Where to get free stock pictures

Many designs, website or otherwise depends on photographic elements to make it work. Using non-stock photography can be an expensive proposition and reaches way past the budget of the average web studio or graphic artist. All is not lost though, as there are resources online that permits the use of photographs for free. This provides the opportunity for the artist to create their work and make a living at the same time. Here are some of those resources.

• First up is Stock.xchng with one of the shortest URLs around, this site offers free photos for designers. The downside is that it is very popular, so any image you find will probably already have been used multiple times. Not a problem if it’s going to be heavily modified, but it might be if you’re trying to build a commercial site. There are currently over 350,000 images on there, so you’re bound to find something you like.
• Next is Pixel Perfect Digital. This isn’t the easiest site to browse as it has a forum type feel to it. It takes a little digging to find what you need, but what is there is good quality. The site name says it all, the pictures are posted by, and often post processed by professional photographers. They currently have around 7500 images to choose from.
• Freerange Stock is a somewhat idealistic site with a noble goal. It provides professional quality stock images for free so they can be used and enjoyed by the widest audience. The contributors are all members of the site and also post-process their images when they upload them. There aren’t so many on here, but where there are, are well worth a look.
• Openphoto.net is a basic looking site and is often used a bit like Flickr, so there is a mix of qualities on here. The collection has been going for over 10 years now so they have an extensive catalog of images to choose from. There is a basic search engine or you can use tags to find what you’re looking for.
• Stockvault is a slick looking site that has a decent collection of photos, all under the Creative Commons Distribution license. There is approximately 16,000 photographs in the collection which are accessed via a menu, tags or a search engine.
• DeviantART is a site known to just about everyone who is into photography and design. Apart from some fantastic licensed work by talented artists and photographers, there is also a stock section where there are images and photographs of every description free to use with a credit.

Those are just a few sites with a good selection of free to use stock photos and images. Acquiring photos to use in web or graphic designs doesn’t have to be expensive. As long as proper credit is given to the original photographer or artist, there is no reason why they should cost anything at all.