100 Free Photo Libraries – The Ultimate Swipe File (Part 2)
Welcome To Part 2 Of 100 Free Photo-Libraries..
PART 1
01 – 35 General, high-quality photo libraries – all subjects.
PART 2
36 – 78 General, high-quality photo libraries – all subjects.
PART 3
79 – 84 Photographic texture & pattern libraries.
84 – 88 Photo Search Engines. For searching all photo libraries.
89 – 90 Commons. Photo libraries to which anyone can contribute.
91 – 92 US Government photo libraries – including NASA.
93 – 99 Historical photograph & graphic libraries.
100-105 Art Galleries, Museums & Academia. (5 bonus libraries!)
Note: Most of the photos are free for commercial use, but please, always double check the rights and conditions of an image before using it.
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36. Public Domain Photos
http://www.public-domain-photos.com
5,000 great free photos to choose from. (Plus 8000 pieces of clip art) Excellent navigation and a search function. Spectacular shots of the US and cities. The nature section has beautiful images of National Parks including Yosemite and other attractive worldwide locations. Photos on this site are all public domain.
You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial. Some photos may contain logos and products so I would avoid those.
37. Good Free Photos
Good Free Photos is a gallery of US location shots and also parts of Canada, China, Haiti and Mexico. Handily categorized by “location” for travel photos “species” for animal & plant photos, and “types” of objects.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
38. 4 Free Photos
This library looks a little untidy, but has clear categories on the left side. I found some photographic gems hidden away. Check out the “most downloaded” section. Some eye opening shots to be seen. The photographers on this site offer most of these images for free use.
Mostly free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
39. Alegriphotos
Well organised. Generally unretouched photographs, but some jewels hidden in the archives (such as the photo of the palace courtyard in Florence below.) Just use the simple search bar: http://www.alegriphotos.com/photosearch.php
Note: Some photos do require a model or property release. Other photos may contain logos and products so I would avoid using those. Otherwise, free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
40. Openphoto
A rich photo sharing platform created in 1998 by Michael Jastremski. Some of the images in this library are photographic masterpieces. Basic navigation is by category from the home page.
Largely free to use under terms of Creative Commons licensing. (License terms and conditions vary from image to image.)
41. Pixel Perfect Digital
http://pixelperfectdigital.com
Pixel Perfect Digital offers a small but stunning collection of free Stock Photos, Backgrounds, Textures and other Design Elements. All the images are provided under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This license lets you remix, tweak, and build upon the photos, even commercially.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
42. PD Pics
Pdpics.com is a small repository of free public domain pictures and photographs. They offer free use of these stock photos in any project. Many photos are of locations in India. Would appreciate attribution and a link to their site.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
43. Jay Mantri
Art quality professional photos by photographer Jay Mantri. Gritty realism, mystical landscapes and far away locations. Big photos of wilderness. 7 new photos added every week. No navigation, but easy scrolling through this brief archive.
Free for commercial use. Attribution requested. Registration not required.
44. Jéshoots
Jéshoots is a great place to go for extremely colourful lifestyle images. Also food or nature photos. You can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
45. Lock and Stock Photos
Lock and Stock Photos feature some great nature and architectural images that can be downloaded from their website. I would especially recommend their site if you are in search of any close-up photography taken with a macro lens. You can also subscribe to their emailing list to receive new images every month. No navigation, just enjoy browsing.
Free for commercial use. Attribution and link requested. Registration not required.
46. Magdeleine
Magdeleine offers high resolution images with great landscapes and high quality nature and food photography. All public domain.
Free for commercial use. Attribution and link requested. Registration not required.
47. Free Images UK
13,700 Free Stock Photos in 88 Image Categories. At Free Images you’ll discover a library of professional level stock photography for use on websites, printed media, products and anywhere you need a photo to help with illustration and design.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
48. MMT
MMT has a great number of nature photographs, plants in particular. Photos added every week, all by photographer Jeffrey Betts. Can be used for commercial projects. Only minimal navigation.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
49. Amygdela
Welcome to Amygdela stockphotos A deceptively ordinary looking site until you get into it. Check out the sports cars category to see the excellent quality images. The galleries have all been updated with new photos and with easy navigation.
Not 100% sure of the rights on this site but it appears to be free to use commercially. Please double check with the site owner if considering using any of the photos: amy2k5 @ gmail . com.
50. Best Stock Photo Free
A small collection of images from eastern Europe, run by Carl who is 20 years old and lives in the village near Warsaw, Poland. Library has a search function, but more useful is the very good site map which shows all the types of photos in fine detail in logical order.
Most photos can be used unrestricted, licensed under Creative Commons. Attribution required in some cases and non-commercial use in others. (Each photo clearly indicates which licence applies.)
51. Image After
Very basic looking site, but this photo library hides thousands of good quality amateur images – with an ocean of travel photos, architecture and excellent nature shots. Lots of classy close-ups, like the candle image below. Very easy navigation, with extensive categories, and keyword search. I lost 30 minutes just wandering around! Best use is for textures, industrial and household items. Perfect for website backgrounds.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
52. Move East
High-quality architectural, natural and lifestyle photography of Asia. Documents the journey of a Portuguese photographer moving east who decided to make his photos free for any purpose under the creative commons (CC0).
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
53. Superfamous Studios
Superfamous is a small library that houses the work of Dutch photographer Folkert Gorter, whose work can be used for your own purposes — including commercial use — as long as credit is provided. A host of stunning lonely aerial landscape and nature photographs.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
54. Good Stock Photos
Good Stock Photos is a mini-collection of 100 free photos for you to use anywhere for anything. Very high quality. A new photo is published daily.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
55. Photober
Small photo library, with exotic photos. Mostly everyday shots, but fine quality – as can be seen in this photograph of these boats in Phewa lake, Nepal.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
56. Photo Everywhere
3500 high quality travel images library. Globe-trot your way through the UK, US, China, Europe, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Canada and New Zealand. Also has tropical island section. (See each image page for details.)
Free for commercial use. Attribution credit required. Registration not required.
57. Topers Photos
Toper is a Georgia based photographer and is constantly releasing new photos into the public domain. The site has a good range of photos of great quality. The site is more like a blog, and navigation is by loosely arranged categories with a broad mix of photos.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required. Please note that no releases have been obtained for the images that contain people, works of art, property or trademarks.
58. ISO Republic
ISO Republic provides high-quality, free photos for creatives. Founded in September 2014 by Tom Eversley, a photographer from England. For designers and site developers who don’t have the budget for good quality photography. All images high-resolution, and free to use on commercial and personal creative projects.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
59. Car Pictures CC
http://carpictures.cc/cars/photo
A huge treasure trove of amateur and professional car photos. Most makes represented, from Aston Martin to Volkswagon. Photo gems by the ton mixed in with relatively ordinary car photos. All freely available under creative commons.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
60. Ookaboo
http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/ UPDATE May 2016: Sorry, Ookaboo is offline.
“Free pictures of everything on earth”. Pretty close to the truth. Very basic home page, no design at all! A huge range of mostly amateur photographs, but… hidden within are some truly extraordinary photos – see the vulture photo below… just breathtaking.
The library is easily navigated and uses concepts for search instead of keywords. Note: Avoid the green “navigation” buttons top right. They are in fact ads for unrelated services. (Tricky that!)
Images in Ookaboo are public domain or creative commons and can be used freely for blogs, web sites, schoolwork, publications, and other creative projects
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
61. Animal Photos
Don’t be put off by the utilitarian home page of this handy wildlife photo library. Good range of photographs, great navigation, very easily searchable. Mostly amateur shots, but some great finds. All types of animals – largest gallery by far is birds. Images on this site are under creative commons and are free to use on web sites and other projects.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
62. Free Foto
http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
FreeFoto.com is one of the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet . Many excellent amateur photographs, with high quality professional included as well. Slightly down-market looking site, but is comprehensive and easy to navigate. Has higher quality versions available for sale. OK for commercial use, requires attribution and link back.
Free for commercial use. Attribution with link required. Registration not required.
63. PD Photo
Personal collection of good quality photographs. Some spectacular images are hidden in this library like the ‘Blue Angels” aerobatic team photo. Most photos cover the urban and rural landscapes of the United States.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
64. Cepolina
http://www.cepolina.com/freephoto
Cepolina photo library website offers a very large collection of high-quality photos from around the world, including Europe, America, India and China. Mostly amateur as far as I can see, but some a pretty amazing shots, like this fireman pumping water. Large collection of basic car photos. Navigation is easy with categories like plants, animals, cars and food.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
65. Epic VA
Good quality photos from a small team of photography enthusiasts. All photos on Epicva are their property, but they allow anyone to download and use them for personal and commercial projects. No search or navigation, just scroll through the large display images page by page. After a brief look, I came across this “Autumn Leaves” beauty.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required but would be appreciated. Registration not required.
66. Photogen
Large collection of professional, high quality photos. Wide variety of subjects. Animals architecture, food, home, business, nature, leisure. FREE for both commercial and personal projects. The Photogen gallery is regularly updated with new quality, high-resolution free photos and images.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
67. Digital Dreamer
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/gallery/index.php
Free and royalty-free collection of images. Photos cover a wide range of categories such as textures, animals, technology, water, fire, jobs and careers, buildings and more. Very good navigation. I found this scrabble photo in Toys & Games.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
68. Sunipix
http://www.sunipix.com/
Medium sized picture library of 20,000 mostly un-retouched photos, although the quality of some is spectacular such as this peacock. However, some picture sizes are limited to 600 pixels in width. For example the image below was 600 pixels so I had to do a quick cut and paste and add an extra 50 pixels of tail feathers onto each side to make it 700 pixels. Look closely and you’ll see the rough joins.
Excellent navigation. Free for personal and business needs. Pictures are also allowed to be converted to posters for home and office.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
69. Free Nature Pictures
http://www.freenaturepictures.com/
Library of nature, landscape, and wildlife photos free to use for any purpose: on your website or blog, in books, graphic design, background pictures, anything you like. Mostly unretouched or amateur but carefully curated such as this “Iris” bloom.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required with link back to the library source page. Registration not required.
70. Image Base
Nice collection of good quality photos. No search, but categories for easy browsing: People , Objects, Nature, Cities, the Holy Land and some free PowerPoint Templates. Free to use for anything you want including commercial, non-profit, business, print, web, screen, film or personal applications.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
71. Free Cloud Stock
Free Cloud Stock hosts a good sized selection of 100% free, high resolution cloud stock photography.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
72. A to Z Stock Images
http://www.atozstockimages.com/
Small photo library of high quality images divided into 11 albums. I found this beach scene in less than a minute.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
73. Fontplay
http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/
10,000+ photos by Dennis hill and friends. The home page may look basic but is deceptive. Has good quality unretouched photos and snap shots in a wide range of categories. Excellent navigation, and free to use.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
74. Unprofound
A small photo library but cleverly arranged for that “designer” look with the images all sorted by color. For example I clicked on the ‘green’ icon and found this splendidly extravagant green and pink house.
You have permission to use them in designs, art, personal and professional projects, and as desktop backgrounds.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
75. Free Image Files
Collection of uncategorized photos. But there’s some hidden magic to be found – for example this sensational watch photo I discovered.
Free for commercial use. Attribution with link to the source required. Registration not required.
76. Raumrot
A tiny photo library of 544 photos, filtered and retouched to perfection. Hand-picked lifestyle photography, that includes urban, hipster, and food imagery. Also has some great mountain landscapes. Free to use, but all images require attribution to the author
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
77. Realistic Shots
A new site of free stock photos (high resolution) for personal and commercial use. There are only a handful of photos there so far, but all are very fine, so I included it in this collection of libraries to help it build into something valuable. 7 new photos arrive every week.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
78. Stockvault
Stockvault is a large, photo sharing site where photographers, designers and students share photographs and graphics for free. For personal and non-commercial design work only. No registration required.
Free for non-commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
Author & Illustrator
