Best Royalty-Free Images, Photos, Video Sources and Photo Size for LinkedIn

by Massimo P · October 25, 2019

I have to admit, my LinkedIn profile background was factory stock. What I mean, I just used the default background that was provided. Now let’s be clear, there is nothing wrong with using defaults! But in this super-competitive environment, we need to find an edge that helps us to get noticed. Pretty much all of the main social media destinations have unique and specific specifications for posts and profiles.
You can use generic image size that you have already shot from a point-and-shoot or phone and have the platform do all the hard work resizing. The problem with this is that you might not be pleased with the resize end results.
It’s better to stick with the preferred formats that the platforms ask.

LinkedIn: Is it just for Business?

Social media and all the various iterations of this rather newish way of socializing has turned the tables on the status quo.
It’s now about how we can stand out in this world of billions. With LinkedIn, we need to understand that with the millions of potential eyeballs searching all the profiles, we need to have that special sauce to stand out. Let’s explore the main way that I found to capture attention.

Let’s first talk about the sheer number and statistics of the LinkedIn user. More than 70% of LinkedIn users are from outside the US – that is quite a surprise!

There are over 40 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn (2019). That is a stat that is less impressive since it’s quite noted that if you are going to college, you might need that business connection after graduation. One of the stats that I found most sad was that even in this age, there is still an unbalance in male to female ratio. At this time there are 57% of male users and 43% female users on Linkedin.

So what social media sizes?

LinkedIn:

Company Page Specifications

Company logo size: 300 x 300
Cover photo size: 1536 x 768
Dynamic Ads size: 100 x 100 (company logo)
Sponsored Content image size: 1200 x 628

Personal Page Specifications:

Profile picture size: 400 x 400
Background photo size: 1584 x 396
Post image size: 1200 x 1200 (desktop) 1200 x 628 (mobile)
Link post size: 1200 x 628
Video size: 256 x 144 (minimum) to 4096 x 2304 (maximum)
Video length: 10 minutes

Great Sources of Stock Images and Video: Royalty-Free!

In finding stock images for use on not only LinkedIn, but with all the social media and WordPress like sites, can be challenging. The issues faced with using images that are not your own include copyright infringement and potential shake down lawsuits! I have personally had some run-ins with these shake down attorneys in the past. Trust me, it’s no fun!
So where do I get my images for my posts and header background?
Let’s start with a nice list of 29 sources for royalty-free images that you can use right off the bat for your LinkedIn posts and profile.

The growing list of Free and Paid…

Here is a fairly complete list of websites that you can use to source high quality and completely free stock photographs, images, and pictures to make your Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter profile stand out from the crowd and attract the right sort of attention.

Pixabay

This is the big boy of photo sites; 700,000 or free stock photos, vector graphics, and art illustrations. This is my personal favorite and my daily go to stock photos site. It’s super easy to use and if you can’t find what you need here – your just not searching well enough. It’s mostly attribution free with some exceptions. Quality and choice.

Unsplash

Pexels

An extensive database of photographs for personal and commercial use. Featuring a nice but rather limited number of photos. You can use the photos for any legal purpose under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Realistic Shots

Interesting modest claim of 7 new photos are added every week. You can use the photos and images for both personal and commercial use.

Foodies Feed

Pizza – Burgers – Cakes – Meat
What do they all have in common? Well if you need some stock images that are related to food, this is the spot for you.
The site has a pretty good selection of food-focused photos and images with special sections for pictures of craft beers and pasta & pizza.

Death To Stock

This is a paid photo site that was created by designers. They claim to dislike greatley the generic and banal photos found on other paid sites.

Splitshire

This is a varied and rather small collection of unusual stock photos. It’s not a large selection, as it seems to have only in the thousand entries. I like that the authors of the site have mentioned right on the landing page that it’s Free Stock Photos for Commercial use. That gives me a sense of confidence.

Stock Snap

I like the flow and quality of the photos that I can see just scrolling the landing page. It seems very Google like in it’s search capabilities. Seems to be based on making sure they get your email address, so that they can send you weekly zips of new photos. This could be combersom as I rather not have my Google Mail (Gmail) loaded down with zips.

Kaboom Pics

Very Blog centered on its design and focus on food, fashion, landscape, and abstract pictures. The main navigation scheme of this site is the searchable hashtags. The site designers decided to use a category everything with a searchable hashtags approach to help you find related pictures quickly. Looks like some really useful blog posts to boot!

Fancy Crave

This looks like a very interesting travel content creator centered free photos site. Combination of the blog and a focus towards storytelling is very compelling. If you are looking for a bit more unique travel and lifestyle related photos — this might be the spot.

Pic Jumbo

So what happens when you are a photographer, honing your craft, you submit your photos to a big well known photos site – and it’s rejected?This is the story apparently from a photographer by the name, Viktor Hanacek. Well he sure got his revenge! Eat dirt big photo site!

Startup Stock Photos

Really basic with a minalmilistic feel that is aimed more at helping the tech bloggers, publishers, web designers and start-up entrepreneurs source pictures. The look of the photos seem to be represeantitve of people working on the laptops and drinking lots of coffee.

Picography

Hashtag overload! Well it’s a very nice laied out site with beautiful urban and countryside pictures. The site has a monthly free email and some good nature selections.

LibreShot

I’m not sure what to make of this photo site. It does offer the typical varied range of pictures of life in and around Prague (and beyond).
Photographer Martin Vorel seems to be the main photographer. Attribution isn’t necessary, but he does encourage if possible.
My main concern with this site is that it could possibly change at some point with the free to use and being that it’s based off shore, could be probimatic.

Super Famous

Earthy and dark. The focus of this site is on landscape and very abstract closeups. I even see some semi-adult like images. I’m not sure if I personaly am the key user of these kind of photos. The site does ask for attribution on using the images for commercial use.

Gratisography

This is a collection of quirky images by photographer Ryan McGuire, that I can really recomend and use daily! Not the typical and very distinctive pictures. If you are looking for photos that will cause a little more than the usaual amount of notice – this is it.

Morguefile

Really big selection of photos that seem very unorganized. I find the selection decent (over 350,000 images), but the organization and search a bit overwhelming. Difficult to see which are free and which links send over to a paid site.

Free Images

A really massive resource of 300,000 plus free photos and illustrations. Very search engine like capabilities with a never ending selection! Not too bad.

Little Visuals

Little Visuals began life as a passion project by Nic Jackson. Tragically, Nic died suddenly on November 2013. Whilst Nic didn’t get the chance to maintain and grow Little Visuals himself, this website remains accessible to all. As his family, we have ensured that all of the images will remain available and free for commercial use. Yes I took this and paste directly into this description. Why? Because it’s really powerful and made me a bit melancholy. I like the photos and seems to have a closeup and intimate mood.

New Old Stock

If you have a project that requires vintage photos of life in the 19th and 20th centure, this is the source. My only concern is that the site clearly states that it’s free of KNOWN copyright restrictions. This is a bummer as you could find yourself using a photo and getting a notice for a big bill.
USE WITH CAUSION

Designer Pics

Attribution not required! This is a nice thing to read. Sometimes you like to use stock photos without having to crud up your post with attributions. The selection seems varied and high resolution. Might give this site a try.
NOTICE: I have not put a link at this time, as the site has no SSL certificate. I don’t use sites that are not protected from prying eyes. Use at your own risk.

All The Free Stock

It’s a mess! Well there you go, at least my honestly will guide you right when selecting stock media. It’s basicaly a hodge podge aggregation site. There is a section for Photos as well there are many other media. I found it all a bit confusing.

In summary

This is not the full list of sources, as there are many more to be added over time. My primary source of images has been for a while PixaBay.
My experience has been that it’s quite easy to use and it has a social element to the images – like an photo social network. I’ll over time try to update this post with any new photo sites that pop-up.