Here are 18 sites where you can find beautifully-shot photographs of technology—and they’re all absolutely free to use.
As the name suggests, Startup Stock Photos is a pretty impressive repository of startup-themed imagery. All of the pictures are free to use, and do a great job of depicting posh office scenes, as well as new technology pictures that are all visually compelling.
If you’re strapped for time, Stock Up is one of the best options on this list. This site aggregates other free stock photo sites, and allows you to easily search through them all. Sometimes the search function can be a bit finicky, but when it works, it’s a huge time-saver.
Pexels, like Stock Up, is another stock photo aggregator with impeccable taste. Pexels receives new pictures every day, so the library is always growing. And with its searchable database, it makes it easy to find the photos you need.
All the Free Stock takes all of the stock photo repositories and fits them all snugly into one smooth interface. Different sites can be found in the pane at the left, and easily swapped out when you’re ready to try a new stock photo site.
Jéshoots might not have a searchable directory of photos, but it more than makes up for it with the quality and originality of its offerings. In addition to product close-ups, the site features great images of technology being used in real-life scenarios.
Iso Republic is a fantastic resource for a more “hip” take on technology photos. Featuring imagery of urban cityscapes and beautiful product close-ups, it’s a great stop for images that will resonate with a younger audience.
Stokpic uses a subscription model to send users new stock photos on a bi-weekly basis. Even without a subscription, visitors can access Stokpic’s wide library of images, which includes a dedicated Tech section.
Kaboompics has a wide-ranging base of photographs, all of which are clean and modern in style. While it doesn’t feature a dedicated Technology section, it does implement a search box and you can find some great Tech-related content in the “Other” section of the site.
Pixabay is a wide-ranging, searchable database filled with free photos, illustrations and vectors. A quick search of “Technology” yields thousands of results. While many of these look like typical stock photos, there are some real gems in Pixabay’s library if you’re willing to do some extra digging.
The Public Domain Archive is a site filled to the brim with stylish, fantastically-composed free imagery. Their content is split into modern and vintage images, but there are new additions every week, and they have an entire section dedicated to technology.
Life of Pix has an immediately inviting “boutique” feel to it. The design of the site itself is clean, and offers a nice array of clean and colorful photographs. Check out the galleries, and pay a visit to the “Objects,” “Desk” and “Industrial” sections for some great tech-related imagery.
Every 10 days, Unsplash posts a gallery of new free images to use and peruse as you please. The selection of tech photos here is fantastic, with pictures of multiple devices to convey everyday tech use. There’s also a gallery view to make the browsing experience quick and painless.
IM Free is one of our favorite resources here at Icreon, because they place a real emphasis on the images themselves, and make them easier to find in the process. Their library is very well-curated, and their “Business,” “Technology” and “Cityscape” sections offer more than enough high-quality content to make it to even the most discerning tech website.
Picjumbo is great about updating their respectably-sized gallery on a regular basis. If there’s a new iPhone on the market, odds are they’ve got a beautiful shot of it up on their site. Especially helpful if you want organic photographs of Apple products and can appreciate some good bokeh.
Here’s an interesting take on royalty-free photography: All of the photos at New Old Stock are, as you can probably tell right off the bat, very old. You probably won’t see any modern tech in these photos. However, the galleries at New Old Stock are great if you want to take a more conceptual approach to depicting technology.
GetRefe offers a nice range of photographs, most set in Europe with a distinct Kodachrome feel to the imagery. While their tech-related offerings are a bit below average, the tech photos they do offer are of fantastic quality.
WeFunction offers a total of four free galleries, and while that may seem sparse, the quality of each gallery makes this site well-worth checking out. This one may only be good for a few tech-related uses, but there are also some great texture shots available for more abstract image purposes.
Ah, good old Flickr. This photosearch mainstay might seem like an obvious destination, but lots of people underestimate Flickr’s value as a resource for high-quality free images. Make sure you switch your search settings to “Creative Commons,” and double-check every image’s license before you decide to go live with it.
