
Unsplash – Beautiful photos free to use under the Unsplash License - tambourine_man
https://unsplash.com/collections
======
cyberferret
Unsplash is a really cool resource. We actually use it (paired with another
'sister service' called Unsplash.it) to provide ever changing and semi
interesting 404 error pages for our web app... I blogged about how we do it a
while back - [http://devan.blaze.com.au/blog/2015/11/3/errors-dont-have-
to...](http://devan.blaze.com.au/blog/2015/11/3/errors-dont-have-to-be-boring)

~~~
Guest98123
You might want to add a text shadow, because the error message isn't visible
on quite a few images. I just loaded the page 5 times, and couldn't see it
twice.

[http://i.imgur.com/YNBEUzc.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/YNBEUzc.jpg)

Also, it gives some strange behavior in Firefox. If I load the below in a tab,
it shows a random image as expected. Then if I open it again in a new tab it
shows the previous image that loaded from the first tab, and then it switches
images to a new random one a second later.

[http://www.hrpartner.io/nopage](http://www.hrpartner.io/nopage)

Lastly, you could solve the above issues, and decrease the load time from 1s
to 200ms if you just self hosted a few random images, and you wouldn't have to
worry about your 404 page depending on Unsplash.

Edit: It's actually taking 6-8 seconds to load the image now, and the 404 page
is white text on a white background during that time.

~~~
cyberferret
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I do notice there are quite a few lighter images
on Unsplash nowadays, so the white text will be hidden on those. Will add the
shadows to the text as you suggested to make it work better.

I'll investigate those Firefox issues too - I did most of the testing in
Chrome, Safari and IE, but will do some more on FF to ensure it works OK on
all browsers.

If traffic gets really high on our site, I may resort to locally hosted images
to reduce load time. Unsplash.it may also be throttling the image load time
for us, as I am thinking the sudden spike from this HN post may have alerted
them to the fact that there is suddenly a flurry of remote calls to them from
our server IP? Or perhaps the Amazon CloudFront CDN is causing a slow down
there? I will investigate - thanks for your useful feedback.

~~~
wavefunction
You could color-sample the pictures displayed on the fly with a library like
color-thief[0] and render the text in some acceptable contrasting color. We do
something similar for a bit of our app that allows the users to set color
schemes.

[0][http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/color-
thief/](http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/color-thief/)

~~~
cyberferret
Nice library! All javascript too. Thanks for the heads up - will certainly
make an interesting project to use this to calculate the text colour for the
error screens.

In fact, I may be able to go back to using coloured Unsplash images. I went
for Grayscale images _purely_ so that I could stick to white text for the
contrast.

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Cbeck527
I was recently featured[1] in collection #127, and as a long time user it
feels really awesome to give back and let others use my work.

I've also been to a few of their NYC meetups and it's clear that the site is
backed by an amazing community.

1 -
[https://unsplash.com/collections/curated/127?photo=jYYpTndzo...](https://unsplash.com/collections/curated/127?photo=jYYpTndzopI)

~~~
movedx
Thanks for your contribution! Gorgeous photo. Mind me asking what technical
specs went into snapping that?

~~~
Cbeck527
Eiriksmal's post nailed it. I used the Canon 40mm[1] pancake lens (one of my
favorites!) and my 5dMkII. That pic was the final night that I was in
California[2]. I took a nap and slept through the time I was planning to go to
the bridge, but ended up catching the last few minutes of light.

[1] -
[https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/d...](https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/lenses/ef/standard-
medium-telephoto/ef-40mm-f-2-8-stm)

[2] -
[http://becker.am/blog/2014/06/05/california/](http://becker.am/blog/2014/06/05/california/)

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kardos
How does the Unsplash license [1] differ from the Creative Commons Zero
license?

[1] [https://unsplash.com/license](https://unsplash.com/license)

~~~
Palomides
"All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero"
implies literally nothing beyond CC0, in which case they could just say CC0
and not try to confuse their intended (license-wary) audience.

(edit: clarity)

~~~
orblivion
Could you clarify? You said "...licensed under Creative Commons Zero" means
nothing. But then you said they could "just say CC0", which according to what
you just said also means nothing. Why would you recommend that, then?

I think I'm just parsing this wrong.

~~~
coldtea
> _I think I 'm just parsing this wrong_

Yes. Grantparent asked "How does the Unsplash license [1] differ from the
Creative Commons Zero license?" and parent answered: "All photos published on
Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero" implies literally nothing".

Which should be read as meaning "implies literally nothing [is different
between the two licenses]" \-- and not that what they wrote means nothing.

------
df3
Unsplash is a great resource.

It's important to point out that "free" and "royalty-free" aren't the same
thing. Unsplash images are actually in the public domain, whereas "royalty-
free" is a license type where an image can be used multiple times for one
payment.

~~~
gmfawcett
They are not in the public domain. They are licensed under "Creative Commons
Zero," which is not the same thing.

~~~
albedoa
The CC0 page[1] on the Creative Commons website is in the Public Domain
section and describes CC0 as a method of contributing works to the public
domain.

1\. [https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-
domain/cc...](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/)

~~~
cyphar
If you read that page, it also explains that it also has a fallback to a very
permissive copyright licence in cases where you cannot release a work to the
public domain.

Not all countries have a concept of public domain, and many that do have
arbitrary restrictions applied to it. In fact, this is one of the reasons you
should use CC0 rather than just saying "public domain" or using something like
the Unlicense.

------
ChrisNorstrom
There goes my evening. Seriously, Thank You for this. This is the best free
photo collection I've seen so far and I scout a lot of photo collection sites.

1) I LOVE how you group photos by subject/topic instead of just randomly
posting photos and asking the user to search for what they want. Most of the
time users don't know what they want and would rather just browse and look
around. Browsing lists and collections is more entertaining, engaging, and
useful than what other photo sites do: drop off the user in front of a search
box and ask "what do you want?". That's like asking someone "tell me
everything about you". It forces the user to engage in some serious mental
gymnastics and fatigues them. Collections like yours are easier on the brain.
Just pick a pretty picture and browse all the pretty photos in that
collection. Love it.

2) The photography is beautiful and looks authentic, rare, and avoids that
"generic stock photo" feel. These photos look like they're out of somebody's
"rare find" folder. They are gorgeous and ready to be used with minimal
photoshopping.

3) Most of these already have color correcting and filters applied. Did your
site do this? Or did the photographers?

Unique. Useful. Going in my bookmarks. Thanks for this.

------
Ahmed90
Always Great quality for fellow web devs out there give
[http://unsplash.it](http://unsplash.it) a try for development easy, fast and
beautiful placeholder images

~~~
shoghicp
Interesting to see projects from coworkers on HN!

------
bdcravens
Apple products on a distressed wooden table, laid out perfectly yet supposedly
naturally positioned, with an open paper notebook: check

------
fpgaminer
Here's a quick script I put together which downloads a random image every hour
and sets your wallpaper. Only works with Gnome 3/Unity/Cinnamon. Adjust line 5
for different resolutions (currently set for 1920x1080) and adjust line 7 for
different update frequency:

[https://gist.github.com/fpgaminer/bdd493ce84eafb7886e08d20c2...](https://gist.github.com/fpgaminer/bdd493ce84eafb7886e08d20c27b0077)

------
josephg
6 months ago I wrote a couple little scripts to download new unsplash into a
directory every 6 hours. Then I pointed macos to use random images from that
directory for wallpapers. The whole thing is great - its a source of tiny
delight throughout my week. Its also a small step toward making my workspace
feel more _hackable_.

The whole thing was super hacked together - I'm sure there's nicer solutions
around but I'm plenty happy with what I have. Details here if anyone wants to
copy what I did: [https://josephg.com/blog/shiny-background-
images/](https://josephg.com/blog/shiny-background-images/)

------
sirodoht
Fun fact: when this was firstly posted in HN there were mainly negative
comments, about yet another website on a market with many players.

Lately it has become a favorite site for many people. So, just another
incarnation of the Google story. <3

------
ars
From the name I thought these photos were free to use as long as you agree
never to have a splash popup on your site :)

Maybe someone could actually do that.........

------
hiimnate
I love Unsplash. They also have a Chrome extension to show a random image in
your new tab page. Would recommend.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unsplash-
instant/p...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unsplash-
instant/pejkokffkapolfffcgbmdmhdelanoaih?hl=en)

------
seanwilson
Great resource. I'm curious how this impacts photographers though given
there's so many sources of free images now. Can you make a living creating and
selling stock photos?

------
rokhayakebe
To think these guys started with 10 photos.

~~~
dexterdog
I'm guessing they started with none.

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philfrasty
How do they make sure the submitter of the image is actually the
rightsholder/owner?

~~~
cyberferret
I believe Unsplash hand curate the images they add to their collection to
ensure they are SFW and not in violation of any copyright. I believe they only
add 10 or so images per week, so it could be manageable.

------
Esau
Great site but they must use a heck of a lot of bandwidth. How do they stay
afloat?

~~~
justanton
There was a blog post about it explaining this in detail:
[https://crew.co/backstage/dispatch/what-does-unsplash-
cost/](https://crew.co/backstage/dispatch/what-does-unsplash-cost/)

~~~
lisper
That blog post explains the costs but not the revenues. How are they funded?

~~~
danso
They wrote a post about that too [https://crew.co/backstage/blog/how-side-
projects-saved-our-s...](https://crew.co/backstage/blog/how-side-projects-
saved-our-startup)

Unsplash is apparently crew.co's highest source of referrals, so i guess it's
a loss leader

------
Hondor
Wonderful to see more CC0 use compared to a lot of "free" art on the internet
that burdens the users with keeping track of attribution requirements and
including the license text and all that tediousness.

------
yatsyk
Great resource.

Can somebody recommend similar resource with unprocessed images? Most photos
toned or converted to black-and-white.

------
tunnuz
I shared some of my best photos on Unsplash, and I plan to use it in the
future. It is a great resource.

------
tschellenbach
Big fan of Unsplash, great resource!

------
raz32dust
It is obviously great for users. But I am kinda sad for the artist
photographers. I don't think photography should be done for money, and I doubt
any photographer would make real money off landscape and generic photos. But
at least having a chance of making money via sites like 500px is a good thing
in my opinion. Some additional incentive for them to keep trying.

Talented individuals who are well off, giving talent for free makes life
harder for other talented individuals who might not actually be well off and
might have just this talent. It looks like service is the only thing that will
be monetize-able in the future. Actual products will all be available free of
cost. I think it will drive down the quality of the best products while
driving the average quality up.

~~~
corobo
You don't have to sign a "must produce at least x photos for unsplash"
contract when you buy a camera. If they want to make money off their
photographs then indeed they'll use a site where they can earn money. Unsplash
is not the site for that.

Talented individuals are doing bespoke work, not taking random pictures for
peoples' 404 pages. The advice I can give to talented people who are not well
off is learn to talk business. Your photos are great, that's why we're talking
with you. Now lets hash out the business side of things, the easier you make
it to buy or license exclusive access to these images we want the easier we
push your invoice through accounting.

