25 Free Stock Photo Sites
June 22nd, 2008 | Published in Featured, Resources | 119 Comments
When I began the research for this article, I knew of only a handful of free stock photography sites. I set out to find as many good ones as I could, thinking maybe I’d find a dozen. I was quite surprised to find 25 good, solid resources out there. There are probably more, but these are the ones I found. If you’ve got a favorite and it’s not here, send it along.
Note the terms of use for each site. Some of these sites offer free images in addition to images for a fee. All of them are worth a look.
Keep in mind that “Royalty Free” does not mean the images are free; it means that you don’t need to pay the photographer a royalty each time you use the image. These sites offer free royalty-free images.
Stock.XCHNG is my favorite site for free stock photography. Searching and browsing is a breeze, and they even include a lightbox, which is a handy way to save images for later use.
This is a huge resource, currently indexing over 3 million photos! Every Stock is a search engine for free photos, and it searches many of the sites listed here. Search options allow you to specify license type. Highly recommended.
The photos on Imagebase are free to use, and are licensed under a Creative Commons license. Images are available in two high resolution (1600 x 1200 or 3072×2048) formats.
Morguefile is a completely free source for stock photos. Check the FAQ for their usage terms. The term “morgue file” is used by illustrators and others for a stockpile of images used for reference material. Nothing ghoulish about it!
Openphoto groups their completely free photos by categories, and offers a search function as well. Registration is only necessary if you’d like to upload photos.
Stockvault is a very classy, modern site with thousands of images and some Photoshop tutorials. Membership is free and unlocks some additional features, such as a lightbox. Definitely worth a look.
Unprofound is unusual in that photos are grouped by color, rather than category. There is also a search function. Registration is not necessary, but allows you to create a free online portfolio, and to contribute to the ever-growing collection.
Photo Rogue offers something unique: they take online requests for particular images. Their crew of photographers will actually go out and take your photo for you, for free. Not all requests are filled, but wow! What a concept!
Freerange requires registration before you can download. While there are no categories for browsing, there is a search function. They also invite you to make requests, as they have many images that aren’t online yet.
Geek Philosopher has many categories, and all the photos are free. There’s no registration. They request that you list a photo credit if you use a photo, but otherwise, there’s little restriction. In addition to photos, they offer backgrounds and wallpaper.
Cepolina is an international site, with photo descriptions in 17 languages, and the ability to browse photos using maps of the world, including specific European countries. You can also browse by category, and use a search function.
This site requires registration in order to enter the site, but once you’re in, you can upload or download, and participate in the forum, all for free. This is a very community-oriented site. Photos are grouped by category but there is no photo search function, that I could see. The forum software is a limitation here.
Woophy takes Cepolina’s map concept one step further: the home page is a giant map of the world! Every dot on the map represents photos taken at that location. This is a community for travel photographers, sharing their images with the world. Definitely worth a visit.
Photo Rack has a huge collection of over 27,000 images, nicely categorized. The categories are broken down into subcategories, but there is no search function. This is a place to browse, seeking that perfect image. No registration required. No ability to upload, but downloading is a breeze.
Freepixels has corporate-type images usually only found on pay-per-image sites. It has a search function, categories, and a tag cloud, so finding an image is easy. There are also some good abstract backgrounds here.
Design Packs is a small but nice collection of images, grouped into “packs” of 15 images. The images in each pack follow a common theme, such as Money, Flowers, or Lights. These images should appeal to designers and others looking for “abstract” images for backgrounds. Downloading 15 images as a zip file is a great time-saver.
Freefoto is made up of 117600 images with 153 sections organized into 3285 categories. There’s a search function, and usage is unrestricted. Just include an attribution link back to Freefoto.
Imageafter has 20,000 images available. There are two drop-downs (one for textures, one for images) that make it easy to browse the categories for each. Imageafter allows you to use their images on printed material for resale.
Pixel Perfect Digital has a small but growing collection of images. Registration allows you to upload to your own personal gallery. The search function allows you to search within one or more category.
Free Stock Photos is a small site containing good quality photographs in both low and high resolution versions. Photos are grouped into categories. The search function uses Google, which doesn’t work well for images here.
Free Digital Photos has a lot to offer, including a good search function, which is important when you’ve got this many images. Photos are grouped nicely into categories for easy browsing. Linkbacks are requested.
Public Domain Photos is just that: photographs in the public domain, arranged by category. There’s a good search function, as well. Includes a clip art section, as a bonus.
Nations Illustrated showcases pictures from around the world with over 7,000 photos in its collection. Browse by city, or country, or continent. Good search function, and a site-wide index.
Free Historical Stock Photos has lots of historical images, including many by Matthew Brady (Civil War) and Dorothea Lange (Great Depression). Includes paintings and vintage posters. Categorized, with a search function. Got retro?
Kave Wall is a great source of professional-quality close-up and macro photography. Need a great shot of paper clips or rubber bands? This is the place. Categorized and easy to browse. Not a lot here, but what’s here is first rate.
03/23/2009 update – Thanks to Bad Neighborhood for building a great little tool to search multiple stock sites in one swell foop. Put in your search term, hit the button and it quickly builds and runs a Google Images search script, so you can search seven different sites at once. The search tool is here.
Elsewhere in the Magazine
Looking for fantasy images and free stock photos? Check out deviantArt. Read more.
Additional sources
Pixelbrush list of stock photo sources
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July 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm (#)
25 reasons NOT to be a stock photographer.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm (#)
Great list!
I love http://www.studio7designs.com/stock-photography/
Free nature based stock photography under creative commons.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:04 pm (#)
Great list of free sites…there are a couple new ones to me in there too.
If you are looking for free stock textures check out the site I just released about a month ago: http://www.lostandtaken.com
We don’t have a whole lot of textures yet, but the collection is growing. Check it out.
Caleb
July 18th, 2008 at 9:18 pm (#)
Great list, and a few good specialist free photo sites there too, a couple that I visit regularly
http://www.freeimages.co.uk (general photos) and http://www.photoeverywhere.com (for travel stock photos)
July 19th, 2008 at 3:46 am (#)
I would add Photoree ( http://www.photoree.com )
Great source of beautiful Creative Commons photos.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm (#)
I usually check out these best image search engines and find the images I like, then just confirm if they are free. Alternatively I use them to search through a few stock photo sites you suggest.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm (#)
Nice articles. More free stock photo sites, Free photos(that are actually free!), and reviews here – http://hubpages.com/_begin/hub/Free-Photos-And-Stock-Photography-Sites
Best Regards
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am (#)
25 ücretsiz Stok Fotoğraf Sitesi
http://www.joyoge.com/oku/552/25-ucretsiz-Stok-Fotograf-Sitesi-free-stock-photo.html
thank you for share…
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 am (#)
Not really Stock Photo sites, but those two well known sites have still a lot of cc-by and Public Domain Images :
* Wikimedia Commons ( http://commons.wikimedia.org check the “content / By license” sections )
* Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ )
There’s also a list of Public Domain Images Resources on wikipedia :
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources
July 24th, 2008 at 2:10 am (#)
Great, Great Info, I’ve spent hundreds on photos, here is some hope!
July 25th, 2008 at 4:14 am (#)
Great list, Very usefull
July 29th, 2008 at 7:30 pm (#)
Thanks for the list! That’s handy.
Something I have to say- those cute little animals in the pic you used?
Made by a company named Tolo- hard plastic toys. I work at a toy store, and, well, a little girl and I were playing with them when her brother came into the room and accidentally smacked her upside the head with a toy rifle.
Instead of taking her anger out on her brother..she turned to me, screaming, and chucked one of those adorable little farm animals RIGHT at my head.
…I will never look at them the same.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:55 pm (#)
Kristen –
Glad you find the list useful, but sorry that the image of the cow and pig toys brings up such traumatic memories!!
Thanks for stopping by –
Bob
July 30th, 2008 at 2:57 pm (#)
Thanks for the tip! I thought stock photo sites always charged for the use of photos, I’ll have to bookmark this list for future use
July 31st, 2008 at 12:05 am (#)
Mean while the photographers who work for a living are getting screwed because people are not paying for the hard work that goes into creating quality work.
These sites do not help the photography industry and for those designers out there looking for free imagery please take the time to think about the hard work you are doing when you are laying out ads or whatever your creating and ask yourself, how much my time is worth? The photographers time, effort and talent is worth something and for those who take it should be a shame.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:12 am (#)
Exactly what I have been looking for! I will be sharing this post with lots of people! Thanks so much!
July 31st, 2008 at 10:18 pm (#)
@ Pat, Stephen – Glad you find it helpful! Thanks for commenting
@ Brien – Designers still need to pay for top quality work. The best photography is always worth paying for. These sites help photographers to get their work out to the world, and that’s a good thing!
-Bob
August 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm (#)
very nice collection. I am also offering free high resolution textures on my blog. Have a look at:
http://www.highresolutiontextures.com
August 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am (#)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SENDING ME THIS MAGAZINE AND I AM MOST GREATFUL….
August 13th, 2008 at 12:35 pm (#)
http://www.photographerno1.com
This site has some interesting photographs. Add this site too to the list of websites. Nice share.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:43 am (#)
You should be ashamed posting this.
This, and other similar erosion of the photographic
community is akin to heating one’s house with beams
from its own foundation.
Nice and toasty for a while until the whole freakin’
house burns down with you inside it.
bh
August 25th, 2008 at 7:05 am (#)
Thanks for sharing.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:38 pm (#)
I would like to suggest another free stock photo site:
http://www.webphotomart.com
October 15th, 2008 at 11:15 pm (#)
Wow, a long but really helpful list.
I browsed the list and find none of them offer the feature that acobox.com delivers: hotlinking images.
The image hotlinking feature of acobox enables user to insert an image into his/her own page by copying/pasting a link pointing to the image. That means users even don’t have to download the images for using them.
It’s a newly release website and designed for busy (or lazy
bloggers.
Please have a look at http://acobox.com. We will appreciate it greatly if you’re so kind to give any suggestions.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:29 pm (#)
Wow, thanks for the comprehensive list! This is a great resource!
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 am (#)
This is a great resource. Thanks for posting this. It’s been bookmarked and will be used extensively in the future.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm (#)
also http://www.wallpaperstop.com has great stock photos in wallpaper resolutions
November 4th, 2008 at 7:08 pm (#)
cool links
November 5th, 2008 at 11:17 pm (#)
Bob, thanks for taking the time to create this post. I’m sure there were a lot of design professionals who already knew of these sites, but kept the knowledge to themselves. I salute your spirit of sharing information.
It is because of people like you that the Internet is such a great resource.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:15 pm (#)
Please check out http://www.freedesignphoto.com – Free photos for design. We’re growing.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 am (#)
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:35 am (#)
Я подписался на RSS ленту, но посты почему-то в виде каких-то квадратиков
Как это исправить?
December 8th, 2008 at 6:35 pm (#)
Hey THX for free Stock stuff. be Berlin, be cOOl
December 12th, 2008 at 9:13 am (#)
thx
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm (#)
Great Site! I’ve noticed that we have some Free Stock Photo Sites in common, but I’ve got a couple different Free Stock Photo Sites and Free Vector Photo sites at http://www.loremipsumblvd.com/
Thanks!
January 19th, 2009 at 12:23 pm (#)
Thanks for this list! I’m working on a project for a client. This is exactly what I need.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:50 pm (#)
Hello. And Bye.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pm (#)
What a great list and a great resource. Thanks for that.
Now if someone can just develop an application to input one search term and have it search all those sites it would be fantastic.. .. LOL.
Cheers,
Ric (@RicRaftis on Twitter)
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:07 pm (#)
I recommend this great site http://www.public-domain-image.com Public domain image, royalty free stock photo. 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, all are public domain images, and all are 100% free for download.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:16 pm (#)
Thanks for the images. Imo, sxc is the leading one in the free stock photo industry =)
May add one more resource from myself – some conceptual images on http://co-photo.com/
March 5th, 2009 at 10:39 am (#)
Good article. I’ve wrote an article about dutch stockphoto websites here:
Stockphoto websites
Regards,
Mark
March 13th, 2009 at 9:03 pm (#)
Thanks for the listings of the free photo websites. I also found thousands of high quality categorised free photos at http://www.sunipix.com Hope you will include http://www.sunipix.com to your article.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:51 am (#)
Friends,
I just receive my picture on Canvas from Canvas Deluxe (http://www.canvasdeluxe.com),
The Quality amazing. The colors surprise me.
I gave them a call for help and the customer service support me and very
helpful.
I recommend.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:53 am (#)
I really surprised from them
April 26th, 2009 at 6:25 am (#)
FreeStockImages.org is new but has original images not yet used everywhere else.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:58 am (#)
Sweet list. Awesome, thank you!
May 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am (#)
Пока прочитал только эту одну заметку, если и все остальное точно также интересно, то автору респект
June 8th, 2009 at 12:23 pm (#)
I would like to add my site that offers 1000’s of Original Nature Photography images from the mountains and forests of West Virginia.
You will not find these at stock websites as these are all original that my son and I take.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:38 pm (#)
That public-domain-image.com site is being spammed about on Wikipedia all the time.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:06 am (#)
@49: by whom?
July 12th, 2009 at 2:25 am (#)
There are a handful of some wonderful, hi-res photographs and wallpapers for free at this site:
http://dougitdesign.com/downloads.html
August 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm (#)
Great list.
Check out http://www.photovaco.com
It offers free high resolution photos without any restriction for both personal and commercial projects
August 30th, 2009 at 3:57 am (#)
Small collection of free photo stock.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 am (#)
I did not know, that there are so many around. I was using only one. These are very useful for blogs.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm (#)
Can you send the magazine to my address:NO 163,Shemshad Blind Alley,Afiat Street,Khajoo Avenuse
September 29th, 2009 at 4:12 pm (#)
Nice Source. Thx for a lot.
Photo shooting in Berlin.
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm (#)
Check out this site. Launched in 2009. Not to many photos yet, but its coming. We are now three shooters wich will publish photos every week. Photomace.com
October 18th, 2009 at 2:40 pm (#)
Great list, thanks.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:45 am (#)
Plug here, but I really think you’ll like this one. It’s a completely 100% free stock photo, design and vector website.
Our site, http://www.allourstock.com is not spammy, it’s built around a nice, easy-to-use functional layout with easy drag-and-drop interface, and has a lot more planned for the future. Currently we have about 500 images but we have a database of over 7000 yet to be added and growing everyday. I personally shoot photos myself and create custom designs as well. All are available for person OR commercial use, most of which do not require attribution.
check us out on twitter as well, http://www.twitter.com/AllOurStock
October 31st, 2009 at 10:01 am (#)
good job. well done. great resource!
November 18th, 2009 at 10:41 pm (#)
ClearerImages is not a free stock photo site, but it is close to it at $1 for a full-size image.
ClearerImages.com
November 19th, 2009 at 5:59 pm (#)
,[...] http://www.digitalimagemagazine.com is one useful source of tips on this issue,[...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:02 am (#)
Reflex Stock Photography – http://www.reflexstock.com is one of the most competitive stock photography websites around, offering clients credit packages for up to 73% cheaper than any other major stock photography website.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:44 am (#)
Great list dude !!
December 26th, 2009 at 3:29 pm (#)
Here’s another source to add to your list. THE STOCK SOLUTION adds new hi-res stock photos everyday to the site, using a “blog” format.
December 27th, 2009 at 6:36 am (#)
My name is Eyal Melchet and I am the VP Marketing for Snapsus (www.snapsus.com).
SNAPsus was born out of a desire to fundamentally change the way people create web content, you don’t have to be web designer in order to create web designs.Our system is unique content creator system , with user interface and graphics abilities that haven’t seen before!
SNAPsus contains 4 types of content: Web site, small Movies, e-Cards and Presentations, the user will be able to combine between these contents.We will have a new website up in two months.
Our thought was a partnership in which we use some of your images, if you agree of course, and we put links to your company on our renewed website. Maybe we can also discuss a revenue share. I hope you are the right person in your company dealing with Partnerships.
Please let us know if it is possible to co operate with you for the benefit of both sides.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Eyal Melchet
VP Marketing
http://www.snapsus.com
00 972 505209322
January 9th, 2010 at 4:04 pm (#)
My version of Free Stock Photos Sites
February 1st, 2010 at 6:11 pm (#)
Not forget niffylux, you will find free photos
http://www.niffylux.com
February 4th, 2010 at 4:57 pm (#)
Great list, although it is hard to sell stock photos anymore since so many are offering them for free. However, I started a stock photo site.
http://www.clearerimages.com
It is not free, but at only $1 for an original size image, it is close enough. Check it out sometime.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:17 am (#)
Very Nice.
it Was Useful.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:55 pm (#)