Absolutely free stock photos websites
There are loads of free stock photo websites all over the web. Some are generic submit-your-own sites such as photo monolith Flickr, whereas others cater for specialised niche markets such as high quality travel photos, landscapes, people and macro photography. Many stock image providers such as Istockphoto.com charge per image download; though there are some hidden gems such as Rgbstock.com and Jeyjoo Images offer absolutely free stock photos in return for the publicity generated. Most other stock photography websites fit somewhere in between.
Photos free for personal and commercial use
Working through the terms and conditions of each site to work out which offer no-strings attached photos free for personal and commercial use can be a headache at the best of times. That’s why we have put together a list of the best absolutely free stock photo websites for you. Images are free for personal and commercial use.
6 absolutely free stock image websites
1. RGBStock
A fresh, clean website that is easy to use. All images are free for personal and commercial use including websites, blogs, brochures and marketing.
http://www.RGBStock.com
2. High Resolution Stock
This is technically a texture share website, but I be included it here as it is a great resource for web designers, the textures are absolutely free for personal and commercial use, and the textures are often derrived from stock images. The website design here is probably the most tasteful on this list. Create your own textures, upload, download and share your favourite textures. This is a bloggers must have, and also a great tool for web designers, presentations or school projects.
http://www.HighResolutionStock.com
3. The morgue file
Don't let the name put you off - this is one of the web's biggest and most popular free stock image archives. The self-proclaimed image archive by creatives for creatives. The purpose of this free image website is to provide image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits. Some free stock photos do carry conditions such as link back or author credit.
http://www.Themorguefile.com
4. Photogen - absolutely free stock images
Free stock photos for almost all use (you cannot resell the images, sell on printed tshirts, sell as part of a website template, or use in a logo).
http://www.photogen.com
5. Jeyjoo Gallery
A niche image archive concentrating on high quality free images of a travel and macro photography genre. Jeyjoo are actually a web design company offering absolutely free stock photo downloads for commercial and private use in return for the publicity generated. Linkbacks and/or author attribution are requested.
http://www.jeyjoo.com
6. Free Digital Photos
Similar to Jeyjoo, Free Digital Photos offer absolutely free stock images free for personal and commercial use on low resolution small photos, with the option to purchase larger photos. Linkbacks requested. A nicely presented website, and images are easy to find.
The giants of image archivery
http://www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I feel this talk on stock photography wouldn’t be complete without quick look at the giants of digital stock photography. Getty Images, Istockphoto, Fotolia, Big Stock Photo, Jupiter Images and Shutterstock are all in this category. Most of these sites charge per image download. Because anyone can upload their pictures, the same photos can appear on different sites and it can be difficult to find really great pictures as images are not given a quality check.
Save time - If you don’t have time, Every Stock Photo is a free image search engine, that saves you time by scrapping a range of websites for absolutely free stock images for you. Membership is required.
Read more webdeisgn and SEO related articles here - http://jeyjoo.com/blog/
Mike Fitzpatrick is web designer and SEO expert at Jeyjoo, a Sheffield web design company (Sheffield, UK).
http://www.jeyjoo.com