How to Find Free Photos for Commercial Use

Free photos, for commercial use, are time consuming and difficult to locate. Do you need a high resolution photo for your website or blog? Are you creating a sales or landing page and need just the right image? Does your direct mail postcard need an eye catching photo? Finding free photos on the Internet, for commercial use, is a time consuming task. Here are 10 websites to help find free photos for commercial use.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Copyright Free Photos

   Look into Morguefile.com. It provides high resolution photos to use in creative work 'be it commercial or not'. Download with one click to your computer or sign up for an account and organize the high resolution photographs on their website. Free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.

2. Free Photos for Commercial Use

   Try using ImageAfter.com. This is a website to find images and textures. Search in those broad categories or use the 'keyword' or 'extras' search boxes to find images that are a certain color or by pre-set preferences. To set preferences go to the 'extras' drop down box, select 'preferences' and choose how to view images.

3. Royalty Free Photo

   Use Visipix.com, knowing there is a strict link-back requirement. This website is where to find high-resolution photos, fine art, clip art, and news groups (Some newsgroups photos may be copyrighted.). There are four search options to assist in finding images - Standard keywords search, Related keywords selection, People-Places-Themes, and Combi: Keywords + datatrees. For Combi search there are three categories - people, places, and themes. Search the list provided or type in a syllable for the photo you are looking for. Once a photo is found there are different pixel sizes available and a 'mirror' button. This button will mirror the photo from right to left for the option, as an example, to have an individual looking right instead of left to fit your commercial media needs.

4. Free Stock Photos

   Go to ArtFavor.com for flash clipart, fonts, photo collection, sounds, and vector clipart. The gallery for each category is small yet the images are unique and the fonts are creative.

5. Free Photos

   Search FreePhotosBank.com through it's nine broad categories of photos. There is a 'quick navigation' search function at the top of the page and a 'keyword' search box at the bottom. There are several options on how to retain the photo. Email, print, save, download as a .jpeg, or download as a .zip file.

6. Texture Royalty Free Photo

   Mayang.com/textures is a website that provides a selection of 3800 high resolution textures free to download. The categories include architectural, stone, wood, plants, man-made, nature, metal, fabric, and buildings. There is a limit of 20 downloads per day and the resolution is 2560 x 1920.

7. Stock Photography for Commercial Use

   Register with Photogen.com. Then yoou can download multiple photographs. Each photograph is accompanied by 'Image Details' about what the picture is, keywords, and the image size. Search the 1280+ gallery for animals, objects, texture and backgrounds, industrial, food/drink. Click on the + to add a photo to the lightbox and download multiple files by clicking on the 'Download Zip' button at the top right of the lightbox screen.

8. Stock Photos of the Past

   Browse through Vintagepixels.com. This website has a large gallery of photographs from the 1830's to the 1970's. Enter a keyword, select an era, or choose a category to search for the photograph that will work in your blog, website, brochure, etc. Click on the photo and select 'download'. The picture resolution may not be appropriate for all applications.

9. Free Photos in Public Domain

   Use the public domain website, The Agricultural Research Service. All images can be downloaded for commercial use. To find a photo select a category on the left or search the 2,000 + image gallery with a keyword. 'Images at 72 dpi are available for direct download in three sizes for web use and for FPO use by designers and art directors. High-resolution (300 dpi) digital images are available for direct download from each caption page.' www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos

10. Free Art Stock Photographs

    Use DHD Multimedia Gallery images, from over 28,000 choices, which are free to use on the web, PC, and commercial projects. Search by keyword or category. Click on the photo, choose small, medium, or large and the photo will be downloaded to the desktop. http://gallery.hd.org/index.jsp

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to read all user requirements before downloading.

Resources

• How to Locate Free Vector Clip Art Downloads