Content Management Service Blog

Enhance your website with professional imagery for free

Enhancing your website with professional imagery may be easier than you first thought.

Whether you are a newly found business or a FTSE 100 big-hitter, attractive images can help improve the website experience for visitors.

Nothing beats having unique, self-owned images that you can use on your own website, but a very close second is being able to use high-quality images from professional photographers for free.

And this is where Unsplash comes in.

Unsplash describes itself as “The internet’s source of freely-usable images. Powered by creators everywhere.” Unsplash is a fantastic service that platforms the work of wonderfully creative photographers.

You’ll find images from beautiful scenery, to high priced sports cars, to yoga, health, finance, medicine, education, research, and a whole host of other categories. There should be something to meet the needs of everyone.

The incredible thing is that under the Unsplash Licence all photos can be downloaded and used for free for commercial and non-commercial purposes. No permission is needed though attribution is appreciated.

Example: Below is an example of a great image of our own Giant’s Causeway and we’ve added attribution to the photographer Alex Azabache as per Unsplash’s recommendations.

Unsplash states, “Even though attribution isn’t required, Unsplash photographers appreciate it as it provides exposure to their work and encourages them to continue sharing.”

There is some guidance on what is not permitted. Photos cannot be sold without significant modification and compiling photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.

If this is your first time on Unsplash be prepared to lose a few hours adding great photos to your collection.

Pro tip 1: Make sure that you optimise your images for the web. This will help improve your website performance and avoid long page load times for your website audience.

Pro tip 2: Ensure you use a text alternative when using images on your website. The text alternative helps those with visual impairments understand what the image is. Try and be descriptive to convey the nature of the image.

If business is going well you can even pay back those who have helped you out with awesome photography by sending a tip or hiring them for extra work.

Or you can begin to hire some local photographers to get more personalised and unique images for your website.

Local Talent

We’ve got some talented photographers locally, so you won’t be short on options when searching for a photographer nearby. Check out our list below with some very talented local photographers who can help you with awesome and unique imagery:

• Daniel Smyth – Photographer
• Daria Casement – Photography Instructor and Blogger
• Tony Dalton Photography

Notice: This article is correct at the time of writing. Always take the time to check the usage rights of anything you use online. Content Management Service Ltd are not responsible for the content on any external sites.