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Free nature photos: landscapes and wildlife

Nature pictures carry websites, slides and book covers: a misty lake behind a headline, a close-up of leaves on a wellness page, a fox on a children's worksheet. These collections group free nature images by what they show, from Wikimedia Commons, Openverse's Creative Commons index, NASA's Earth photos and the museums' natural-history prints, with links to Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay for anything they don't have. Every card shows the image's size and shape and says whether you can use it commercially.

Updated , from a live search of 33 sites.

2 collections

  • Free 4K nature photos: mountains, lakes, coasts

    Free high-resolution nature photos, at least 4K on the short side: mountains, lakes, coasts and forests, with the licence and credit line on every image.

    23 images from 4 sources · 22 at 1080 px or larger

  • Free flower photos and plant pictures

    Free photos of flowers and plants, from tulips and roses to cacti and ferns, from Wikimedia Commons and Openverse, with licence verdicts and credit lines.

    35 images from 3 sources · 24 at 1080 px or larger

Choosing a nature image

Pick the shape first: a wide landscape for a hero or a slide, a tall one for a poster or a phone screen. Leave room for text: skies, water and out-of-focus backgrounds take a headline well, busy foliage does not. For print, check the pixel size: a full A4 page at 300 dpi needs about 2480 × 3508 pixels.

Where free nature images come from

Wikimedia Commons holds millions of nature photos with a licence recorded per file. Openverse indexes Creative Commons photos from Flickr and other sites. Museums such as the Met and the Cleveland Museum of Art publish public-domain natural-history prints and paintings. Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay have large modern libraries; they can't be searched automatically here, so each search links straight to the same query there.

Licences for nature images

Landscapes rarely need releases, which makes nature one of the safest kinds of image to use commercially. Check the licence itself: CC0 and public-domain images need nothing, CC BY needs a credit line, and CC BY-SA means an edited version must carry the same licence. Recognisable people or private buildings can still need releases for ads.

Questions

Are free nature photos safe to use in ads?
Usually, if the licence allows commercial use: landscapes, skies and plants don't need model releases. Watch for people, logos or private buildings in the picture, which can need a release for advertising.
How big should a nature photo be for a website hero?
About 1920 pixels wide covers most screens; 2560 or more looks sharp on large high-density displays. Download the smallest copy that is at least that wide rather than a huge original.

Search nature images live

Each link runs a fresh search of every source for one kind of image. Results show their size and shape where known and carry a licence verdict; turn on Commercial-safe to keep only images you can use commercially.

Also known as: nature photos, landscape photos, free nature images, wildlife photos.

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