100 Free Photo Libraries – The Ultimate Swipe File
Yours free: My personal swipe file of 100 free photo libraries. There’s no need to pay for a photograph ever again.
‘A picture’s worth a thousand words’ so the saying goes, and a stunning photograph is a highly effective way to attract attention to your work. So I’ve collected 100 free photo libraries of high-quality images and listed them here – the same ones I use every day.
OK! Get yourself an espresso and enjoy browsing the photos – everything from coffee to cars, to fashion, to nature, to sun-drenched tropical beaches.
Note: Loading all these beautiful images can take a while, so I’ve made it a little faster by splitting this post into 3 parts, with each linking to the next.
Enjoy!
Jonathan Gunson
Photo Library Categories
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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1. FreeImages.com
Free Images is my #1 choice when looking for free, high-quality photographs. Over 350,000 professional quality images, contributed by 30,000 photographers. The “Eagle” photograph is typical of the high impact imagery.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. No sign up required.
2. Pixabay Images
A class act photo library with outstanding, high quality images such as the sky divers below. Great selection, over 300,000 photographs & artwork of professional quality with excellent site navigation.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. No sign up.
3. MorgueFile Free Photos
Morguefile is a gorgeous photo library chock full of sumptuous images – all contributed by creatives, for use by creatives. It offers a huge number of photographs all at high resolution. For best results, use several terms to search. A perfect example of the quality at Morgue Library are these sunflowers.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
4. Free Range Stock
Virtually every image on this site is meticulously color sharpened by professional photographers. Not quite as large a collection as other sites, but easily made up for by the sheer quality of the images. The quality is immediately apparent in this color-adjusted cheese board setting by Geoffrey Whiteway.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
5. RGB Free Stock Photos
RGB Free Stock has an extremely user-friendly interface. Huge number of dynamic photographs, most at a highly professional level. This ‘splash’ photograph by Lusi (Sanja Gjenero) displays the style and power of RGB’s imagery: RGB Stock also features a gallery for each photographer and ranks them by downloads.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
6. Pexels
A wonderful library, with superb, high quality niche photographs. Check out the home page. You’ll be stunned! Free for personal and commercial use without sign up or attribution. Navigation is simple, with “search” and well defined categories.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
7. Dreamstime Free Images
http://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos
Dreamstime supplies high quality stock photos on almost any subject you can imagine. The free section requires a brief registration process, but after that, you’re able to download from a library of good quality images. In most cases an attribution credit linking to the photo origin is required.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration required.
8. IM Free
IM Free is a gorgeous site that offers a curated collection of free resources. Search for a keyword or browse through the stylishly crafted categories. Divided into several luscious easy to navigate categories. The majority of the photos are available under the creative commons public domain.
This particularly beautiful “hot chocolate” shot is by Digital Mind Photography.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
9. Skitter Photo
SUPER high quality photos. Filtered expertly. So good that I had a difficult time choosing a photo that adequately represented this high grade collection.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
10. Pickup Image
Pickup Image is one of the larger collections of free photographs. Big selection of classically gorgeous landscapes, including AMAZING aurora photos. (Northern lights) Excellent search and navigation.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
11. Free JPG
Free Image Bank with a range of high quality, beautifully retouched photographs free for commercial and editorial use. So many exquisite shots it was very hard to pick which one to display.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
12. Image Party
A large number of photographers have contributed some astoundingly high quality photographs to this beautiful library. Big range of shots, very nice easy to follow navigation. As an added bonus, a designer color palette is supplied customized to every photo – a touch of magic for any web site designer. (A similar feature is supplied by the Rijksmusem collection. See Art Galleries and Museums further down this guide.)
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration for hi-res files required.
13. Designers Pics
Small photo library of beautifully composed, photo-retouched and filtered shots by Jeshu John. All class! Every image a winner. Search by keyword or look through the categories to find the perfect picture.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
14. Picography
Source of design inspiration. Rich hi resolution images. Small collection, continuously added to. Unfortunately there was no navigation, but I enjoyed scrolling through the beautifully retouched and filtered images.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
15. Foodies Feed
http://foodiesfeed.com/free-images
Beautiful foodie shots of exceptional quality. Most are free, some are paid. Quoting from the site: “Foodie’s Feed is my personal project which serves as a resource of free food pictures in high resolution. Food photographs for your blog posts, articles, websites, templates or just any kind of design.” No navigation. But a treat to delve though all the food photos.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required. Facebook “like” required for download.
16. Stock Photos For Free
http://www.stockphotosforfree.com
Over 100,000 photos to choose from, with a mix of professional images and everyday snapshots. Many of these have been sharpened and retouched to perfection, and I also found dozens of beautiful and spectacular “musical effects” abstract images. Easy to follow categories with good navigation and search function.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
17. Albumarium
A beautifully organised photo library – and a great resource for high-resolution stock images. This site has close-up images of animals, nature, and people with a blend of current and vintage images. Easy search, with an “album” category for each topic. There are about 30 albums, with amusing topic titles such as Cities, Cats, Redheads, Converse, Love, Africa, Railways, Snakes, Babies, Elephants.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
18. Free Stock Photos
http://www.freestockphotos.biz
Over 15,000 free stock photos. This collection offers very high quality retouched stock photos and excellent clip art. Both large and smaller sized images. Contains public domain images and images with other licenses, so make sure to check the license of each image.
Largely free for commercial use. Attribution required sometimes. Registration not required.
19. Splitshire
A small library of professional-standard photos, made with love in Italy. Splitshire is run by a single photographer Daniel Nanescu, who uploads free stock photos for you to use as you wish. A generous collection of professional photos categorized elegantly with a search function.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
20. Picjumbo
“Totally free photos for your commercial & personal works.” Easy navigation with very high quality stock images by Victor Hanacek. Also has a cool PhotoShop plugin that offers their entire library of free stock photos. (Go get!) New pictures daily.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required..
21. Gratisography
Need unusual or quirky images? These “different” photographs are of very high quality, all taken by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design. More added every week. Unfortunately there’s no search or categories, so scroll for your entertainment. (And you WILL be entertained !)
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
22. Start-up Stock Photos
A small but high-grade library of photos. Images of people working in trendy start offices with coffee, mobiles and sumptuous pictures of laptops. Ideal for the free-lance & startups. Search by month in the archive http://startupstockphotos.com/archive
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
23. Stokpic
Another small but very high quality photo library. Not a big collection, but almost every photograph is worth downloading. They’ll also send you 10 new photos every week, so it’s the best of all worlds.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
24. Photl
Very big photo library with over 500,000 excellent quality images – unique to Photl. But… they’re only for non-commercial use which is why I’ve listed this library a little further down the collection. Photographs professionally shot for the most part – for example, this delectable coffee & cup cake shot.
Free for non-commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
25. Life of Pix
This free library is by ad agency LEEROY. Quoting the home page: “Hand-made with love by leeroy advertising agency in montreal & its network of photographers.” Has reasonable navigation with themes for each page, such as Beach, Black & White, Industral Nature and some superb nature close-ups. Medium sized collection of beautiful ‘art’ ultra high quality photographs. They have a multipage gallery if you are looking for nature or industrial images.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
26. Upicm
“Free Pics No tricks!” Includes very attractive photos like the one of Venice below, but predominantly a quirky collection of character filled images of people, fish, vehicles, buildings, urban, textures, food, objects, interiors & design. Also has a premium section with a wider selection of hi-res images.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
27. Death to the Stock Photo
http://deathtothestockphoto.com/ (Subscribe for free packs of photos.)
“Images for your vibe and tribe” This is a more mood / art photo orientated site. Highly original, creative photos. Not great for “research”, but I included this library because of the brilliance and quality of the photos. Subscribers sign up and get a package of 10 new photos each month. For access to the entire library of photographs on demand, they run a premium paid service.
28. Little Visuals
http://littlevisuals.co (Subscribe for free packs of photos.)
Little Visuals offers high-resolution images and emails a folder of 7 images to you every 7 days. Images are mostly highly abstract and art conceptual. Little Visuals is also a tumblr site, so you can locate photos via the archive. BIG PLUS: They’ve tagged their posts, so it’s possible to search through them.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Subscribe for free packs of photos.
29. Unsplash
Absolutely amazing high resolution images. Unsplash is a collection of brilliant urban and rural landscapes, objects and flora. It’s a great pity therefore that there no tags, and is not searchable. But you can still scroll through the photos. Every 10 days the site is also updated with 10 new images so the selection keeps growing.
Can be used freely for commercial purposes. Subscribe to Unsplash for 10 new photos every 10 days.
30. Free Digital Photos
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Free Digital Photos offers a large number of free images all categorized and searchable. They’re smaller sized files, but great for use in blog posts. (Larger versions are available to purchase.) All images are of high quality, produced by a community of professional stock photographers and digital illustrators.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration required.
31. Free Photos Bank
A middle size library of good quality photographs, mixed with everyday shots of many subjects. Navigation well organised and extensively categorized with a few different ways to search. I searched for “eyes” and discovered this amazing “digital eye” image.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
32. Public Domain Pictures
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public Domain Pictures is a middle sized photo bank with a wide variety of excellent quality free public domain images uploaded by everyday photographers. Premium option if you need larger images. Some photos do require a model or property release.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
33. BigFoto
BigFoto is a gallery in which most of the photos have been contributed by amateur photographers. Easy to navigate and organized geographically. (I added the “sun” lens flare with Photoshop.)
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
34. Photorack
The very simple, business like home page disguises a huge array of good quality photos across a wide range of subjects. Many are Photoshop improved. Navigation is very easy with clearly defined categories. All photos at PhotoRack are free to use for personal and commercial projects.
Free for commercial use. Attribution not required. Registration not required.
35. Free Pixels
This small library has a selection of very high-quality images. Wide range of categories including abstract, architecture, nature, objects, food and drinks, travel and people. The nature section alone has over 1,000 beautiful shots . Images downloaded from the website may be used for both personal and commercial purposes.
Free for commercial use. Attribution required. Registration not required.
More Free Photos On The Next Page >>
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
Jonathan, these are wonderful sites. Can’t wait to start using them. By the way, you must REALLY like coffee LOL! Thanks for the resources. Laura
Thanks Laura.
This collection is actually a traffic strategy, the idea being that it becomes a known resource that people add links to so I get more visitors. And yes, I’m a caffeine devotee.
Jonathan
If you ever delete this super handy page, I will make certain no one ever allows you to have coffee again! I didn’t even have to get past the first two links to get all the images I needed for my book trailer. HUGE thanks!
Tammie.
MORE than happy it worked for you, and no I’ll never delete this page. It’s too useful, including for me. Started as an exercise in putting the free photos links I collect in one handy place… and it ballooned into the curated collection you see here.
Jonathan
Jonathan,
Wow is all I can say besides a million thank you’s! It’s so kind of you to share this amazing collection of photographs. I feel like you just handed us a million dollars. As a visual artist and writer and only amateur photographer, I can’t stop looking at them. Of course, I’m also excited about using some for my blogs I am getting back into now that I have a little time. I will always sing your praises, Jonathan! Thank you.
Best, Gippy
Gippy
The ones I use most are the top two. But I look into many others lower down the list when I can’t find what I’m looking for. In fact it’s possible for an hour to go by unnoticed in the historical section! See http://pdposter.weebly.com/graphic-arts.html for some weird and wonderful images. Some of them would make better blog post header images then regular photos.
Jonathan
these are great pictures, thank you for collecting such a lovely variety and sharing them with us, it is always hard to find the picture I want.
thank you
Val
Try the weird pictures on http://www.gratisography.com FUN!
Jonathan
Wow. Very awesome collection of sites. I am definitely going to be using them especially for my blog header. Also like the fact that they are free. 😉 Thanks for this awesome collection Jonathan.
Oyekunle
Everyone likes FREE 🙂
The library will be updated frequently – so it remains the premier source for free photo libraries.
Jonathan
This is awesome, thank you for putting this together! Just in time too, I need some stock photos for a website I’m building.
KWS Your blog post “Learn Your ABC’s (Always Be Copywriting)” makes a great and seminal point.
Jonathan
Thank you very much for the brilliant support you giving and sharing with me and others. it is not about free or photos, This really transcends to a higher level of real humanity. Esmat morshedy …. Cheers 🙂
You’re welcome Esmat. Help yourself, then come back for a second round.
Jonathan
Hello there,
thanks for this hack!
Sophie from Paris, France.
More to come Sophie. BTW. Paris is the center of the Universe.
Jonathan
This is a fabulous collection and will be bookmarked. I can’t wait to start exploring some of these sites. Thanks for all your hard work gathering these together.
Karen
All the best with your books.
Jonathan
Awesomesauce! Thanks, Jonathan
Great to connect on Twitter Terry. I’ll get some ritzy blog posts going soon.
~ Jonathan
Hi,
I made recently my project http://www.digforfree.com with thousands HQ mostly travel photos. free use and download. Found this article, hopefully you and your readers will find it helpful
Enjoy!
Ruben
Contribution much appreciated. I’ll update the library next month and include your collection.
Jonathan
This is a wonderful list. From the South of France, thank you for being so generous, thank you for sharing, thank you for your time, thank you for your inspiration. Have a wonderful month of June.
Thanks Alice. Remember to bookmark the page.
~ Jonathan
Thanks for the link to these Amazing photos.
I’m sure I could use some in my travels.
Happy travels Stephen. #PhotosRule
Jonathan
Hello there,
I love this. Thanks for the amazing photo gallery link. I love it. And I also shared this with my twitter & Google+ pals.
Ishara
Your social-media sharing is much appreciated.
Jonathan
Hello Jonathan,
How amazing photo-libraries you give to us, i all love it 😀
Thank you very much for your sharing, for your inspiration, for your patience, for your motivation and great job for your 100 hours in researching and crafting, finding these libraries and writing a report on each work , so fantastic!
I’ll use some of them in my future blog, my future website’s landing page, share to my friends and hope you’ll share to us another photo gallery! i’m so excited :p!!!
Have a nice day 🙂
Mariam
100 hours of work has already paid off. Many many, many visitors here, and a host of new contacts such as yourself.
Jonathan
Amazing, great resources to search for photo online 😀
Thanks for sharing Jonathan!
Rafael
Make full use, and bookmark it. P.S. The “historical” section has some extraordinary photos for generating ideas.
Jonathan
This is an awesome list Jonathan! Gotta share it !
Kind regards.
Anja.
Anja
Share appreciated. Check out the quirky “posters” library. Fascinating.
Jonathan
Wow, absolutely wonderful! Thanks for sharing, Jonathan!
Daniela
There’s a very large number of photos in these libraries. Most people never get past the top 7 or so, but lower down there are some truly sumptuous choices, such as #44. Jéshoots. Lifestyle shots
~ Jonathan
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I had been working on compiling public domain sites and finding myself losing valuable time and ending up with lackluster photos. Thank you for assembling all of this. I’ll probably still lose time now as I get lost in these various albums, but at least now I’ll be lost looking at high-quality images. Thanks again.
Kim
Try http://jeshoots.com/ for particularly delicious photos 🙂
Jonathan
I discovered Pixabay a few months ago and since then all posts where I don’t have an image of my own, get one from pixabay. This list is FANTASTIC!! thank you for sharing 🙂
Anks
Pixabay is an excellent library.
Also check out the amazing Rijksmuseum Art Collection (#102). It’s free for all design applications! The museum is home to many Dutch masters such as Rembrandt’s Night Watch. Users can explore the entire collection, which is sorted by artist, subject, style and events in Dutch history. Users are encouraged to download Rijksmuseum artwork for free to decorate new products, or almost anything you like really.
Jonathan
Wow, this list is endless! Saved to my Pocket. Thank you Jonathan!
Geerje.
Firstly, love the hat. Secondly, check out #104 – New York Public Library. Amazing collection of images and graphics from just about all walks of life.
Jonathan
Geertje
Hey… anyone from Holland more then welcome. Check out #102 in YOUR OWN BACK YARD: The 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. Users can explore the entire collection, which is sorted by artist, subject, style and events in Dutch history. Amazingly, they allow all works to be replicated free for all design applications.
Thank you so much! I need all of these!
Larada
I’ll be keeping it all updated. The libraries tend to change from time to time, so let me know if you notice anything. P.S. Check out #94. ‘Old Book Illustrations’ Beautiful works to be found – a treasure trove.
– Jonathan
Larada
Better bookmark the page!
P.S. Did you see #81? “Pattern Pictures” http://www.patternpictures.com/ Photos, textures and patterns. This free stockphoto library emphasises repetition and texture related photography – especially nature.
Jonathan
I haven’t had a chance to look at all of the websites that you’ve shared here, but a lot of them. This is such an extremely valuable resource!!! Thanks for sharing it. I’m going to use it and share it!!
Heather
Heather
Check out some of the libraries lower down the list – some hidden diamonds. e.g. http://jeshoots.com/ Jéshoots is great for extremely colourful lifestyle images. Also food or nature photos. You can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos.
Jonathan
Jonathan, Thank you so much for compiling this terrific list of photo sites. They’ll be so helpful in creating visually appealing and eye-catching blog posts.
Hi Lesley
That’s exactly what I use the photos for as well. I might add that people who run such libraries sometimes send me a link to a new one. I recently added #106 so it’s growing all the time.
Jonathan
Excellent! I’ve been using Morgue File for years to help my writing-prompt creativity – really happy to see a list of more sites offering the same. Thanks for curating this list, so much easier than hunting them down one by one 🙂
Lisa
Agree that the Morgue File photo library has some of richest images on the internet. I’ve used several from there. Any other libraries you use? Plus, do you have links to any posts that use the images?
Like to see them.
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan. When I was first searching for free photo libraries there were far fewer around, so Morgue File was where I always returned to, especially when pressed for time, e.g, designing a book cover. Here’s a blog I’ve set up specifically as an open-source/copyright free writing prompt for authors of SF and fantasy, as many of the photos as possible come from Morgue File (now I’ll be able to look up elsewhere too by checking the list back here!). Only one post so far also contains images from Googling ‘tepui’ as they were harder to find images of – https://planetoplasty.wordpress.com/ Thanks! 🙂
Pretty nice site Lisa. Elegant selection of images – serene and evocative.
Jonathan
Jonathan, thank you very much for this terrific resource. Very much appreciated and will be very well used. Wayne
Thanks for stopping by all the way over from Twitter Wayne. This is the Aladdin’s cave of images! I use many photos from this library in my own Tweets, as well as in products and blog posts.
~ Jonathan
Brilliant! I’d found a few of these but nothing like this quantity and not in those categories either. You are fabulous.
Isobel
The general idea is to provide a variety of libraries that specialize in different types of photo experience. The earlier ones in the list tend to be more generalized, and the later examples more specialized such as posters, or historical.
Jonathan
Very nice photos. Another way to see the world.
Ioana
Yes – a global perspective. In light of that, check out the NASA photos. (Towards the end of the page.)
Jonathan
Wow, thanks so much for sharing all of your hard work with us, Jonathan! Can’t wait
to browse. The only problem now–where do I begin, lol. Cheers, thanks again and have a great week.
Cinthia
Good problem to have no? If it helps, my own starting point is always http://freeimages.com
Jonathan
Thank you! Great resources!
This is more like a report than just some links. Much appreciated!
Robert
The ‘report’ on each photo library is where the real value is, and the research involved took longer than assembling the entire post.
Jonathan
Hi, Please also check out http://www.goodfreephotos.com for thousands of unique public domain photos, especially travel photos. Appreciate it if you could add it to your list. I always blog about resources that include me in my resources blog. Thanks.
Thanks a million Bob.
Yours is a great photo library with easy to navigate categories. I’ll get around to including it here later this month.
~ Jonathan
Fabulous collection to bookmark! Thanks!
Charli
I’m sure you’ll find a ton of classic western and ‘horsey’ photos here for your Congress of Rough Writers.
~ Jonathan
Thanks Jonathan for this great resource
[…] traffic for your website, Jonathan Gunson of the Traffic Cafe has assembled a collection of free photo libraries. Jonathan also helpfully annotated the library list with conditions on how you can use the photos […]
Wow! that’s amazing work
I am very grateful that you have saved me so much time finding good resources for the photos. Thank you
Ruby
Since publishing this post I’ve found even more free photo libraries. I may add them, but for now I suspect 100 or so is as many as anyone will ever need!
~ Jonathan
Wonderful resource, Jonathan. This will certainly save me a lot of time; many thanks. It must have taken you many hours to collect these. It takes away that uncertain feeling of whether photos are actually free or not/copyrighted. Great.
Julia
You’ve identified precisely the issue I intended to overcome with this collection. FREEDOM TO USE!
In fact here’s an example – a photo I found for my Twitter account to help keep followers entertained.
https://twitter.com/JonathanGunson/status/707449261781295104
Jonathan
Thanks! I do a lot of digital work for various companies and host my own blog and I’m always looking for FREE images. Thank you or making my research a little easier.