No-Cost Visuals: Finding Free Images for Commercial Projects

Did you know that some of the world’s most iconic advertisements use stock images for commercial use? For example, AlamapBBDO, a Brazilian ad agency, used stock photos from Getty Images to create their Endless Possibilities campaign in 2016. The advertising campaign combined photos of random people’s faces to recreate portraits of famous people such as the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.

Most creative agencies prefer altering stock images in most of their work. This is because it allows them to create campaigns for different companies much faster at affordable costs. Keep reading to find out how to get free images for commercial use in your next project.

Part 1: Download images in loyalty-free sites

Several sites offer free images for commercial use as part of their services. In addition, you do not need to register an account to download the images. The sites typically rely on user contributions and content teams to ensure their databases are fresh and maintain consistent quality. Furthermore, all creative assets they offer fall under the creative commons zero license or a variation of it. Here are some of the sites that offer you images for commercial use for free.

1. Pexels

Pexels.com is a free-to-use provider of high-resolution photos and videos for aspiring creators. The German-based website was started in 2014 by two brothers and has been under the Canva umbrella since 2018.

Currently, the website hosts over 3.2 million images and videos from over 250,000 active contributors. In addition, all the material you find in its library is under the Pexels license, which slightly varies from the creative commons zero license model. Some of the restrictions it enforces include:

You can only use pexels images for commercial use after making alterations to the original image. For example, you can use part of an image to create a collage for your commercial branding.
Furthermore, you cannot use any of the website’s content to promote political ideologies and explicit content, especially if the images contain identifiable subjects.

Pexels is available through the following channels:

Your web browser by typing the URL pexels.com.
The Android and iOS app.
A plugin for other content creation software such as Google Slides and MS Office.
An extension on your Chrome browser.
You can also access the database using the official Canva app.

2. Unsplash

Another website that offers free images for commercial use is Unsplash, a subsidiary of Getty Images since 2021. The website is a favorite among creators boasting over 16 billion photo impressions monthly. In addition, the database consists of over 3.48 million photos from more than 265,000 unique contributors, all under the Unsplash license.

The Unsplash license restricts the sale of its creative assets without incorporating new creative elements, including using them in print media and physical goods such as mugs and caps.

You can access Unsplash from your web browser or request API integration for your application from the site’s owners. In addition, the site also hosts photo walks across different cities, where Unsplash guides show you the best photo locations around the city and the best camera techniques for your work. Some cities to host the event include Boston, Montreal, Tokyo, and Toronto.

3. Freerange

Freerange Stock is an online resource for photos, illustrations, and textures you can download and use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Since 2007, the site has continued to provide high-quality images to its community of over 800,000 registered users.

Unlike the previous examples, all content on Freerange falls under the website’s Equalicense. It grants you broad commercial rights of its stock images while allowing the contributors to retain control of their copyright, image resale, and distribution. As such, you cannot use the images for bulk distribution or print-on-demand works.

Freerange Stock maintains its steady supply of images for commercial use via the following methods:

It has an in-house team of professional photographers who upload images across the different categories on the website.
Freerange Stock also purchases image rights or directly commissions photos from independent creators.
You can also contribute to the website’s library by voluntarily submitting your work to the platform. Kindly note that you will need a verified account to enable this function.
The website also works directly with photographers through a licensing and distribution model, providing them extra exposure on the site.
Finally, Freerange stock aggregates public domain images from other sources, including similar sites and government institutions. It does so by acknowledging the image owner and sometimes lists the image source when the owner is unknown.

Freerange Stock is accessible through your web browser or as an API integration on your app.

4. Vecteezy

Vecteezy is an extensive online library of free stock images for commercial use. Some of the site’s highlight features include the following:

A best-in-class search engine that incorporates multiple filters to ensure your results are extremely accurate. For example, you can sort images by color, style, number of people, and age of the subjects, something other free stock websites do not provide.
All images, videos, and vector illustrations are free for personal and commercial uses. It does so through a property sign and release model with its extensive network of contributors, which protects users from any legal liabilities.
Finally, it employs a content team that manually reviews each photo submission to ensure consistent quality standards for its offerings.

In addition, you can also purchase design resource bundles by subscribing to its Vecteezy pro for as little as $9 monthly. Some of the resources available include the Ultimate Text Effects Layer Styles Bundle for Photoshop, which costs $39 stand-alone or $4.50 when you subscribe to pro.

Part 2: Buy from stock providers

Another way to get images for commercial use is by buying them from stock providers. Some of the benefits of buying images from stock providers include:

You get a wide selection of unique photos from top-tier photographers. Stock providers always seek collaborations with the industry’s finest to edge out the competition.
You receive exemplary customer service with your purchase. Selecting the right image can be confusing for amateur creators. As such, stock image providers have customer support channels to help you throughout your creative process.
Stock images reduce your delivery times significantly. Buying images from a stock provider eliminates the need to invest in photography equipment and the time you need for post-production. As such, you can deliver projects in a fast and cost-effective way.

Despite the above positive, here are some challenges that buying stock images may present:

Not all stock image providers will have the creative assets you need.
Image overuse is likely since every creator will rush for the most popular contributor.

Below are some of the stock image providers you should consider.

1. iStock

iStockphoto.com is an online database of creative resources, including royalty-free photos, videos, audio, illustrations, and clip art you can use in your creations. The website is a Getty Images subsidiary based in Calgary, Canada. In addition, contributors earn royalties depending on how often users download their content.

2. Alamy.com

Alamy.com is a British-owned stock image provider with contributions from photographers and agencies in 173 countries. It compensates its contributors by offering higher than average payouts every time users download their creations. Some popular brands to use Alamy’s services include M&C Saatchi, Microsoft, and The Economist.

Part 3: Shot a Photo by yourself or create one with editing tools

Alternatively, you can get images for commercial use by shooting them yourself or creating them with editing tools such as Figma and Wondershare’s Filmstock. Here are some benefits of using this method:

You get exactly what you want, provided you have the required skills and equipment. Sometimes, getting the right image for your commercial purpose can be challenging. As such, shooting an original photo may be the only option.
You have full ownership of the image.

Unlike obtaining images from stock photography websites, you are free to use the image in whatever capacity you please without any restrictions. For example, sites such as Unsplash do not allow you to use their images in political statements, a restriction you can bypass when using your own creations.

However, you should also consider the following factors when using this method.

It requires a substantial investment

Getting high-quality images for commercial purposes requires specialist equipment. For example, the Panasonic LUMIX GH6 camera, which has 4K resolution capability, costs $2,197 on Amazon. This makes it extremely expensive for amateur creators.

There is a steep learning curve

Becoming a professional photographer takes time and effort. Unless you are creating as a hobby, it will be a while before you can start generating income from your creations.

Part 4: FAQs

1. Do you need a contributor account to get images for commercial use?

Not necessarily. Stock image sites like pexels.com allow you to download images from their website without creating an account. You will only need one if you want to showcase your work on the platform.

2. Can you use your smartphone to get images for commercial use?

Yes. Most stock image providers have device-specific apps that allow you to access their databases from your mobile device. For example, UnsplashPhotoPicker allows you access to the Unsplash library from your Android device.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Get Steady: The Best Video Stabilizer Apps for Mobile

Stabilize Shaky Videos After Recording Easily

Wondershare Filmora is one of the most popular video editing software among YouTubers , which provides the video stabilization tool to remove shake from videos within one-click. Download and have a try now.

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Gone are the days when creating a movie or short video required a high level of technical expertise and the ability to handle video editing and related chores. With today’s smartphone cameras, anyone can shoot and capture video.

Following the introduction of these breakthrough technologies and their everyday applications, video editing has become a simple task, giving you an understanding of which video stabilizer to use. There are several free and premium video stabilizer software solutions available in the market.

These video editing programs have varied features, prices, and some are difficult to use. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an expert; there’s a lot of excellent software available. This article will give you a fast rundown of the best and most outstanding free and commercial Video Stabilizer App available.

Part 1: What is Video Stabilization?

Video stabilization refers to algorithms that remove undesirable camera tremors and jitters caused by hand jiggling and the unintended camera panning to improve video quality.

Without affecting moving objects or purposeful camera panning, video stabilization technology is used to minimize visual quality loss by decreasing undesired shaking and twitches of an image/video capture equipment. This is especially important in portable imaging equipment, which is more susceptible to vibrations due to its smaller size.

Excessive hand wobbling and purposeful camera panning often result in inconsistent photos, while undesired camera position variations result in unstable image sequences. Video stabilization techniques maintain good visual clarity and steady video footage even under less-than-ideal settings.

It is not always feasible to re-enact a video, and in those cases, we must make amends with what we have. This approach will necessitate particular video stabilization software, which will increase the movie’s transparency, allowing more innovation and modification.

Part 2: Best Video Stabilizer Apps for iPhone and Android

Here are the best video stabilizer apps for iPhone and Android for you to choose from.

1. Emulsio

Emulsio is a fantastic iPhone and iPad video stabilizer software for smoothing down jittery footage. You may modify the stabilizer strength using the tool’s stabilization function. Without leaving the application, you may examine the stabilized footage to the original video. Emulsio provides tools for editing and cutting footage and repairing shaky films.

Emulsio allows you to import movies from any location. It offers camera motion correction in horizontal, vertical, and rotating directions and is capable of removing rolling shutter distortion.

Overall, this app provides accurate control as well as previewing capabilities. It offers time-editing capabilities as well as live comparison capabilities. Finally, you may send altered films by email or social media. However, if you want to remove the watermark, you need to pay.

Using Emulsio to stabilize video on iPhone is easy, all you need to do is importing the video to analyse, and the app will analyse the video for you automatically. After analysing, the video will be stabilized accordingly, and you can then modify it based on your needs.

Emulsio also provides some additional settings, such as stabilization profile, rolling shutter, avoid black borders, and discontinuity handling to improve the stabilization result.

2. Shaky Video Stabilizer

The second one on our list is the Shaky Video Stabilizer app for Android phones, which is simple to use and straightforwardly transforms your video into a much more stabilized one. You can now transform a shaky video into a smooth and motion-stabilized one. Watch the results, which seems like it was shot with a gimbal. There are no watermarks! It’s possible to share it right from your phone. A steady video is more enjoyable to view and post on social media.

It’s easy to use Shaky Video Stabilizer app to remove the shakiness. Choose a video from your library. Begin the process of stabilization, and use the Background or wait. After the video is stabilized, save the result. And now you can examine the video’s Before and After result.

3. VideoStabilizer for KineMaster

KineMaster is a common choice amongst expert YouTubers and social networking experts who want to incorporate more sophisticated editing tools into their films. The VideoStabilizer for KineMaster app is for iPhone and Android both, which makes your videos smoother! This app offers all of the essentials and a large selection of professional editing tools and effects not seen in other apps.

At KineMaster, you can change the color of your movies and improve their visual quality with the press of a button. Its loudness tools take your audio to a professional level, allowing you to easily add voice-overs, background music, and other sound effects.

Advanced capabilities include keyframe animation tools for adding movement to your layers and speed control and quality blending options. Your videos may be exported in 4K or 2160p and directly uploaded to social networking sites.

How to use KineMaster to stabilize video? Well, it is easy as well. Tap the Add button to add a video and then tap Next to continue. And this app will analyse the video automatically. After analysed, you will see the original and the stabilized result in the screen. Tap the Save button and set the quality to High from Medium or Low to Medium, depending on your preference.

4. PowerDirector

The PowerDirector app has many options that allow you to create the ideal film from beginning to end—all on your Android hone or tablet.

Speed adjustment, keyframe controls for transparency and placement, animated text and titles, and video stabilization are just a few of the easy-to-use editing capabilities included in PowerDirector.

You can create fantastic effects with filters, overlays, and blending modes, and the app’s green screen chroma-key editor allows altering your background very simple. This program also includes several fine-tuning tools for splicing sequences, rotating films, and adjusting brightness, color, and saturation. However, if you want to unlocks more complex templates and editing tools, you may need to pay for the premium plan.

Stabilizing videos with PowerDirector on Android phone is not complex. Follow the steps below to find out how.

Step 1: Install the PowerDirector app on your smartphone

Step 2: Launch the app, create a new project, then upload the video you wish to stabilize to it.

Step 3: Select the video from the Timeline and then hit the edit (pencil) icon in the upper-left corner.

Step 4: Simply click the Stabilizer button to discover an option to stabilize the video.

5. Deshake

Deshake offers desktop-quality video stabilization to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, so you can fix all those shaky-hand movies of your favorite moments.

Choose a film from your picture gallery and tweak the parameters while seeing the results in real-time on your phone! It’s super-fast due to a next-generation stabilization technology that surpasses most pro programs and has been thoroughly tested on genuine home movies like yours.

6. LumaFusion

LumaFusion is among the “pro” iPad apps that people frequently request. The sophisticated video editor uses the Apple Pencil and touch screen for people who wish to edit on the move. At the same time, Apple has yet to confirm whether or not Final Cut will be released for iPadOS.

LumaFusion is so beautifully built that you can film and edit on an iPhone while on location and make professional-looking shows without having to transfer all of your clips to an iPad or Mac.

You would save a huge amount of time and work by filming and editing on the same device instead of transferring large video files to another place.

To stabilize video footage with LumaFusion, double tap on the footage in the timeline, and in the Clip Editor pane, tap on the Stabilize button to start stabilizing the video.

Part 3: What Features Should I Look for in a Video Stabilizer App?

There are a lot of features to look for when choosing a video stabilizer for your videos. The application for your iPhone or Android should be easy-to-use. It should also allow the stabilization strength adjustment. Further, never compromise on video quality. Choose one that produces high-quality video results.

The stabilizer app should offer a large variety of format support. Plus, it should have many other editing tools to enhance photos or videos for your future projects.

If you are editing videos on Windows and Mac computers, you can try Wondershare Filmora , which is an easy to use and powerful video editing software for all video content creators. Stabilize video in Filmora video editor is easy. All you need to do is import videos to timeline, enable the Video Stabilization tool, and the video is stabilized automatically.

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For Win 7 or later (64-bit)

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For macOS 10.12 or later

Conclusion

Well, there you have it – your ideal Video Stabilizer App. Oftentimes, your shaky videos kill the entertaining side of the video. If the video is too shaky, the viewer would lose interest soon and not watch the full video. But that’s not the case anymore. With the advanced technology and so many apps on the market, stabilizing a video has never been easier!

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Part 1: What is Video Stabilization?

Video stabilization refers to algorithms that remove undesirable camera tremors and jitters caused by hand jiggling and the unintended camera panning to improve video quality.