50+ Sites To Get Free Royalty Free Stock Photos And Images
88This Hub Is My Resource For Free Stock Photos
Lets face it, its not that easy finding free stock photos, well not the right ones anyway... There are lots of sites out there on the web which offer royalty free stock photos, but not all of the stock photography sites offer free royalty free stock photos, thats why I started bookmarking sites that I found which were offering free of charge royalty free photos.
YOU NEED TO REMEMBER... If a stock photography site claims that they offer "royalty free photos" that does not necessarily mean that you can use the photo free of charge, it simply means that you don't have to pay the owner a royalty every time that you use the photo. The sites which I include on this hub all offer FREE TO USE royalty free stock photos, so you should be able to find the perfect photo for your article without spending a penny!
I have collated those stock photo sites which I found were offering free royalty free images, and tried to provide a brief description of each, to share with you on this hub. I do hope that you will find the resource as useful as I do.
If you know of a site offering free stock photography that I have missed, please drop me a line and I will include the link here on the hub.
Remember To Check The Individual License On The Free Stock Photo
One more thing to mention before we start on the list of free stock photo sites:
If you do find a free photo that you want to use then please check the individual license for that image.
Yes the photograph may be free to use but the photographer or stock photo site site may request a credit or link back, so please respect their wishes if you do use their work.
Free Stock Photo Sites 1-10
Searching the internet for sites that can give you the ideal free stock image can be a really tedious job. I hope I have been able to take some of the tedious work away for you by collating my list of free stock photography sites here.
Now all that's left to do is to find those perfect free stock images.
- Stockvault.net
A stock photography sharing site where designers and photographers share their stock photos and images. All images on Stockvault.net are free for personal and non-commercial usage. - FreePixels.com
FreePixels offers free high resolution stock pictures for use in both personal and commercial design projects. - FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Free photos. Thousands of royalty free photographs for commercial and non-commercial use. A link back to the site is requested if you use one of their royalty free images. - Historical Stock Photos.com
There are Lots of free vintage photos and posters here! If you need free stock pictures of American history then you should take a look. - ImageBase, free images, public domain, free photos
The royalty free photography here is free to use for personal, commercial or non-profit purposes, is are licensed under a Creative Commons license.
- FreeImages.co.uk
Feeimages.co.uk offer free digital photographic images for web, dtp, and design. Free royalty free stock photos. Free stock photography library. - Public Domain Photos
All of the royalty free pictures are in the public domain and therefore free to use. You will also find a section offering free clip art images. - openphoto
The free photography at openphoto is nicely grouped by category, but there is also a useful search function if you are looking for something specific. - stock.xchng
Often my first port of call when looking for a free royalty free photo. It is easy to search and browse the site, and you will also find some great free photo editing tutorials which are well worth looking at. - Morguefile.com
The search facility at morguefile is really good or you can browse for free stock images by category. At Morguefile you can get free high resolution stock pictures which you are free to adapt and to use for commercial purposes without attribution.
The Free Stock Photo Sites 11-20
All of these sites offer some great images for free, but if you are looking for a royalty free image that's different check out the free fantasy pictures, they have some really great and unusual royalty free stock images to offer.
- Kavewall
A fantastic source of free close-up and macro photography. Not a great deal here but what is here is categorized, easy to browse and excellent quality. Worth looking at. - Free fantasy pictures digital art and photos
Free pictures, digital art and photos to use on your website. They have fantasy, science fiction, aliens, vampires, werewolves, fairies, demons, wizards, dragons, angels ,trees, plants and clouds. - BurningWell
A repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy and use the photos you find here for any purpose. - FreeFoto.com
FreeFoto.com claims to have the largest collections of free photographs for non-commercial use on the Internet. - Everystockphoto
Search engine for royalty free photos and clip art for the stock photography community including images of creative commons and public domain and other free licenses
- NationsIllustrated.com - The World in Pictures
Here you will find royalty free stock photography from around the world. You can browse by city, country, or continent and there is a good search function, and a site-wide index. - freerangestock.com
Free stock photography for commercial or non-commercial use at freerangestock.com. High-resolution stock images and textures for FREE. They also claim to share ad revenue with photographers who upload their photos. - PhotoRogue.com
PhotoRogue take online requests for particular photos. They have a crew of photographers who will actually go out and take your photo for you, for free. Acceptance isnt guaranteed, but it is a great concept if it works. - unprofound.com
The photos at Unprofound are grouped by color and can be used in just about any way you like. If you are looking for a specific royalty free photo there is also a search facility. - GeekPhilosopher
The photos are grouped in categories and there are also backgrounds, wallpaper and sectiondedicated to art. So if you are looking for free images by Van Gogh and other artists take a look here.
Free Stock Photo Sites 21-30
- Cepolina Photos
Enjoy thousands of free photos. Use the photos as wallpaper, in presentations, for websites or for school projects. - Free Photos By Dennis Hill And Friends
a collection of free photos that may be used for any artistic endeavor, whether it be personal or commercial, without having to give credit or a link etc. - Insect Images: The Source for Entomology Photos
Insect Images: Entomology and Bugs Photos with pictures of mosquitos, ticks, beetles, butterflies, moths, roaches, ticks - Abstract Influence
You have to register here if you want to enter the site, but then you can upload your own photos or download their free stock photos, and participate in the forum, all for free. - Free Nature Pictures
Free Nature Pictures, high resolution pics of beaches, forests, deserts, animals, sunsets, mountains, and flowers free to use for any purpose.
- Free Stock Photos.com
We offer only high quality free photos & images for your personal or commercial design projects. - Image * After
Free high resolution images and textures for commercial and personal use. Daily additions. Free hi-res stock photography, with abstract graphics search. - Pixel Perfect Digital
A small site with a growing collection of free stock photos. Registration allows you to upload to your own personal gallery. The search function is useful as it allows you to search within one or more categories. - Photo Rack
The photos are organised into categories which are then broken down into subcategories, but there is no search function so you may find it a bit more tricky to find the photo that you need. - Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons have a database of almost 3.5 million freely usable media files, including photos, which anyone can use or contribute to.
Free Stock Photo Sites 31-40
- Geograph British Isles - photograph every grid square!
Geograph British Isles is a web based project to collect and reference geographically representative images of every square kilometre of the British Isles. - ImageBlowout
Royalty free stock photo library for commercial use - no fee, no backlinks, no credits, no money - absolutely free - NASA Images
NASA Images, a service of Internet Archive, offers public access to NASA's images, videos and audio collections. - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Photo Library
Most NOAA photos and slides are in the public domain and CANNOT be copyrighted. Although at present, no fee is charged for using the photos credit MUST be given - FreePhotosBank
A nice but small free stock photo site. Photo's are offered under aCreative Commons licence and they ask for a link back if you use the images. Images are categorised for easy browsing.
- Woophy - Photos
Woophy is a free online photo database of the world. Click on the map to find photographs taken in a specific area or use the handy search function. - DesignPacks.com
Offer free, high quality image collections that can be used in both personal and commercial web design projects. Each collection features a group of 15 images that share a common theme. - U.S. History Images
A collection of over 300 free stock photos related to the colonial period of American history. The images are free for you to use any way you want with just a couple of exceptions. - Antarctic Photo Library: Images of Antarctica
Print and electronic media may use the photos free of charge; however, the photographer and the National Science Foundation must be credited. - Photoeverywhere.co.uk
Photoeverywhere.co.uk has 1000s of free travel and tourism stock images, instant image download and use on your blog, website or printed material - all at no cost!
Free Stock Photo Sites 41-50
- FoodPhotoSite.com | Free Food Photos
has a library of food related images. You can use the food images free of charge and royalty free in your projects provided that you link back to the site. - Hooverstock.com
contains free stock photos with various themes by category. In exchange for the free stock photo, you must provide a clearly visible text link back to hooverstock.com. - Free Images and Stock Photos
Image categories include abstract, food, flowers, miscellaneous, nature and scenic, household, technology and world travel images. - Barry's Free Photos
1000S of free PHOTOS!!! One of the best FREE resources on the Net with an amazing selection of images for download! - Art.com
become an affiliate with art.com and you can use their images and earn 25-30% commission on all sales through your website.
- Flickr: Creative Commons
There are lots of users on Flickr who have elected to share their work under a Creative Commons licence. Here you are able to browse or search for photos under each type of license. Its well worth a try as there are some great photos here. - Creativity103.com
creativity103.com has an abstract and unusual digital image gallery, and is a good resource for free design stock images - Pictures Free Download
Free Download of all Pictures provided you attribute the source with a link or reference. Most photos from amateur photographers. - FreeMediaGoo.com
FreemediaGoo.com has Free images, audio, video, and flash. all photographs are royalty-free! The site is definately worth a look. - PD Photo
PD Photo offers lots of free stock photos which are categorised for easier browsing. You don't have to link back to the site if you use any of the free stock photos but they would prefer it if you do.
Free Stock Photos Sites 50+
- Free African Wildlife Pictures, Including Lion, Elephant and Giraffe photos
Eye-catching wildlife pictures from Africa - http://www.copyrightfreephotos.com/
High quality copyright free photo library for any use. - Adigitaldreamer.com
A nice collection of free images, categorised for easy browsing. - FreePhotoP.com
Free photo archive containing the largest community-indexed collection of free images. 100,000+ Totally Free Pictures, free photo gallery. - Photogen
Free photos from the Photogen library of stock photos and images - search and download free stock photos in high resolution of animals, agriculture, architecture, backgrounds, concepts, nature, transport, travel and destinations, business etc - Free Photos, Free Stock Photos
FreePhotosWeb.com offers free photos, free stock photos and royalty free photos.
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I hope this resource for royalty free stock photos has been useful to you. If you know of a site that isnt listed here then please let us know.Loading...
You really did some heavy duty work here. This list is beyond useful. Thank you I really needed this list. Great job!
Thank you for the information. Thanks to your hub I discovered some new sites I had not heard of before.
Thank you for putting this resource together. I have a blog and rarely use images because I'm concerned about copyright but really want to have images as it makes posts engaging and look more professional.
flighty02 - Very nice article. Most helpful to me. Thanks.
thanks - the only site I have used is morguefile but its nice to know I have more options. I am bookmarking this hub. Thanks!
Aappreciate the time you took ,to put this altogether flighty, popped it into bookmarks. Looks like it will be a great help!
Wow!! The pictures are awesome too!! Very Nice!!
Thank you for very valuable information, thank you so much for sharing it. creativeone59
thanks buddy!!!
Thank you very much. Its very helpfull to me. Thanks.
An excellent resource, well done. It can be a real bore trying to find royalty free images and you have made this much easier. Thank you...
nice list
Thank you for the great resources!
Great Hub! Awesome list of resources.
More free photos to use in your articles at this site:
Thanks for the great hub - I am always looking for royalty free pictures for my blogs and found a few great ones here I had not heard of before - Thanks!!
Very useful. Thank you :)
This is great, just what I have been looking for, thanks!
Really useful hub, thanks for the info. Bookmarked and rated up!
This is a most excellent hub. I cannot believe all of the information you have here. You have spent a lot of time on this one and it really shows. It is also extremely helpful. Thank you so much for publishing this one.
This is just an amazing hub filled with information - I'll be bookmarking this for sure. Thank you so much for all your hard work putting this together. You've done a fabulous job! Thank you.
God bless you for putting this up...this is just so generous of you..thanks!
This is an amzing resource and overwheleming at the same time. I will need to bookmark this so I can come back later. Great job providing such important information!
Great hub and thank you for all the valuable information! My only question is...is how do you link to someone or website? Im a newbie and haven't quite figured it out. Everyone says its easy but I have found with each search for answers on how to link, it just confuses me more. I am definitely bookmarking this hub.
this is really useful, thanks for sharing, one of the many things a writer needs is good compelling photos and this is a great resource. thanks
Great resources. Thanks for sharing them with this hub!
Great Hub - Thanks for sharing the info. I'll definitely make sure and bookmark..........
Thanks for this huge list :-)
I'm a little ashamed to admit that for a long time I did indeed think 'royalty free' meant free of charge...
Hi! Awesome hub! You saved me 100 hours of my life! -- Thanks
Nice collection. Thanks for sharing
Wow - this is fabulous. Always looking for pix to illustrate my hubs, though I do illustrate with my own pix too. I put some photos on Flickr, thinking that if I am taking, I should give back and have found one of my pictures on several sites. It's nice to share.
Thanks so much for this extensive list! I'll be back here again and again...
Thank You, you just save me hours of searching the net for photos.
This hub is very helpful!
Thanks!
Bookmarked this right away. New to Hubpages so this is going to come in handy for sure. Great article!
You should add RGBStock to the list which is the new site of many SXC refugees (who hate SXC's new owners, Getty Images), they already have over 40000 pics!
Thanks for such a 'useful' hub...voted up...and bookmarked...:)
This is a great resource, especially for the fantasy illustrations. I don't find those very often. A lot of the bigger stock photo websites (where you have to pay for photos) offer a 'free photo of the week'. I've been stockpiling free images from iStockPhoto for years, and I believe gettyimages and shutterstock have a free image of the week as well.
Thank you!!! Very useful.
Wow, very impressive collection of stock websites. My only remark is that more often than not, the Free stock is not the best quality. Except from Flickr maybe :)
Very interesting sites and article. Thanks for sharing :)
Very informative hub! Bookmarked. Thanks a bunch!
What a comprehensive list and detailed information. Thank you for your diligent work here.
Wow!
Fantastic resource- Thanks!
rw
Do you know about Pixabay.com. It has good photos and all are assigned the new CC0 licence of Creative Commons, meaning it is really public domain and no attribution to the original author or backlink is required for any use, also for commercial applications.
It even includes model and property releases, though there are not many images with brands or people in them to find on the website - understandable.
Cheers!
Very helpful hub! Thanks for this great resource. I'm always looking for new stock photos!
Bookmarked this right away. Thanks
Thought I should come back and thank you for all the fantastic images I found
great hub. very helpful. I bookmarked it.
A useful hub.. I was searching for sites to get photographs.
great hubpage, bookmarked it right away, thanks for all the great information
Thanks...I hope the list above will help me in writing new hub and attaching royalty free photos
Thanks for sharing ht list of sites! They'll surely prove useful when I need free stock photos.
Thank you for this information!
Thank you so much for such an excellent resource! I'm always looking for new photo sites which provide free photos. I was familiar with a few names on your list, but your hub includes many sources that are new to me. Thank you!
It's a great list. Thank you for sharing.
This is the best hub I have ever seen to help find definitive sources for pictures. Thank you. Thank you.
Informative hub.Thanks.
great work, awesome hub...thank you! voted up, useful awesome and interesting
I have been looking everywhere for free photos to use! You're right, it IS a tedious job! Thank you so much for this list! Excellent hub! :)
Thanks for the list!
Try also http://www.picdrome.com, a growing Public Domain picture collection, free of copyright. All items are free to download for personal and commercial use, without restriction and are available in high definition. New photos are added on a daily basis.
Thanks. Great list!
Thanks for sharing this Hub with us, very infomative and very useful. Voted up and socially shared:-D
Ah at last! Somebody has figured it out and saved the day and even the year?
Thank you very much this Hub it is Gold dust to the online writer or blogger and I am very grateful, voted up and telling the world, oh also got to bookmark this as a priority!
Thanks very much, I mean that!
thanks for the free resource. Really useful and appreciated
Thank you for the comprehensive list you have provided...I'm new to this site and had no idea where to go to add images to my articles. This was a great idea, well written and organized - kudos.
It is very needed list. Great effective post. Thanks a lot.
Bookmarked this right away. New to Hubpages so this is a super read. Great article!
Great Hub, it is useful for online writers as well as for webmasters. Thank you for sharing this valuable information. Voted up and re-shared.
Wow! I was surprise to see 50+ sites for stock photos. This is really interesting and useful. Thanks for sharing and voted up :)
Thanks for publishing this great resource for free photos. I am sharing with my followers.
You sure did your homework on this one! Forgive me if I missed this in your wonderful hub but another one is:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ - you just need to credit the photographer.
I have only bookmarked one or two hubs but this one makes three! Every hubber can use this as we are always looking for photos but are limited in the free ones.
Voted up, useful and interesting. Plus SHARING.
So helpful! thank you thank you. :)
I'm new to Hubpages, and this information is just what I was looking for! Thank you for sharing.
This is incredibly useful. Thank you for all the information. Excellent hub!
What an amazingly thorough list! I've been looking for something just like this so "Thanks a million!" I can't wait to start using some of these photo resources to dress up some of my hubs! Cheers!






































































ChrissyDean 2 years ago
I love stock images for art. Thanks for all the info!