15 Free Stock Photo Sites

Alright, we celebrated my birthday yesterday, but it is time to get back to work! Today, I’ve invited Sarah Guilliot over from SarahDesign.com to share some resources with you. Sarah specializes in drop dead gorgeous mockups of tumblers, coffee mugs, wine glasses, beer mugs, mason jars, and more. In addition to selling ready to use mockups, she offers a class to teach you how to make your own mockups. I’m turning it over to her:

Hi again Cutting for Business readers! I’m so excited to be here to share with you today. Like Christine mentioned, I’m Sarah Guilliot, from SarahDesign.com where I specialize in mockups for drinkware makers. And one of my essential tools for making quick drinkware mockups or even social media posts and blog posts, is stock photography.

And even better than that… free stock photography. I bet you enjoy a nice free resource, too, so I put together this short list to help you next time you need a stock photo. I’ve also included some paid sites at the end of the list because there are times when it’s worth it to shell out a few bucks to find just the image you need for a quick and easy mockup!

Most of these are free for commercial use with no attribution required, but do check the fine print to make sure you are covered.

Free Stock Photos with Drinkware Options

• Unsplash – This is my #1 favorite because the quality will blow you away. Stock photo aggregators like Pexels and Pixabay pull in these images quite a bit, so I like to skip the middleman and go straight to Unsplash instead. There are a ton of great shots of drinkware in here. Just search for “wine” and you’ll see. Gorgeous.
• Pexels – This is my #2 favorite out of the whole list. It aggregates from tons of other sites but really does a good job of only displaying the higher quality options. There are lots of fantastic shots of wine glasses, mugs, and other drinkware in here so it’s a great choice for drinkware mockup resources.
• Pixabay – This is a decent option for nice drinkware-mockup-ready images but also can be a little hit and miss on quality. There are some surprising choices…sometimes a good surprise, and sometimes not! LOL But it’s worth checking out if you want some different options. There are plenty of lifestyle and people shots to choose from.
• StockSnap – This one is quite similar to Pexels. There are plenty of drinkware options plus lots of other choices and pretty high-quality. They add hundreds of new images each week.
• Burst – This site is very polished and nice. I’ve definitely found glassware images here (high-quality ones!) that I haven’t seen other places. It’s worth a look!
• FreePhotos – There are some lovely choices here with wine, beer, and even milk pouring into a glass. Plus plenty of other lifestyle and real life shots that you can use in your small business.
• Goodstockphotos – This one doesn’t have a whole lot of drinkware choices, but does have some and I think the name is pretty accurate. These are “good” stock photos, but not the highest quality I’ve seen. I’d check Good Stock Photos out if I felt like I had used up all the great options on my more preferred sites.
• Stockvault – Drinkware is available on Stockvault, but I’d say the majority of what they have to offer is really neat and colorful travel and lifestyle images. This is a fun but limited choice option.
• Picjumbo – If you search for “glass” there are few nice options but not a whole lot of choices overall. Great for social media photos, however.
• Free Stock Photos – I’m not gonna lie, this site looks a little janky, LOL! But, there are some fun and interesting things to choose from in terms of clip art, and a few drinkware choices. This is one of those sites that is just fun to search through for treasure, like when you go to a thrift shop.
• Rgbstock – This site is good for a last resort for drinkware image searches. The quality is not great, they look like a lot of very amateur photos. However, if you are looking for a particular item, like an unusual mug, for example, this could be the site where you find it. Then, use your photo editing skills to make the image look top notch for your mockup needs.
• Negative Space – This site has some drinkware, but not much. However, I’m including it because the quality of the images is very high and it was some unusual and quirky shots. I think you could create a really interesting Instagram feed with the images from this site, plus have some mockup options.

Free Lifestyle Stock Photo Websites

• New Old Stock – This one is really unique because it has vintage photos from public archives. It’s great for creating an overall “old timey” feel on social media or on your website.
• Magdeleine – A great site for elegant imagery and tons of beautiful outdoorsy shots. There aren’t a lot of drinkware choices here, but if you need images to set the mood or beautify your Instagram, it’s a great choice.
• Gratisography – I threw this in for fun because it has some really crazy, quirky, and funky options that could spice up your social media. I wouldn’t turn to this site for mockup materials, but for a fun post, it’s great!

Honorable Mentions:
Paid Stock Photo Websites with Drinkware Options

• SarahDesign (Etsy) – I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention myself as a resource. In my shops on Etsy, Creative Market, and SoFontsy, you can find readymade Photoshop Mockup files for drinkware sellers. These usually include png and jpg styled stock photo versions as well so you can mock them up in the graphics program of your choice. I hope you’ll check it out!
• Twenty20 – What I love about Twenty20 is how real the images are. It’s full of photos of real people doing real things. And there are a bunch of great drinkware choices in beautiful settings.
• Adobe Stock – There are a ton of drinkware options here – even ones where a single photo has up to 10 glasses in it. You just need to dig into the licensing to figure out which one you need in order to use these as a mockup for your shop. You can sign up for 10 free images so that’s nice too.
• Shutterstock – These aren’t free, but you can sign up to their email list for some free images. Even though it’s a paid account, I think it’s totally worth it when you are looking for just the right glassware image and can’t find it anywhere else. You can almost certainly find it on Shutterstock.

I hope you enjoyed the list. Don’t forget to bookmark this post so you can refer back to it later. And, if you are a drinkware seller with an Etsy shop or who is wanting to start an Etsy shop, I’d love to invite you to check out my free e-course: 5 Days to Better Etsy Images. Back to Christine:

Thanks Sarah! If you recognize Sarah’s name, it’s because she’s written for Cutting for Business before. Get her tips on designing with fonts in this post and tips for creating a logo in this post.

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