Stock photography is a rapidly growing industry on the web. Sites like iStockPhoto and Shutterstock make vast sums of money just by hosting high quality stock images. However, if you’re like me, you don’t always have the resources to buy the photographs you need, particularly if you need the extended license.
This is a list of 10 amazing free stock photography sites, with a bonus 11th stock photo request site. If you need a stock image, be sure to check out these galleries before spending the money for the other stock photography site. The images aren’t always the same quality that you might find on a paid site, but sometimes they will do the trick just as well as other sites.
Stock Xchng
Stock.Xchng is probably the most well known stock photography site out there, with over 350,000 stock photos for you to choose from. The images all fall under a usage policy, so be sure to read it before you use an image, but overall, SXC is an amazing stock photography site. They have several methods that help make finding the right image a breeze.
morgueFile
MorgueFile is another popular stock photography site, featuring high quality stock photos that are free to use. Check the FAQ to verify the image usage policy as always.
StockVault
Featuring a more modern design and interface, StockVault provides all the functionality you’d expect from a stock photography site. Still somewhat small, StockVault continues to grow and now has 11,000+ stock images to choose from.
EveryStockPhoto
Another more modern site, EveryStockPhoto boasts one of the largest free image galleries on the internet, with almost 4.5 million photographs to choose from. However, images fall under different usage policies so be sure to carefully read the usage policy associated with the image that you are using.
OpenPhoto
OpenPhoto is the open-source equivalent for photography. Featuring a large, high quality image gallery, you’ll be able to find the image that you need with the search function.
Pixelio.de
Well, you may need to need German or have a page translator available for this one, but Pixelio.DE has over 280,000 stock photographs in 147 different categories, so if you can’t find the image you want on other sites, try checking out Pixelio.
Nations Illustrated
Nations Illustrated is somewhat unique as it features almost exclusively landscape and scenery photographs. Coined as “The World In Pictures”, if you’re looking for quality images that you might see in National Geographic, try Nations Illustrated to find the photo you need.
Image After
The name may remind you of a Disney fairy-tale, but there’s nothing imaginary about Image After. Featuring another very large database of photographs to choose from, Image After definitely deserves to be mentioned up with the top stock photography sites.
PhotoGen
PhotoGen is somewhat less known and has a little overlap with some of the other stock photography sites, but nonetheless features a great image gallery of free stock photographs.
Unprofound
Don’t let the layout fool you, Unprofound is nothing but professional. Unprofound features a large collection of widely unique photos that you won’t find on other stock image sites, so be sure to check out their gallery of images. Also, if you’re an uploader, you can get a free gallery portfolio.
Still can’t find the image you’re looking for, after checking out all 10 of those sites? Okay, well don’t give up hope yet, because there’s one last place to mention.
PhotoRogue
PhotoRogue is a revolutionary concept where designers and artists can request a stock photograph, and the PhotoRogue team will actually go out and capture the photograph that you request. Not every request is fulfilled due to time and location constraints, but they still do a fantastic job keeping up wtih requests.
Now you should have all the stock photographs you need.
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nice selections thank you..
Hey, this is great. I just posted on digg:
http://digg.com/design/10_Free_Stock_Photography_sites
Digg it to help get the word out!
for good free hi-res travel photos, i would recommend geoPhotoLog
Thanks for the list!
kyle you can also find lots of good travel stock photos at photoeverywhere.co.uk
thanks for this site, most of the sites I have seen before, but onprofound and photorouge are new ones on me
I’m not sure I get what you are meaning by “free.” The sites here I looked into charge for photos… unless by free you are meaning “royalty free” which is a whole ‘nother thing. But if I read your intro right you are referring to the monetary type of free. Some sites seem to be getting around this by semantics because you really pay with “credits” not money, but you have to buy the credits…so same difference really. I’ve used Shutterstock for years and find them quite reasonably priced for what you get although their rates have gone up over time. Still, working for a non-profit agency, I was thrilled to see what I thought might be resources for free images… wondering what the catch might be… not much worth having comes free… and I guess the catch is that they really aren’t free… or am I missing something? Please let me in on the secret if I am. Sorry if I’m missing some point here.
Pam,
Sites like SXC are also affiliated with a paid site (such as StockXpert). When you do a search, at the top it will usually show StockXpert results, and then at the bottom it will show the free images from the site. Most of the sites on here are like this. But they all have free image galleries.
Great references. Also Flickr has only copyright free photos in this link.
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/
Thanks for the link Chris!
the creative commons images at flickr NOT copyright free!!! they can be used and distributed free of charge (royalty free) but the original photographer maintains their copyright. The only images without copyright are those that the owner has placed into the ‘Public Domain’
Thanks for the clarification, PhotoHome. I didn’t include Flickr in this list primarily because I am not familiar with their Terms of Use. As with any of the sites listed above, make sure you fully read their Terms of Use to avoid any legal issues in the future.
is another great and free site
You should specify that all images at StockVault can’t be used on commercial projects.
dreamstime.com is also pretty cool
Thanks 4 sharing, found via http://twitter.com/adbert/statuses/1169674742
Great links! I’ve always been partial to istockphoto but sometimes the choices seem to be scarce. Will definitely check these out!
Sweet. Thanks.
I thought i could never find web sites that offer free stock photos.
Great post, thanks for the info
Nice information
.
I recommend this great site:
http://www.public-domain-image.com
Public domain images, royalty free stock photos. for your: “Photo/Image Sources for Presentation or Instruction”
All photos on this site are top quality high resolution public domain images.
They are explicitly placed in the public domain. Use them freely for personal and commercial use.
Largest image archive, several thousand photos in high resolution, nicely organized hierarchically in folders, easy to browse, and all are public domain images 100% free for download.
Another one to the list: FreeDesignPhoto.com . Dedicated to photo design and with free stock photos for designers.
A useful list, thanks!
I got a list of stock photo resources i’m building for myself, maybe will you find it useful to add something to this one.
Here is another royalty free website.
http://www.allfreeimages.net
Loads more free stock photography sites are listed at http://freeres.info/free-stock-photos.php
This post is useful! Thanks
Nice post and blog! Greets.
You may also find high quality free images at http://www.sunipix.com
Lots of photographers work very hard to get their 20-50% from these stock agencies. Pay the price or better yet, work with a local photographer. You can offer credit on your site/publication instead of payment and they can then say “I’ve been published.” (which helps when starting out). It’s a win win if you want it to be.
You can get many thousands of totally free photos at http://www.freerangestock.com – free for commercial and personal use.
I have some favorites that aren’t listed here that I would like to share: http://ljdesignstudio.com/67-best-stock-photography-sites
An awesome list I haven’t heard of some of them.
But a few of those at the end don’t have a very large selection. =)
Thanks for share. Nice post!
Nice this list. I like shutterstock and use images from there for designing my websites. I appreciate microstock news and support from you.
My version of best Free Stock Photos Sites
Personally, i like sxc.hu the most – the largest one and very convenient to use. If i do not find the image there, i search on others..
Here is my 5 cents – i am building a list too – at http://designbeginshere.com – it has free and cheap design content resources categorized. Feel free ro use it or add to this one..
Try http://www.picdrome.com, a new site for free stock pictures taken by myself in different corners of Europe, and fun stuff.
Check out the new site of the SXC guys… Unfortunately it’s not free but reasonably priced and fast:
http://stockfresh.com
Hey guys, check out http://www.allourstock.com — It’s 100% FREE for COMMERCIAL and PERSONAL use. It has color search features (the only free stock site with such a feature) a blog with great resources, and much more. Tons of images added daily as well.
Thanks for the cool 10. I gift all of us 11th Microstock website that is simply built to put money back into your pockets. Give it a glance http://www.buymicrostock.com/
Best,
Nick Jones
Thank you for letting this list with us such nice post.
MCSE
http://www.freestockfor.us and http://www.allourstock.com both free (Creative Commons licensing)
People are also welcome to use the free royalty free photos and images available on http://www.cjophoto.com/.