100 Free Photo Libraries – The Ultimate Swipe File (Part 3)
Welcome To Part 3 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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79. Kavewall
http://www.kavewall.com/stock/index.html
Free stock photos, with some very cool images and textures. Beautiful quality work set out in unique categories such as tattoo, electric, glass, smoke, and food. After a quick search I found this delightful, colorful alphabet jigsaw.
80. Design Packs
http://designpacks.com/Image_Catalog
Small but very high quality image collections of photos and textures that can be used in both personal and commercial web design projects. Searchable, and provided as downloadable packs of free images. Nice set of collections based on a variety of themes.
81. Pattern Pictures
http://www.patternpictures.com/
Photos, textures and patterns. This free stockphoto library emphasises repetition and texture related photography – especially nature.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
82. My Free Textures
http://www.myfreetextures.com/
Limited selection of background patterns, materials and textures including for example, water, rocks, foliage, wood and metal.
Free for commercial. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
83. The Pattern Library
The Pattern Library by Tim Holman and Claudio Guglieri offers a brief selection of vector-based patterns created by different designers, free to download. Great for wallpaper – whether on your computer or your office wall! Click the ‘boxes’ navigation button to the right to enter.
Free for commercial and personal use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
84. Free Media Goo
A small photo library offering high quality photos for backgrounds. OK for print, film, TV, Internet or any other type of media. No login required, organized into unique categories like beach backgrounds, concrete textures roads. Good navigation.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
PHOTO SEARCH ENGINES
85. Photopin
Having trouble finding the perfect picture on Creative Commons? Your search is over. Photo Pin is a search engine for Creative Commons, finding and presenting best photos available. I searched for “clown” and instantly found this amazingly colorful photo.
86. Compfight
Fantastic tool for searching Flickr images – a Flickr image search engine that can locate which images can be used commercially. For example once a subject is picked, these can be filtered by “Commercial” to find which ones to use without cost on your blog, info-graphic or info-product. e.g. I searched for “Candles” and then selected “Commercial”
87. Fotor
Like Compfight, it’s used to search Flickr for commercial use images. Fotor is preferable in my view because of its simple, intuitive, easy to use interface. I searched for “Rodeo” and found this vibrant photo by Rene Schwietzke
88. Every Stock Photo
http://www.everystockphoto.com/
Another handy search engine for free photos which are from a wide variety of sources. Free membership, and you can rate, tag, collect and comment on photos. I searched for “Ferrari” and discovered this shot by photographer El Mostrito.
Free to use generally, but check out each photo’s license by clicking on the license icon, at below left.
“COMMONS” PHOTO LIBRARIES
Commons photo libraries specialize in providing images under a broad “commons” licence. i.e. Largely free to use for anything provided a credit is given to the source. Note: Some images – especially on Flickr – still have “all rights reserved” markings, so check each one on a case by case basis before using.
89. Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page
Wikimedia Commons is a database of 21,049,775 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. Over 16 million different kinds of public-domain media files.
Most of the content is available and modifiable as long as the original author or licenser is attributed. Photo © Copyright Frank Kovalchek, Anchorage. US.
90. Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/commons
A large number of photographic archives and libraries have partnered with Flickr Commons by contributing their own public domain images. A great resource from all over the world.
This photo is from Flickr commons. © Copyright Moyan Brenn.
US GOVERNMENT PHOTO LIBRARIES
91. NASA
NASA’s space and astronaut photos. Huge library of professional-standard photos. I’ve put links to the various sources of NASA photos below this image.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. No registration required.
NASA – Great Images
NASA Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
The collection records more than 400,000 photos of Earth taken during shuttle missions, most with low resolution imagery. A few high resolution images. Continuously updated.
NASA Jet propulsion Laboratory – Space Images
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/
NASA on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons
NASA Astronauts on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore
92. USA Govt Photo Files
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml
Huge collection across all the photo archives of different US government organizations like NASA, US Fish and Wildlife, and the Library of Congress. One of the most reliable ways to locate public domain images. Many professional images such as this photo of President Obama
HISTORICAL PHOTO LIBRARIES
93. The Public Domain Review
Fantastically interesting site featuring free images from all centuries such as these “Posed Portraits of 19th Century Baseball Stars”. Other images are quirky, historical and just plain weird. From classic works of art to absentminded doodles –like a small exhibition gallery at the entrance to an immense network of archives and storage rooms that lie beyond.
Photos released for all uses under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Attribution requested.
94. Old Book Illustrations
http://www.oldbookillustrations.com
Really nice collection of public domain illustrations scanned from old books and vector illustrations that can be modified and distributed for both personal and commercial projects.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
95. From Old Books
Delightful “historic” site by Liam Quin. Pictures, Engravings & Extracts From Old Books. Over 3,500 free images from old rare antique and vintage books.
Liam Quin: “I have lots of antiquarian books, and many of them have got really neat pictures in them even if they are not very valuable. I thought it was a shame that no-one could see them so I started putting them online.”
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
96. Ancestry Images
http://www.ancestryimages.com/
Ancestry Images offers a large image archive of historical prints, maps and artifacts, such as this world map.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
97. PD Poster
This photo library features a fine collection of stylish old posters all now in the public domain.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
98. Historical Stock Photos
http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/
Free Historical Stock Photos for personal websites. If you need a historical picture for your personal website, this is the place to find everything from Rosie the Riveter to war-time posters of Uncle Sam. If you write historical works, this site can be an excellent resource in your search for appropriate images.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
99. New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a library of vintage photos from the public archives, all copyright free. Has search function, but is uncategorized so it’s browsing time again using the “archive” function.
A great find: Photo of workers constructing the Empire State Building. (Note the complete lack of safety precautions!)
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
ART GALLERIES, MUSEUMS & ACADEMIA, Plus additional photo libraries added recently.
Includes 7 bonus libraries.
100. Getty Open Content Archive
http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html
J. Paul Getty Museum’s Open Content Program houses over 100,000 images that are free to use* with attribution. (Please check details on the page at the above link for the precise usage rights.)
The majority of images are from the Foto Arte Minore collection, a rich gallery of photographs of Italian art and architecture, taken by the photographer and scholar Max Hutzel (1911-1988). Search link: http://search.getty.edu/
*Quoting the site: “The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.”
101. National Gallery of Art | NGA Images
35,000 Works of Art from the National Gallery, Including Masterpieces by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rembrandt & More. Amazing FREE access to some of the world’s most famous paintings. Registration is required – takes only a minute with direct access – no waiting for email confirmation.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
102. Rijksmuseum Art Collection
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-the-collection
Large library of art images. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is home to many Dutch masters such as Rembrandt’s Night Watch. (Below) Users can explore the entire collection, which is sorted by artist, subject, style and events in Dutch history.
Free for all design applications!
Users are encouraged to download Rijksmuseum artwork for free to decorate new products, or almost anything you like really, such as this Tattoo based on a painting “Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase” by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1650 – 1683.
As an added bonus for designers, a color palette is supplied customized for every image. (A similar palette feature is supplied by the “Image Party” photo library listed earlier in this guide.)
Free for Commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
103. The British Library
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary
The British Library put a million images on Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose.
Images from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books in the Public Domain. The images cover maps, geological diagrams, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more. The library plans to release tools so participants can tag and deepen understanding of everything in the collection.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
104. New York Public Library
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
Probably the greatest historical image library on the internet. Only for non-commercial use. More than 800,000 images digitized from the New York Public Library’s vast collections. This elegantly organised site with excellent navigation and search went live early 2015. I came across it when looking for turn of the century posters – see the examples below.
For personal, educational, editorial or research use only, not for commercial purposes. Excellent navigation. No registration required. Attribution required.
105. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online
This huge image library has over 400,000 high-resolution digital images. These are historic public domain art works that can be used without permission and without a fee – such as the Paul Cézanne “Card Players” painting below. But only for non-commercial use. The number of images are increasing as new digital files are added on a regular basis.
Non-commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required
106. UPDATE – New Library: Dig For Free
Beautiful free photo library contributed by Ruben. Thousands of high quality images from around the world – mostly travel. Generally for editorial use only, so ideal as editorial blog post headers, but not for use as product images or sales letters for example.
Editorial use only. Attribution not required but appreciated. Registration not required
107. UPDATE – New Library: Good Free Photos
Good Free Photos is a gallery of thousands of unique and free public domain stock photos.
Categorized by location for travel photos, species for animal and plant photos, and types of objects for other photos. All photos are released under the public domain license so you can use the photos for whatever reason you want.
Free for commercial use. No attribution required. Registration not required.
Thank You For Visiting The Free Photos Pages
If there’s a free photo library I’ve missed, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll include it in this archive.
All other comments also welcome.
Jonathan Gunson – Traffic Café
Author & Illustrator
