30 Free Stock Photo Sites: Ultimate Collection
Dainis GraverisHuh, I know there are maybe even too many articles about places, where to search for photos and images, but those articles were usually very old, many sites do not work anymore and that kind of stuff. So my goal was to create ultimate collection with the best places where to search for and get nice quality images. I think every site of this list is worth checking out, although in most cases with sxc.hu site alone is enough.
1. Sxc.hu
The leading free stock photo site. If You don’t know about this site and call Yourself a designer, I’ll feel ashamed – MUST KNOW site offering an impressive collection of many high-quality photos taken by amateur photographers from around the world. There are more than 380.000 quality stock photos. If You are searching for something this is the first place where to look, totally my favorite one.
2. EveryStockPhoto
EveryStockPhoto site is becoming more and more popular, now there are 4,4 million free photos!
3. MorgueFile
One more site worth looking for. “This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.” – Quote from their homepage. 
4. Flickr
Everybody know about this site with their main purpose as photo management and sharing application. Great place for inspiration and searching for good photographs, but don’t forget to check author’s license, before using them.
5. Deviantart
Very popular community and also very good photos sometimes can be found there, but yes, don’t forget about license and asking authors first for their permission.
6. Kavewall
All images are separated in 18 different categories with really handy navigation.
7. StockVault
More than 11,000 stock photos are available for now.
8. Image*After
Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial and currently there are more than 20,000 free textures and images available.
9. CreatingOnline
10. AllDigitalDreamer
11. FreeFoto
FreeFoto.com is made up of 122879 images with 157 sections organized into 3386 categories for now, pretty impressive indeed.
12. DreamsTime
Over 4 million photographs are over here for free or 0.20$/image.
13. FreeRange
All images are at least 2400 x 1600, and photos can be used for commercial or personal projects. 
14. FreeDigitalPhotos
15. FreeStockImages
16. TurboPhoto
17. Visipix
18. FreePhotosBank
19. Cepolina
Over 8,000 photos available for now, each photo can be downloaded in five formats – up to 1024x768px.
20. BigFoto
This interesting site offers high resolution and really beautiful photos of continents.
21. OpenPhoto
20 different categories with high quality nature and architectural photos.
22. ShutterStock
4,9 million royalty-free stock photos with almost 80 000 new photos every week.
23. PdPhoto
Several thousands of royalty free pictures here and free for use.
24. FromOldBooks
FromOldBooks site offers scanned images, engravings and pictures from old books 
25. FreeImages
2500 original stock photos for free.
26. DexHaus
27. PublicDomainPhotos
More than 5,000 free photos out there and free for commercial use.
28. FreeLargePhotos
29. ImageBase
Every picture is free to use and really high resolution – from 1600×1200 until 3072x2048px! 
30. PhotoRack
All pictures listed at PhotoRack are Free to use for personal and commercial projects. 
If You know some more good free stock photo sites, please share with us, to evolve our design community!!
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jareso
Posted 738 days ago 50Nice listing.
And what about this one? Database of stock images: http://www.StockPhotos.it
Maybe you will find it useful. Contains a lot of free but also commercial images.
marizmendi
Posted 746 days ago 49Excellent collection, thanks for post it….
.-= marizmendi´s last blog ..Visit Paris without leaving your sit…! =-.
ashok pai
Posted 802 days ago 48here’s another one to the list:
http://www.rgbstock.com
decent place, nice collection of images.
Karl
Posted 806 days ago 47Fantastic post, this is a gem. To find these websites manually it’s a pain because the sites themselves do not make it easy to know if they are free, low cost, cheap etc etc etc…
Thanks
Mark
Posted 807 days ago 46Good to see everystockphoto getting a mention near the top. it’s pretty supr but I guess they could be doing with grabbing images and photos from some of the other 30 you mentioned. Great list and certainly going into my bookmarks too :D
jay
Posted 811 days ago 45A brand new free stock photo site:
http://www.rgbstock.com. In 2 month time more then 30.000 photos on line.
Cystar
Posted 815 days ago 44There are some great quality photos with NO LIMITATIONs at:
PulicDomainPictures dot Net
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/browse-category.php?c=flowers&s=2
Shi Yali
Posted 830 days ago 43Hi, I offer free small size versions of my commercial images at http://asiastockimages.com , there are more than 1000 images to choose from. Very useful for blogs and web sites.
jay
Posted 843 days ago 42a brand new hight quality free stock photo site: http://www.rgbstock.com
Check it out!
Yakov
Posted 854 days ago 41http://www.KosherStock.com offers weekly free photos for personnal and commercial use. KS is a royalty-free microstock site (photos, illustrations and cliparts) focusing on the Jewish life, culture and religion.
Michael Garmahis
Posted 864 days ago 40My version of best Free Stock Photos Sites
.-= Michael Garmahis´s last blog ..Realistic HDR photography Photoshop tutorial =-.
Vintage Images
Posted 872 days ago 39While not a photography site per se, my site Reusable Art contains public domain vintage images. All images include the original publication information to honor each artist and follows the Berne Convention standards making the images in the public domain in most of the world.
.-= Vintage Images´s last blog ..Christmas! =-.
sujan
Posted 877 days ago 38This list is really helpful for designers to collect quality images. Thanks for great microstock news and resources.
Teresa Schultz
Posted 880 days ago 37Nice collection, thank you. I often use sxc.hu – a very handy site to often find everything I need in one place, but sometimes I can’t quite find everything there, and your list here looks good to go through when that happens.
.-= Teresa Schultz´s last blog ..Free stock photos for you now on our website too =-.
Games Monster
Posted 957 days ago 36Hello.
Firstly great list. But i love how places like flickr are so popular but there are still, and always will be smaller sites that have as good of quality of photos. Can get some nice finds too. :)
Dan.
.-= Games Monster´s last blog ..Slate =-.
Deborah
Posted 989 days ago 35That collection is incredible!
.-= Deborah´s last blog ..Video Game Testing Jobs | Beta Game Testing =-.
John Parks
Posted 994 days ago 34Now I have unlimited access to great resources for images.
kumar
Posted 1028 days ago 33Hi
this is very usefull site for designers,
keep it up,
Kumar
worldcasinoplay.com team
Jati Diri
Posted 1047 days ago 32Thank You very much, its really great collections
.-= Jati Diri´s last blog ..Jati Diri Bangsa =-.
Paul
Posted 1066 days ago 31Hey! Nice job here! I’ll be dropping by from time to time :)
Naresh Sharma
Posted 1092 days ago 30It is very nice information for Users..
Thanks
Naresh Jangid
Tom the Webmanager
Posted 1092 days ago 29I love searching for pics at these photo sites, even if i do not search for something special it is just cool to see the great pictures at this sites!
Tom the Webmanagers last blog post : Mainstream?!?! – The Top 3 Most Exceptional Product Management Blogs
John
Posted 1103 days ago 28There are a few photos and illustrations on stockazoo too.
Johns last blog post : Vector Icon – Globe & Cloudy Continents
serge666
Posted 1150 days ago 27fotobank photos.dp.ua !
serge666s last blog post : Ford
WAP KIDS
Posted 1161 days ago 26Hey, Great collection here. Thanks For All. How could you forget http://www.corbis.com and http://www.veer.com?