Free Stock Photos

By on December 29, 2005 in General, Photoshop Resources

Stock photos are an essential part of web and graphic design. There are tons of stock photos agencies that offer high quality photos, however, the price is not always affordable especially when working on a tight budget or sometimes with no budget at all. The solution in this case is finding free stock photos something that isn’t always easy, in order to make this process easier I have compiled a list with sites that offer free stock photos. Enjoy





Finally don’t forget to visit
Yotophoto Free photos search engine
and Flickr (be sure to check the licence before using any of the photos).
If you know of any others stock photo resources reave a comment and I will add them to the list.

About Dimitris

My name is Dimitris and I am from Greece. I created this blog as a learning tool for Photoshop both for other but for me as well. I am definitely no Photoshop Guru or a professional graphic designer, I am just an amateur trying to learn as much as I can about Photoshop.
View all posts by Dimitris →

86 Responses to Free Stock Photos

  1. annukka December 30, 2005 at 12:07 am #

    Very nice, thanks a lot!

  2. Hagrin December 30, 2005 at 9:45 am #

    Awesome resource thank you!

  3. Richard Davies December 30, 2005 at 10:05 am #

    Great list! Here’s another one I don’t see on your list:
    http://www.nwyhstockimages.com/default.aspx

  4. Chad Bridwell December 30, 2005 at 10:06 am #

    http://www.fotolia.com also offers many affordable and free stock photos. Membership is free.

  5. d3v1l December 30, 2005 at 10:12 am #

    Thanks!

  6. waleed December 30, 2005 at 11:17 am #

    thnx alot dude ,,
    really great collection
    just add :
    http://www.sxc.hu
    which is the best i found in both quality & variaty ..

  7. Ingo December 30, 2005 at 11:22 am #

    Here’s another one:
    http://www.photocase.com

  8. jersu December 30, 2005 at 12:19 pm #

    Here is more from the national park service:
    http://photo.itc.nps.gov/storage/images/

  9. jared December 30, 2005 at 1:42 pm #

    http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/index.html

    great list –

    this is one of my favs

  10. miscblogger December 30, 2005 at 3:14 pm #

    I love the stock xchange!

  11. marky December 30, 2005 at 3:52 pm #

    http://www.istockphoto.com
    Not free, but the pictures are so cheap that it mights as well be free. If you’re a photographer you can sell your work there too.

  12. Dimitris December 30, 2005 at 4:27 pm #

    I have added a few more resources suggested, thanks everyone if you know any more keep them coming.

    @Everyone. Thanks for the nice comments and the suggestions.

    @Waleed. SXC.hu is already included in the list, thanks anyway for the suggestion.

    @Chad and Marky. Thanks for the suggestions of microstock sites but I wanted to include only completely free sites to the list. I may post about microstock sites in another post (I am a contributing photographer at most of them)

  13. Ed Ber December 30, 2005 at 6:17 pm #

    what about free stock video? anyone?

  14. Steve Doria December 30, 2005 at 6:59 pm #

    Just a couple of days ago I was looking for some stock images. Although they were “royalty-free,” they were not free to acquire. Thanks a ton for this listing!

  15. Metah December 30, 2005 at 7:34 pm #

    Great list, thanks for sharing.

    Btw, happy new year ;)

  16. 2face-MazE December 31, 2005 at 1:29 am #

    deviantArt.com

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. Michael December 31, 2005 at 2:24 am #

    Thanks for compiling that list. I would like to share a link to my own stock-photography site: Get Pixel at http://www.getpixel.net.

    Thank you and Happy New Year,

    Michael

  18. Ivan Minic December 31, 2005 at 4:00 am #

    Fenomenal post!

  19. deadhippo January 1, 2006 at 10:03 am #

    Awesome list. I’m sure to make great use of this.

  20. zamuel January 2, 2006 at 4:03 pm #

    Very nice list… thanks =)

  21. xavier January 4, 2006 at 12:22 pm #

    Thanks for the great resource!

  22. James January 6, 2006 at 6:16 am #

    Geez..just exactly what i’m looking for..thank u!
    Here’s one I’ve found couple of days ago:

    http://www.free-stockphotos.com

  23. petros January 6, 2006 at 2:46 pm #

    Nice photoblog archive!

  24. Cheyne January 7, 2006 at 8:30 am #

    Nice work. Blogged about this page over at http://thewebdesignblog.com

  25. Nizam Rahman January 10, 2006 at 2:55 pm #

    Great list. Thanks!

  26. mark January 18, 2006 at 10:28 pm #

    awesome list, thanks a lot! :)

  27. Jonathan February 8, 2006 at 1:03 pm #

    Hi guys,

    I am a web designer, and I am looking for a big collection of quality stock photos and images (icons etc) to use in site design that is all on CD (multiple CDs hopefully)… any ideas?

  28. photodesign February 20, 2006 at 10:58 am #

    Try Free Range Stock (http://www.freerangestock.com) – and add it to your list!

    High-resolution stock photos, totally free, keyword searchable, and nice images.

    tx!

  29. Francesco March 8, 2006 at 8:59 am #

    > Ed Ber Says:
    >
    > December 30th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
    > what about free stock video? anyone?

    Here it is…
    http://websearch.about.com/od/searchtipoftheday/qt/freemovie.htm

  31. Neil cameron March 28, 2006 at 9:20 pm #

    Well, its a huge list but I guess we need to be in amongst them.

    We’re a small Australian stock photo company with images covering the whole continent coast to coast. Got cities, beaches, deserts, tropical forests, Aboriginal rock art, hillbilly hovels, funny stuff – the works.

    We just want the world to know that we exist.

    Regards

    Neil Cameron

    Beaut Photos.

  32. Flo Feigenbutz April 11, 2006 at 8:58 am #

    Very nice collection, thanks a lot!

    Here’s another (german) list -perhaps you’ll be able to find new sites?
    -> http://www.mediengestalter.info/forum/13/linkliste-57485-1.html#901306

  33. Gophoto April 13, 2006 at 11:56 am #

    Another microstock photo library:

    http://www.buydigitalimages.com

  34. stock photography May 27, 2006 at 4:39 pm #

    Nice site.
    Check out this introduction article on Stock_photography:
    http://www.articleworld.org/Stock_photography
    Content:
    1.History
    2.How it works
    3.Client/ buyer options
    4.Photographer options

  35. dslides June 28, 2006 at 7:25 am #

    I’m starting a new site giving out free stock photos… though the collection is small, but it is slowly growing…

    Check it out…

    http://www.dslides.com

  36. PicFindr August 3, 2006 at 7:13 am #

    I’m building a free-stock-photo search site at http://www.picfindr.com. It does not host photos but searches several of the sites listed here simultaneously – more in the vein of yotophoto, but a different search technology, so you’ll get different results. Still under development (most of the advanced search options don’t have any effect yet) but please try it out and let me know if/how you like it and how you would change it. Thanks!

    http://www.picfindr.com

  37. Frank Spangler September 4, 2006 at 5:54 am #

    Just launched! Unique images from arouns the world, free for educational and personal use.

  38. Girish September 11, 2006 at 11:55 pm #

    Very nice collection of images and artwork http://www.playcolors.com

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Linkorama » Free Stock Photos - December 30, 2005

    [...] ¡Accede al listado completo! [...]
  2. mikeschramm.com - December 30, 2005

    [...] Stock Photos permalink daily archives info This entry is called Photoshop Tutorials Blog » Blog Archive » Free Stock Photos, and is part of mikeschramm.com, a collection of writings and errata by Mike Schramm. The previousentry is gHacks » 5 Best Freeware Games of 2005, and the next entry is . pinged! If any other sites have linked to this entry, they’ll be listed here. Probably. I think it’s broken right now. schrammiest That’s what we call our most popular writings, according to links and views. [...]
  3. iPCG Blog » Blog Archive » Free Stock Photos - December 30, 2005

    [...] Here is a list of sites that offer free stock photography. [...]
  4. Ronald Yau’s Blog » Blog Archive » Free Stock Photos Resources - December 30, 2005

    [...] read more | digg story [...]
  5. Nate Ritter » Graphics, Photos, and Mac Performance - December 30, 2005

    [...] Relatively comprehensive list of free stock photo sites [...]
  6. iMunaciello | Blog Napoli Internet Curiosità Video News » Free Photo Stock Archive - December 30, 2005

    [...] via: http://pstutorialsblog.com/?p=44 [...]
  7. FlashLadyBug.com » Blog Archive » 12/30/05 - December 30, 2005

    [...] MASSIVE List of Free Stock Images…YES [...]
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    [...] Stock photos for your designing pleasure – lots of other resources here, too: http://pstutorialsblog.com/?p=44 [...]
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    [...] The first is Photoshop Tutorials Blog, and not just the blog, but the page with the listing that shows where you might find some smashing images to spice up your blog posts. To access the listing, click this logo [...]
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    [...] Free Stock Photos » Photoshop Tutorials Blog Holy free stock photo listing (tags: photos free Photography images design photo resources blog) [...]
  38. A look at StockVault.net » Photoshop Tutorials Blog - April 30, 2006

    [...] I have mentioned StockVault in an earlier post about sites that offer free stock photos. Now it’s time to take a closer look at this really useful site. Let’s start with the site’s aesthetics, since my lost post StockVault has gone through a major redesign. The new look of StockVault is really fresh and pleasant in the eye with nice use of colors. But that’s not really what is important about StockVault, the most important is what it actually offers designers and webmasters. So what here is a list of what you can find at StockVault: Free Stock photos personal and non-commercial usage. Free Photoshop Brushes Photoshop and Web Design tutorials Design related articles Photopacks for commercial use Design related Directory [...]
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  42. Podcast 44 - 2006 Hosting Predictions | Resources for Designers - The Web Hosting Show - July 15, 2006

    [...] The second resource for all you designers out there is a list I found of some of the best free stock photo galleries there are Online. This once again plays into the whole needing something but can’t find it category. There are dozens of Web sites listed, so inside one of them you should be able to find that graphic of a server you have always dreamed of finding. [...]
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  44. RobWert.com - Web & Graphic Design news, tools, resources, and inspirations blog. - August 21, 2006

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  47. The Double Zero Design Blog » Blog Archive » A few free stock photography resources - November 7, 2006

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  48. tech.twomadgeeks.com » Blog Archive » Free Stock Photos - November 12, 2006

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