To find images and photos for my blog or something else could be always a challenge. The goal here is not to steal someone’s work but also to find something that you could use freely without paying or breaking copyright laws.
Once, when the network was smaller, this activity should like tough one, but times are changing, new sites appearing and offering exactly what we want and need in the moment. And now, you can find a lot (I mean really a lot!) resources with quality photos and you can use it as an alternative to traditional stock
image archives.
Fotogenika.net
http://www.fotogenika.net/modifica/igallery.asp
Fotogenika.net contains photos sorted into a categories with subcategories. Images from this site “may be used freely for personal, educational and non-profit projects. You may not used them commercially, claim authorship and/or sell them.”
Finding Images Online
a Directory of Web Image Sites by Paula Berinstein
http://www.berinsteinresearch.com/fiolinks.htm
To bloggers and online publishers: No matter which sources you use, it is good — where possible — informing the authors where their work is published.
Mayang’s Free Textures
http://www.mayang.com/textures/
Mayang’s Free Texures is a library of over 3000 textures from architecture, building, fabric, man-made items, metal, nature, plants, stone and wood. Images are high quality resolution at 1600x1200 or larger with most at 2560x1920. All images are free for all uses except for selling and they appreciate credit. The download limit is 20 textures per day. The site lets you know how many you’ve downloaded.
Free Large Photos
http://freelargephotos.com/
Free Large Photos contains a collection of over 600 images and allows others to use the photos as long as credit is given and it’s not used for making money. An RSS feed is available for the collection and here are the most requested photos.
NationsIllustrated
http://www.nationsillustrated.com/ NationsIllustrated showcases pictures from around the world with over 7,000 photos in its collection. Discover new worlds and hidden places by browsing through new photos, most viewed and top rated photos. Start exploring by picking a continent and see where your travels take you. The terms of service isn’t clear regarding photo use. However, you can select the images you like and add them to your downloads list. Once you’ve collected all the photos you like, download them as a zipped file. You don’t have to register to take advantage of this feature.
picsearch
http://www.picsearch.com/
picsearch is an image search engine that uses its own technology to crawl the Web and index the images. The Terms of Use says the images are protected by copyright. If you want to use any image found through picsearch, contact the webmaster or the copyright holder to get permission or it may be clearly stated on the Web site where you find the picture. This page also explains how you can prevent your pictures from being included in picsearch.
Ask.com Picture Search
http://pictures.ask.com/
Ask.com Picture Search is a picture search engine that finds images by the keywords you enter. Its advanced search tool lets you get more detailed about the results you want to get. The copyright disclaimer clearly states the images in the search results are protected by copyright and trademark laws. Whether or not you can use the pictures is based on the site where you find them. The site might have a terms of use or other copyright disclaimer. If not, the best bet is to contact the person or company behind the Web site.
Yahoo! Image Search
http://images.search.yahoo.com/
Yahoo! Image Search is like Google’s as it focuses on finding images only, which also includes clip art. It also has an Advanced Image Search tool so you can get more specific about what you want to receive in the results. Not only can you limit it to a specific domain, but also to top level domains such as .com only, .edu only and so on.
Remember that the images appearing in the results may or may
not be copyrighted. Once you find a picture of interest, review the site or
contact someone to find out the terms of use.
Google Image Search http://images.google.com/ While Google is best known for its search engine, it also has a separate search engine for searching for only images. The advantage of using its image search is that your results contain only images instead of everything. The important thing to understand in using this search is that the images come from all over the Web and there’s no guarantee they’re free or otherwise. In fact, the chances are they’re not free, but it’s another way to find hard-to-find images.
Design Packs
http://www.designpacks.com/
Design Packs provides high quality image collections for use in personal and commercial Web design projects. Each collection has 15 images sharing a common theme. According to the site, new collections are added on a monthly basis. The terms of use explain how you can use the photos. The FAQ offers more help on how you can use the images. Many of the themes you find here are nature-related such as bark, stone, flowers, and liquids. Images are 800x600. You can only download an entire collection rather than individual images. All files are zipped. The collection is small, but full of high quality images.
diwiesign studio stockphoto archive
http://www.diwiesign.com/index…
diwiesign studio stock photo archive is a personal collection with over 500 images on dirt or industrial themes. All images are royalty free for personal and non-commercial use. Review the FAQ before downloading and the disclaimer (on the left side of the page).