Photography is inspiring in many ways. It can help designers better appreciate colors and tones, it can inspire other photographers, and it can be an inspiration to all about the beauty of this world. However; finding the right photography inspiration can sometimes be a challenge.
As a photographer, how do you find inspiration? Through books, media, and venturing outside there are inspiring things everywhere. But how else?
In this post my goal is to give you the 10 best photography websites for inspiration that you can go back to day after day and never leave uninspired. Discover new trends and see what types of photos are being taken around the world.
1. Flickr
While it is not curated, Flickr is still one of the best sites I find for photography inspiration. Millions of photos from every corner of Earth are on that site. One little secret I found is to pick out a few of your favorite photographers and look at their favorites list. It is a great way to discover new photographers and similar images to the style of your favorites.
2. 500px
500px is our next go to site for photography inspiration. Their popular page is one of the best sources of high quality photography on the web and is filled with inspiring content.
On top of that, their search and filtering systems will help you find exactly what you’re looking for whether it be concert photos, food and still life shots, macro shots, and many more
3. Behance Photography
Photography Served was a great curated site from Behance that featured photography projects and a lot of inspiring imagery. It appears that Photography Served has been shut down by Behance and someone else bought the domain. But we found that Behance still has a massive photography category with so many cool projects.
Go check it out to see the latest commercial photo projects.
This is a great place to find inspiration as they have some incredible work not only from photographers, but also from post-production specialists and photo-retouching freelancers and teams!
4. Exposure
Exposure is such a cool site, and it is relatively new. It features inspiring photo narratives and stories. We enjoy the story aspect to it as it makes the images so much more interesting.
Exposure gives you a clean, personal website and a home for all of you memories. Whether you are looking for somewhere to host your photography, or find influence from others, this is a great website for photographers of all kinds!
5. Instagram
Photo: Nathana Rebouças
We all know and love (or hate) it, so we have to mention it. Instagram is the largest platform in the world to discover photography and inspiration of all kinds. Filter by hashtags to find exactly what you’re looking for. Who is your favorite photographer to follow on Instagram?
6. Phases
Phases Mag is great site with various galleries and projects from photographers that are really well done.
Find full stories and projects, not just single photos – because sometimes one photo isn’t enough.
7. Things Organized Neatly
Ever heard of knolling? Things Neatly Organized features a nice stream of neatly organized elements photographed. It is so fun to see these and has changed the way I photograph certain things.
It also brings new inspiration to the way you set up your shots and frame/compose things. Check out Things Organized Neatly today!
8. ZZZZoom
ZZZZoom is by far one of the coolest photography interview sites I’ve ever come across. Each week a photographer is interviewed, and answers the questions with nothing else but 7 of their photographs. It is a really creative idea and provides for some fantastic inspiration.
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9. Visual Studies Workshop
Visual Studies Workshop is a project from the VSW Research Center that highlights fantastic art, photography, and culture in general. We really enjoy the way they showcase history and changing styles in photography.
If you are looking for a more historical look at photography inspiration, this is the site to follow.
10. Unsplash
Recognize some of the photos from Unsplash on the web, or more specifically on FilterGrade? That’s because all photos on Unsplash are commercial free allowing for them to be used in preview images and blog posts around the web.
However I still find it to be an amazing place for photography inspiration. Thousands of photos are on the site, all of which are very high quality and are great fro giving your some new ideas!
Bonus: More amazing free stock photo sites that you can use for photo inspiration!
- Pexels – https://www.pexels.com/
- Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/
- StockSnap.io – https://stocksnap.io/
- Barn Images – https://barnimages.com/
- Foodies Feed – https://www.foodiesfeed.com/
Inspired Yet?
This list doesn’t even cover a fraction of the amazing photography on the web, but I tried to find the best curated sites to help you get inspired.
If you have another site to add to the list, leave a comment. I’d love to discover some more inspiring places to appreciate the art of photography.
Nice selection of websites. Some I am familiar with others not.
I’d also put YouPic on the list its a great photography website that I hang around.
Great suggestion! Never seen the site before, but looks interesting. Thanks for sharing David.
http://www.viewbug.com also has lots of eye candy
Interesting site. Thanks for sharing! :)
I think if you’re a photographer you are naturally inspired and just have a special ability to see the world in a different way. Think like a camera. Be the camera:-) But, we all have our inspirational roadblocks now an then.
Very good point David. I definitely agree that a lot of natural inspiration is what makes a photographer’s work special. It’s always nice to admire other’s work though as it can help give you a bit of perspective. :)
You can also add artipolis.com
It’s free and alows to promoe your art for millions of users.
Thanks for sharing Dmitry! Look’s like a cool site.
Very nice collection! If you are interested, i made this list of the microstock sites i use to sell my pictures http://polarpx.com/index.php/microstock-sites
Cool stuff Kasper! Thanks for sharing.
500px, Flickr and Behance are the mostly used platform for showing the photography works! I am using three of these websites on a regular basis as well. Thank you for letting us know about some other great photography websites here.
No problem, thanks for your comment Anila!
Have you heard of 1x.com?
Not yet, but it looks really cool! Thanks for sharing Ralf.
Thanks ! This is awesome . As a designer and developer its help me a lot. This article is very very useful.
Thanks Heto. What is your favorite site for photo inspiration? I personally love browsing Pexels, Exposure, and Unsplash these days.
I am just getting back to film after a 15 year vacation and will be developing my black and white shots. So i am going to check these sites out. A great resource, thank you.
Thanks so much Donald. Good luck with the film development! We have an article about developing B&W film here too: https://filtergrade.com/developing-bw-film-using-cinestill-df96/
Thanks ! This is awesome…..
I love your list of the top 10 best photography websites for inspiration. I find them to be a lot of fun to visit. It’s a nice change to see that even though photography is a popular topic, there is still new and exciting things to discover.
As a photographer myself I also like and follow those sites to take ideas also share mine.
William Thomas
A professional headshot retoucher
This is an excellent post you have shared with us and your article is also well . Thanks for shared
Great opportunity for me
This is such a great list of photography sites! From Flickr’s endless inspiration to Behance’s curated projects and Exposure’s storytelling approach, there’s something here for everyone. I love the variety, especially Unsplash for free high-quality images and Things Organized Neatly for creative composition ideas. Definitely bookmarking this—thanks for sharing! 😊