1. Free Stock Photos
When I began the research for this article, I knew of only a handful of free stock
photos sites (foter.com). 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 10 super, 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 a great site for free stock photography. The image selection is large
and they also include a lightbox feature to save images.
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 usage.
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.
Sites:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://foter.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons