50 sites to find free stock images
If you like Web Design, you probably use a lot of stock images in your designs. The following article is a list of 50 websites that provide free, open-sources images and photography to help you creating stunning designs without spending a dollar.
FreeFoto.com : Lots of images, orgnized in different galleries.
Dexhaus : Good site with excellent photos.
Kavewall : images and textures.
Digital Dreamers : Different falleries.
StockVault : Very well-known, and very good of course.
FreePhotosBank : Good choice.
FreeDigitalPhotos : Lots of photos.
Cepolina : Many free images availables in different formats.
TurboPhoto : Simple and efficient!
FreeStockImages : Beautiful website, awesome content.
DeviantArt : Another well-known site with images, photo and Photoshop brushes.
DreamsTime : Hi-Res pictures.
Unprofound : Many, many, many, images!
VintagePixel : Old-School style images.
OpenStockPhotography : More than a million images.
ImageAfter : Images and textures.
FreePhotosIndex : Good but hard to navigate.
EveryStockPhoto : Nice site, nice content.
Photocase : Same 
Stock.xchg : Simply great.
MorgueFile : A site everyone should have in his bookmarks!.
Flickr : You already know it, right? 
GraphicsArena : Stunning pics to donwload.
PixelPerfectDigital : If you like digital photography, you’ll love this site.
FreeRange : Another well known site.
AnimationFactory : If you like animations, you’ll be happy with that one!
Fotogenika : Very nice galleries.
Woophy : To find pictures of the world.
MayangFreeTextures : Lots of free textures to download.
FromOldBooks : If you like old books!
TextureWarehouse : Only top quality textures.
FreeStockPhotos : Ugly site but cool pictures.
MajesticImagery : Very nice.
BurningWell : Same here, very nice site.
DesignPack : Themed images packs to download
ZurbPhotos : Download Bryan Zmijewski pictures.
AmazingTextures : The name says it all
ImageBase : Lots of gorgeous photos.
DiwieDesign : Images are free but you’re encouraged to make a donation.
Tofz : Free stock urban photography.
LightMatter : Download Aaron Logan’s pictures.
InsectImages : Only insects images. Bzzz…
Afflict : Great site.
ArtFavor : Images, fonts and wallpapers on the same site.
FreeImages : Another nice one..
CreatingOnline : Good resource.
GeekPhilosopher : Pictures from GeekPhilosopher.
Creativity103 : Lots of images.
PhotoshopSupport : If you like Photoshop, you’ll love that site!.
FreeMediaGoo : Very complete resource.
Une Image au Hasard : Gallery from an amateur photographer.
That’s all. Now I just have to hope that this article will be as useful to you as is it to me. That’s always a good thing to see that we can still find very good free images online.
And you, do you have another site to tell us about? Leave us a comment!
This article is an English adaptation of Fred Pereira list of free stock images sites.
153 Comments + Trackbacks
1.22.2009
Thanks for the link but you call me Fred
1.22.2009
Nice, didn’t know there were so many..
1.22.2009
Thanks! I use lots of photographs. Key to a travel site. I just bookmarked and dugg this.
1.22.2009
I use imageafter.com all the time!
We also have an every growing list on our forum:
http://www.imageafter.com/forum/index.php?thread_id=250
Do you mind if I add your findings?
1.22.2009
Thanks for sharing and putting efforts to compile this list. Very useful indeed. I always need free stock photos and now i can finally have my favorite list.
1.22.2009
Earlier this week I had written a post exactly on the same thing
90+ Free Stock photo Websites – http://techpp.com/2009/01/16/90-free-stock-photo-websites-exhaustive-list/
1.23.2009
Great list! Quite a few here I hadn’t seen before.
1.23.2009
very nice list, great job JBJ
1.23.2009
Thanks for the links… I’ll check them out since I am needing new and fresh stock images every now and then. And, if I could get them for free, then it’s added bonus. Are these stock photos Royalty free? or absolutely free?
1.23.2009
Thanks for your list. I can use it for my photoshop design reference
1.23.2009
Thanks a lot dear
1.23.2009
Nice, it’s so hard finding photos for things, especially with the legal teams that hunt down everyone using their images and sending law suits out. Having this list of sites will make it a lot easier/safer.
1.23.2009
wow..thank u..i can use that umage for my website..
1.23.2009
wow great list! thank you so much
1.23.2009
Honestly, this thing of free stock images takes the cake ! I know it’s also all about point of view. Anyway, I don’t see great future in that kind of free websites.
1.23.2009
Great list! This is exactly what I was looking for. Annnnd del.icio.us-ed
1.23.2009
Awesome! Been trying to find a list like this.. thanks
1.23.2009
Nice list!
Thanx!
1.23.2009
sxc.hu is another site I use A LOT!
Free Free Free Stuff…That’s what the internet is about.
1.24.2009
A cool little list, I prefer Flickr. Some really good images.
1.24.2009
Super !
I’ve been using Stock.xchg for quite some time .In my opinion it’s by far the best .
1.24.2009
Photocase free??? Check the site! http://www.photocase.com/en/shop.asp
The best list of free stock photos is at http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/bluevertigo.htm
1.25.2009
Fantastic collection of links. Many thanks. I was searching for a particular shot to illustrate an ‘arson’ crime scene for a website I’m currently designing. Thanks to your list I’ve got a choice of shots to show the client next week. Thanks again.
1.25.2009
thx for your list…now i can have collection for my reference photoshop
1.26.2009
Great list. I stumbled this post. This is definitely a resource that needs to be shared.
1.26.2009
Thanks for this grate list.
1.27.2009
Wow-so many I hadn’t heard about! Thanks ever so much for this list. Love it when people give helpful info to so many for the taking.
1.27.2009
Very useful information. I am sure this information will be useful for me and anothers in order to fullfill our need for this image. Thank you.
1.27.2009
that many ?! whoa big thanks for the list !
1.27.2009
Thank you. I knew some of the websites. But your list is the most complete.
1.28.2009
I did not know that there were that many sites out there that offered free images. Are they royalty free?
1.29.2009
Thanks for this list.
1.31.2009
Huge list of free stock images, but i just wondering does it really free? or it kind of royalty image?. Anyway, tq for the list.
1.31.2009
Wow. This is the mother of all free stock photo sites. My list had about 6, but now I will simply refer clients to this list when they are looking for free stock photos. Thank you thank you thank you.
2.1.2009
WOW!
That is great staff.
This page will be bookmarked now!
2.1.2009
Thanks for the links.
You can also check the photo-gratis.com website for free stock images.
2.1.2009
G8 post.
Can i translate and post it with link to here?
Tnx
Hank
2.2.2009
Just wanted to let you know, I’m building a new site and I used one of the free stock photo sites that you listed to build the banner. Thanks a lot for the list! The site looks great now because of you
2.3.2009
I would like to suggest another free stock photo site.
Free Stock Photos Web Photo Mart
Currently the site offers over 3000 free stock photos and clip art illustrations submitted by staff photographers and other sources.
2.3.2009
Hey. I havent see so wide list before. Thanks a lot. I use http://www.flickr.com, http://stockart.deviantart.com/ and also http://www.pixmac.com/free-pictures
2.4.2009
Wow, thanks for the hook up! This is some super stuff. So images are absolutely free??? Yay!
2.4.2009
I have used a couple of those before but its always good to have more.
2.4.2009
I currently just use sxc.hu as they have most of what I need, or I go without.
I should probably start using the flickr ones as they are good
2.5.2009
Added this page to my favorites. Thank you very much.
2.5.2009
This is going to add on to my photoshop experience! Thanks for sharing these “toys”!
Ben
2.6.2009
Just what I was looing for! Thanks so much man you have impeccable timing.
2.6.2009
Man, just what I need!
My Web designer is always charging me a few bucks for pictures, and not presenting me with enough options eithers.
I’m tackling this list tonite and hope to find what I need quickly!
2.7.2009
Excellent…this is my first time here and I love it.
Thanks for all the helpful tips.
I’ll be back
2.7.2009
Great piece. I use a lot of images and I was unaware of a number of these sites. Thanks for the informative post.
2.8.2009
My favorites are flickr and devianart
2.9.2009
this is brilliant. I am always struggling to find free pics for my site.
2.10.2009
Great list!
Thanks!!
You blog is just an amazing resource
2.10.2009
great, thanks.
2.12.2009
Wow! I can’t tell you how much I can use these. It takes me longer to find good images for my posts than it does to actually write them.
2.12.2009
Wow, this is a mother-of-all list for stock images. I always found it difficult to find the right one and often ended up editing one of those images on some website and colage’d.
Will go through ‘em
2.12.2009
useful info dude, i am studing make good graphic now. so many thanks
2.12.2009
Great list. This will really help, i’d found a few free sites, but this is awesome. I can save some real money without having to settle. thanks.
2.14.2009
Wow! These will help my business a LOT!
Thanks SO much!
-Mina
2.15.2009
Thanks for the list! There’s a lot of great images to work with between all the sites. I found a few I might just use!
2.18.2009
Wow, quite an exceptional resource of free images bro, thanks!
2.18.2009
Wow this is a huge list of sites, its always good to have more images to play around with. Thanks for sharing this list!
2.18.2009
Great list. Stock.xchg is definitely my favorite from that mash up. But then again, I think I have only tried a handful of those which you have posted. Looks like I need to expand my stock image sources.
2.18.2009
I don’t do graphic design, but I do love putting images into my blogs to spice them up a bit. Blog posts without images are so boring, in my opinion. This list of sites to find stock images will work very well for me, i think. great article and thank you!
2.19.2009
Huge list… I use sxc.hu and consider it to be the best.
2.20.2009
Great list. I knew only sxc.hu before. Another bookmarked post from your blog. Thanks Jean!
2.23.2009
Wow, that is a big list…I have a lot of new bookmarks to add. Thanks so much!
2.23.2009
Ok great! Thats very useful! Thank you very much!
2.24.2009
Really ,you have post very good list and it is very useful and informative.thank dude
2.26.2009
Huge list. This is great for bloggers (newbie) like me. Still, some of the photos lack something that can only found on paid ones. Thanks for this list.
2.26.2009
Thanks for putting it altogether, I was searching for some good free stock photos sites!
3.2.2009
Nice info. This is what i look for. Thank dude.
3.2.2009
I usualy find everything I need on FreeStockImages. They have very intuitive layout and the search engine is superb. I highly recommend it to everyone.
3.4.2009
Its very useful. Thank you very much!
3.5.2009
Good article. I’ve wrote an article about dutch stockphoto websites here:
Stockphoto websites
Regards,
Mark
3.5.2009
i was searching about open source images to use in my projects and in my blog posts too , thanks
but freefoto have much ads .
3.5.2009
Another site of free stock photo http://www.pixelizar.com.ar
3.5.2009
Great list! It’s hard for me to find free stock image sites that aren’t blocked by my office’s firewall! Thanks!
3.7.2009
Thanks. I could use some free images for my website and ebook covers.
3.11.2009
I have used Dexhaus before and I recommend it.
3.13.2009
Thanks for the listings. The information was very helpful. I found thousands of good quality royalty free images at http://www.sunipix.com
3.14.2009
Another great list is on http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/bluevertigo.htm they have a list for every tyep of stock you are looking for , photos, textures, vectors, music, animation and video. Its a great site and i use it for all my stock needs.
3.16.2009
Thanks for the list – I’ll bookmark you, rather than all of them!
3.23.2009
OMG, this is so great, I have used G images in the past, but most are copyrighted, this is one for the bookmark, thanks!
3.23.2009
WOW. EXCELLENT. I have bookmarked this page. I will definitely use these sites for getting free stock images.
3.24.2009
SXC isn’t one of your 50?!??!?
Great list tho anyway! Thanks!
3.25.2009
Great list =) But for deviantART.com each stock contributor has their own set of rules so please check with the artist as some are not all rights free.
3.25.2009
dA isn’t as free as you might expect. Always ask the deviant if you can use their art or not. Many though are gonna give a clear NO. As for stock and resources, not all the stock and resources are free and might have some kinda requirements…like non commercial unless you pay or you have to be a deviant yourself.
Before you take art from dA, read the individual rules.
3.26.2009
Great list.Must have worked very hard for getting those. Thanks.
3.30.2009
This list is priceless!
4.7.2009
Another one with close to 1000 free images grouped in categories: http://www.4freephotos.com
4.11.2009
One of the biggest problems is always finding images for my blog posts. It always has been so time consuming for me trying to find quality images, that I quit looking for images.
These days, pictures seem to attract peoples interest to click on the link and read the full post. Furthermore, it also helps get some extra traffic from Google Image Search.
Nice list. Will have to check the sites out to see what they have to offer.
4.18.2009
Great list! Does anyone have any tips on how to get *useful* traffic from Google images?
4.20.2009
this is brilliant. I am always struggling to find free pics for my site.
4.22.2009
Thanks for the list. If you go to Getty images its at least $50 an image.
4.24.2009
Thanks for this list, always difficult to source images without having to pay
4.26.2009
For designers on a budget a new photo blog with free images: FreeStockImages.org
5.16.2009
Very usefull list, it’s always hard to find nice free pictures. Thx
5.19.2009
Wow… All in one place, thank you so much. Everyone that blogs can always use another royalty free picture…
Lori…
5.21.2009
that is very nice. thanks a lot
5.23.2009
thanks for the links. saves me a lot of time trying to create my own images.
5.24.2009
nice info. thanks for sharing.
5.29.2009
Thanks a lot man, this is a great post.
6.1.2009
Great list. Very usefull indeed !!! Thank You!
6.5.2009
Good sources of image websites. I bookmarked this post and thanks for information.
6.10.2009
Thanks really in need of them for my designing. Bookmarked this page.
6.12.2009
Thanks for good resource. These helpful for my website image selection.
6.13.2009
Awesome websites for free photos, I usually use zimbio to find photos, but not all of the photos on zimbio are free to use, since alot of them are copyrighted, but as long as you aren’t using them for profit you should be okay!
-Randy
7.23.2009
Nice, it’s so hard finding photos for things, especially with the legal teams that hunt down everyone using their images and sending law suits out. Having this list of sites will make it a lot easier/safer.
7.30.2009
nice entry, here more free stock imagees resource: http://indisain.com
8.17.2009
These is a lot of resources for stock images thanks for rounding up. It’ll help us a lot.
8.25.2009
Check out this site too.
http://www.photovaco.com
All photos are high resolution and absolutely free to use for both personal and commercial projects.
9.30.2009
oow.. so many source.. thanks!
10.2.2009
thanks for the lists
10.17.2009
Awesome collection! Love the gorilla images!
11.27.2009
Thats really a wonderful list. I have seen many post related to free photos but the list is really exceptional. Keep it up!!!!
12.30.2009
It’s a very nice posting, good work .