Stock photography is an open aggregate of photographs that can be licensed for specific usage in public, as well as commercial projects. It allows designers and publishers to reduce both time and financial expenditures. Since the mid-1880s when photographs took the place of drawings in press, stock photography has become a common element in print and eventually, in web design. Today stock photography is available as never before. Besides photos, stock banks include illustrations, vector graphics and textures. The variety of topics covered is enormous as well. Initially stock photography appeared as a paid license-based service while today lots of resources offer stock images that are free of any charge.  Here is an overview of some comprehensive photo resources that offer free-to-download, high quality stock photographs.

Stock.xchng

This free photo site offers 350.000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers. There are a lot of categories to browse, a viewer can see the popularity rate of each photo. To download an image you need to register. Photos are available in five different sizes for web or print.

Free Stock Photos

The photos available at Free Stock Photos are classified on the basis of historical places and nature. You can download images for personal or commercial use. The number of photos used in one publication or website is limited to 10. No registration required to download photo for free.

NASA Images

You can use NASA images both for general (educational or informational projects) and commercial purposes. However, before you publish any NASA photo, make sure to read their Photo Guidelines which explains the main points of general and commercial use.

StockVault

Stockvault offers free images for personal and non-commercial use. You don’t need to sign up to download photos. Here you can also find handy tutorials, articles and videos that may be quite useful for any photographer or designer.

FreePhotosBank

There are several photo categories available here, such as Architecture, Fruits&Food, Abstract, Objects etc. there are two options of downloading the original file - you can download a .zip file or a .jpg image. You can download photo for web for free as long as you use them for a website, book, magazine, etc. you can’t sell the downloaded pictures or modify them for the purpose of sale. To use photos from this resource you must accredit the publishers on the work that you used it in.

PhotoRogue

This is a quite unusual stock photography website. Here you can request a necessary picture and volunteer photographers will actually take it. The service is free, although there is no guarantee your request will be satisfied. You can also browse the general gallery and download any of the available photos.

Pixel Perfect Digital

Here you can find free photo to use it both in digital format and in printed promotional materials. Images from Pixel Perfect Digital can be also used along with your corporate identity on business cards, letterhead, etc. Besides photographs, the website features free illustrations, textures and digital artwork.

Vintage Pixels

Vintage Pixels is a huge database of historical images. A great resource if you need to find illustrations for some historical overview or are just curious to see old photography. Download option is available for the site members only. By registering on Vintage Pixels you can also upload vintage pictures and manage a gallery of your own.

Freerange Stock

This web photo storehouse provides free photo for commercial and non-commercial use. Although the redistribution is prohibited. The average size of the photo here is 2400×1600, however you may request the larger or less compressed version, the website admins will attempt to provide it.  Register for a free membership, log in and download high-resolution free stock photography.

morgueFile

morgueFile is a classic stock photography resource that has become a standard in its filed over the past few years. It offers users to adapts the images and use them for commercial goals. This public image archive is aimed at photographers, illustrators, artists and all creative minds. No registration is needed to download the photos. You can easily search for images by browsing existing categories or entering necessary keyword in the search form.

Freepixels

This websites features over 3,000 images that can be browsed both by categories and by tag cloud. Photos downloaded from Freepixels are allowed to be used for commercial purposes unless the photo is not the main object of the sale.

TurboPhoto

TurboPhoto offers a free photo section with over 2,000 images from 10 basic categories. You can download photo for free, no registration required. If this is not enough for your needs, the extended collection (paid photos included) is available.

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