Hero Images & 20 Free Places To Find Them

In 2016, hero images became a web design trend which to this day is still going strong. As Wikipedia puts it,

'A hero image is a large banner image, prominently placed on a web page, generally in the front and center. The hero image is often the first visual a visitor encounters on the site and its purpose is to present an overview of the site's most important content.'

Hero images provide a quick overview of the content or product advertised. Overtime, hero images have become appealing as designers have started to include vector backgrounds, illustrated artwork and even animated videos.

If you are planning on using a hero image on your next landing page or portfolio re-design, take a look at the websites listed below. Included are the copyright restrictions and licenses determining how you can use, copy, modify, distribute each image.

1. Unsplash - Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.
2. Pixabay - Images are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications.
3. Travel Coffee Book - All photos are listed under cc0. That means you can do whatever you want with them. 
4. Pexels - Image on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose. 
5. Startup Stock Photos - Free photos for startups, bloggers, publishers, websites, designers, developers, creators, & everyone else.
6. Pic Melon - Handpicked source of high quality license free pictures for designers and bloggers.
7. Burst - Free stock photos for websites and commercial use.
8. Negative Space - Free for personal or commercial projects, all of our CC0 licensed images are completely free to use.
9. Shutteroo - Free to use images for both personal and commercial purposes, but you must not resell or redistribute them. 
10. Realistic Shots - Free stock photos (high resolution) for personal and commercial use.
11. Skuawk - A photography website with public domain images. Free and artistically loud!
12. Freely Photos - All photos published on Freely Photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer.
13. Stock Snap - Free high-res stock photos, weekly.
14. Superfamous Images - The Superfamous Images are available under the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This means that you can use the work for your own purposes if credit is provided.
15. Split Shire - Free Stock Photos and Images for commercial use.
16. Cup Cake - All images are licensed under the Creative Commons license CC0, which means that you are free to use the images without any costs. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking for permission. 
17. Life Of Pix - Free high-resolution photos, no copyrights restrictions. Images for personal and commercial use.
18. Trunklog - All pictures are free for private and commercial use.
19. Glyphs - All photos are under the CC0 License, free to download and can be used commercially.
20. Jay Mantri - All pictures are free under the CC0 license.