Skip navigation

Free Photos for Your Blog

Colorful brain scan of a mouse - US Science Departments, public domain photographs

Colorful brain scan of a mouse.

I’ve been collecting a variety of resources for free photographs to use on your website and blog. These images are, for the most part, free to use, but may have copyright and usage restrictions. Some may require registration, use only on non-commercial sites, and/or a link back to the source. Others may require more. Check thoroughly for the specific usage rights before using any of these images.

Just because you select a filter for public domain and royalty free images on a Google Image search does not mean these images are actually public domain and royalty free. Check. Ask first, they might say yes.

is a major resource for images, but many of these have restricted use. Not every image on Flickr or the web is free to use. Check thoroughly for usage rights, and if in doubt, get permission or don’t use the image. Check out Flickr’s Public Domain Photos’ Photostream for images specifically marked as public domain.

Autumn Leaves - Morgue Files - public domain free photographs.The images featured range from people, places, wildlife, and space, as well as textures, patterns, and artistic graphic images. These free photos sites listed may have nude or violent images, though I did my best to exclude image sites which specialize in those.

One of the best, kept up-to-date lists for images and graphics in the public domain for free use is Wikipedia:Public domain image resources. I usually start my search from their list, which includes government collections and resources, special subject-based collections, and more.

morgueFile, FreeImages.co.uk, Public Domain Pictures, Image After, Stockvault, and Stock.XCHNG are the ones I usually use the most, though Stock.XCHNG is not always free, depending upon the image you seek.

General Photography Images

Monet painting of stream under Japanese Bridge in Garden - Library of Congress.

Monet – The Japanese Footbridge

Government, Political, Historical, etc. Images

Mount St. Helens after volcanic explosion 1980, US Government NSGS.

Mount St. Helens after volcanic explosion 1980

Nature and Science Photographs

Patterns, Texture, and Art Design Photographs

The rings of Saturn - NASA public domain, free photographs

The Rings of Saturn – NASA

More information on Finding Free Images and Photographs on the Web

Site Search Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network

Member of the 9Rules Blogging Network

This entry was written by Lorelle VanFossen and posted on October 4, 2006 at 2:48 am and filed under blogging tips, Web Design, Web Wise, WordPress, Writing with tags , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

31 Comments

  1. Char
    Posted October 4, 2006 at 9:25 am | Permalink

    Thanks again for your help at my blog. This is another fantastic list of resources. I expect I will be returning to your site regularly for more info.

    Check my blog today for my thank you post to you.

    Reply
  2. lexx
    Posted October 4, 2006 at 9:55 am | Permalink

    Great List. Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Michelle K.
    Posted October 5, 2006 at 4:49 am | Permalink

    Excellent list of resources. Thank you very much!

    Reply
  4. Martial Development
    Posted October 5, 2006 at 5:11 pm | Permalink

    Great list, but you forgot one of my favorite resources: Wikipedia! Images there are categorized by topic, and mostly vetted for copyright restrictions.

    Reply
  5. Davis Freeberg
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 10:39 am | Permalink

    You can’t leave out Zooomr (with 3 o’s) They not only allow you to create zoomable portals in your photos, but also have trackbacks so you can see how many people clicked on your photo and where. This is especially helpful for bloggers because it shows you the number of RSS readers that are clicking on your photos and because it shows you when someone else blogs your photo and can see what they say about it.

    Reply
  6. Piotr
    Posted January 29, 2007 at 12:59 am | Permalink

    The new adress to Piotr.Pix is http://www.piotrpix.com/

    Reply
  7. Brent
    Posted March 3, 2007 at 6:54 pm | Permalink

    Don’t forget to mention openclipart.org.

    Reply
  8. Nikolai
    Posted June 6, 2007 at 7:23 am | Permalink

    Always looking for good stock photos. Free ones are the best 🙂

    Reply
  9. David Bradley
    Posted August 2, 2007 at 10:04 am | Permalink

    Hi Lorelle

    As a freelance sci-tech journalist of almost 20 years standing, text and image copyright has been a big part of the business end of my work. As such, I recently wrote an advice piece on what’s on and what’s not on in terms of credit and copyright. (It’s not bona fide legal advice so take at face value only, but hopefully it could be helpful to some of your readers).

    Please feel free to comment on that item and link back to your own excellent post and list of image sources. Keep up the good work.

    Reply
  10. Roy Tennant
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 5:02 pm | Permalink

    Please also see my site of over 2,000 large, high quality images at http://freelargephotos.com/ . If you use a photo on a web site or blog all I ask is a photo credit linked to my site.

    Reply
  11. Sakib
    Posted October 10, 2007 at 6:59 am | Permalink

    cool website links and superb articles

    thanks

    Reply
  12. Sant
    Posted October 10, 2007 at 4:07 pm | Permalink

    Thank you very much for this wonderful resource. It really makes it easier for me to search for relevant images I can use for my new blog.

    Cheers!

    Reply
  13. Rachel Goldstein
    Posted November 20, 2007 at 10:53 am | Permalink

    Great post – here is another list of free stock photography.

    Reply
  14. M Mattice
    Posted November 20, 2007 at 10:55 am | Permalink

    http://www.vintagepixels.com

    From the site…
    Vintage Pixels is a large database of historical, high quality, free-for-use images which allows people to share their archived photos. You can download images for print, or use in graphic design, as well upload images to add to the ever growing album of vintage images.

    Reply
  15. Yemek Tarifleri
    Posted April 27, 2008 at 1:54 pm | Permalink

    Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs

    Reply
  16. Yemek Tarifleri
    Posted April 27, 2008 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

    Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs

    Reply
  17. PhotoForPublic
    Posted June 2, 2008 at 5:45 am | Permalink

    Great list, thanks…
    Take a note of upcomming photo resources for public at
    http://www.photoforpublic.com

    Reply
  18. Photographer
    Posted February 27, 2009 at 3:01 pm | Permalink

    Good list. Used some of the links in my own one..

    I may add another free photo resource – http://co-photo.com/ – growing bit-a-bit with conceptual images..

    Reply
  19. Photostocker
    Posted April 30, 2009 at 3:36 am | Permalink

    Some new textures on FreeStockImages.org which can be downloaded.

    Reply
  20. Jim
    Posted July 20, 2009 at 3:27 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for the resources. You may also find free images at http://www.sunipix.com

    Reply
  21. BB
    Posted April 7, 2010 at 7:08 am | Permalink

    You can find more free media resources (including photos) here:
    http://vagueterrain.net/content/2010/02/free-media-what-and-where

    Reply
  22. jareso
    Posted May 16, 2010 at 12:59 am | Permalink

    Hi, nice list! A lot of free images can be also found at http://www.StockPhotos.it

    Reply
  23. Nikhil Varma
    Posted January 30, 2011 at 12:01 pm | Permalink

    A good list. I have made a list of sources which offer free royalty free images. I have mentioned the ‘terms of use’ those sites as well. I prepared the list mainly for bloggers. Do check out: http://bit.ly/gbJb55

    Reply
  24. jj
    Posted March 19, 2011 at 8:35 pm | Permalink

    Great list of photos to use for our blogs. I’m having a difficult time finding a site that offers photos that are truly free. I’ve used a few for my blog, but just lately I’m advised to sign up w/ my PayPal for month payments to be taken out of my acct. This doesn’t sit well with me, the photos I used before were really free! I realize I will receive some flak for not wanting to pay for photos that a photographer had to take the time to photograph then find a place to sell their photos. My only suggestion is don’t say “free photo” when one has to pay even $2.00 a month, that’s not free! I appreciate the list that you did supply for all of us here. Thanks so much, jj

    Reply
  25. Anonymous
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 5:28 am | Permalink

    pixabay.com. They say that their images are public domain and that attribution is not required.

    Reply
  26. Sachetan
    Posted July 8, 2011 at 4:48 pm | Permalink

    Hi, Lorelle. I’m just a new blogger (don’t know if I can call myself that since I have 0 posts) on the blogosphere. Started my first ever blog a few moments back, but didn’t know where to look for images for my very first post. I think your post will really help. I am saying thanks to Lorelle 🙂

    Reply
    • Lorelle
      Posted July 9, 2011 at 4:38 pm | Permalink

      Honestly, while it’s nice to find pictures, what you say will always win out over using other people’s pictures. 😀 Good luck.

      Reply
  27. picdrome
    Posted October 24, 2011 at 1:02 am | Permalink

    http://www.picdrome.com is a growing Public Domain picture collection, free of copyright. All items are free to download for personal and commercial use, without restriction and are available in high definition. New photos are added on a daily basis.

    Reply
  28. Pat
    Posted April 16, 2015 at 5:51 pm | Permalink

    Thank You it made my search for great photos so much easier

    Reply
  29. Kate Hallberg
    Posted September 12, 2019 at 2:11 pm | Permalink

    You are a wonder and a delight. I hope there are plenty of public domain options going on 13 years later. Can you note what’s changed, if that’s not asking too much? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Lorelle VanFossen
      Posted September 13, 2019 at 7:01 am | Permalink

      I won’t be updating this list soon. Sorry. There are more, and fewer, free photo sites available and copyright laws are getting more restrictive. Just remember you must ask to use images first unless clearly indicated as free to use and follow the licensing restrictions to the letter.

      Reply

54 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. By H Aπόλυτη Λίστα για δωρεάν φωτογραφίες at webz cat blog on October 4, 2006 at 9:59 am

    […] Ο Lorelle έφτιαξε την απόλυτη λίστα για δωρεάν φωτογραφίες. Για μένα που χρησιμοποιώ στο άλλο blog μια φωτογραφία το λιγότερο για κάθε post είναι θησαυρός αυτή η συλλογή. Καλό ψάξιμο […]

  2. By Terrorpilots » Archivio Blog » Surfing [17] on October 5, 2006 at 2:23 am

    […] Free Photos for your Blog – Una lista molto nutrita di siti da cui recuperare immagini free per il proprio blog o sito web. Per progetti grafici “low-budget” o “no-budget”. […]

  3. By Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov » Daily del.icio.us bookmarks on October 10, 2006 at 8:32 am

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog « Lorelle on WordPress Tagged as: blogging images photography photos resources lists […]

  4. By Free Photos « JochenEnglish on October 28, 2006 at 11:20 am

    […] Lorelle on WordPress: Free Photos […]

  5. By Steve Atwal » Free Images For Your Website on November 3, 2006 at 9:45 pm

    […] https://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/free-photos-for-your-blog/ […]

  6. By Creative Writing « JochenEnglish on November 5, 2006 at 6:12 am

    […] Entsprechende Photos findet man z.B. bei Flickr oder auf anderen Sites, die kostenlose Photos anbieten. Besser (weil schüleraktivierend) wäre es, wenn die Schüler sich selber ein Photo suchen und dieses zusammen mit ihrem Text abgeben bzw. per E-Mail schicken. […]

  7. By slogBlog » Blog Archive » Royalty free images on February 14, 2007 at 6:49 pm

    […] Lorelle on WordPress has a list of sites for Free photos […]

  8. By Free Photos at JochenEnglish on February 21, 2007 at 7:48 am

    […] Lorelle on WordPress: Free Photos […]

  9. By Online Image Editing: Any Good Ones Out There? « Lorelle on WordPress on March 25, 2007 at 7:14 am

    […] have a resource listing of Free Photos for Your Blog and covered a lot about WordPress Plugins for Images, Photographs, and Graphics which included […]

  10. By hot posts » Blog Archive » 100 Articles That Will Make You "A Complete Blogger" - part1 on July 14, 2007 at 5:07 am

    […] blog post is enough to make you famous-Blogopreneur 10.Ten Ways To Write A Killer Blog-Maryamie 11.Where to find free Photos for Your Blog?-Lorelle on […]

  11. By Shine With Grace: Blogger Who Offer Superb Blogging Tips - 25th August 2007 on August 24, 2007 at 11:59 am

    […] Related, Recent, Most Popular Post and More, What do you do when someone steals your content and Free photos for your blog…  Excellent […]

  12. By Use Photos In Your Blog Posts on September 28, 2007 at 11:37 am

    […] free photos for your blog […]

  13. By Royalty Free Images for your website - SOCOM Sales on October 7, 2007 at 3:49 pm

    […] free photos for your blog […]

  14. By Making Your Blog Sticky: It's Importance and How To's - Lost Art Of Blogging on October 9, 2007 at 1:17 pm

    […] blogposts, at best that summarizes what your content is all about. Lorelle has compiled a excellent list of royality free photo resources. I personally prefer to get mine from […]

  15. By Use Photos In Your Blog Posts | Hallo World! on October 21, 2007 at 5:08 am

    […] free photos for your blog […]

  16. By Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers on the Road, Reports on Conspiracy Theories, With More Challenges and Struggles « Lorelle on WordPress on November 23, 2007 at 8:50 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  17. By Free Photos For Your Blog | Customerservant.com on February 4, 2008 at 6:00 am

    […] Photos For Your Blog Written by Rahel on 4 February 2008 – 8:24 Lorelle has quite an extensive list of sites to get free images from for your blog. I think I’d use a lot more images over here […]

  18. By The Homeschool Blog Awards » Better Blogging: Using Photos and Graphics on February 15, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog (extensive list from Lorelle on WordPress) 10 Awesome Places to Get Free Images for Your Blog (from Business Blogwire) 30+ Websites for Stock Photos and Royalty Free Images (from HONGKIAT.com – Note: not all image sites listed are free) Free Stock Photos (from the Photoshop Tutorials Blog) […]

  19. By Free photos to use in your posts | Technology in our room on February 22, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    […] you still can’t find a suitable image then check out Lorelle on WordPress.  She has listed many sites where images can be found, some free, some with copyright […]

  20. By Freelance Writing Jobs » Blog Archive » Images and Copyright Issues on March 8, 2008 at 4:53 am

    […] Lorelle on WordPress: Free images for your blogs. […]

  21. By Blogs and Images : Network Blogging Tips on March 31, 2008 at 8:49 am

    […] Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs. […]

  22. By Imágenes que puedes usar libremente en tu blog « Bloguear por bloguear… on June 21, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    […] lista la he recopilado de este blog (muy recomendable) sobre WordPress y consejos para bloguear (aunque tendrás que saber inglés para […]

  23. By Free photos to use in your posts | Technology in our classroom on July 21, 2008 at 2:25 am

    […] you still can’t find a suitable image then check out Lorelle on WordPress.  She has listed many sites where images can be found, some free, some with copyright […]

  24. By Piet Bos dot ME » links for 2008-09-29 on September 29, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog (tags: stock photos) […]

  25. By Tambahkan Gambar di Postingan Kamu | MAUBISNIS.COM on December 4, 2008 at 3:12 am

    […] free photos for your blog […]

  26. By 6 Keys to Striking the ‘Social Media Buzz’ Jackpot | Social Media Rockstar on April 6, 2009 at 6:42 am

    […] Creative Commons, Wikimedia commons and commercial stock photo sites – you should take time to learn about them before you hit “Publish” […]

  27. By links for 2009-05-03 « Valle de Luz on May 3, 2009 at 1:10 am

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog « Lorelle on WordPress (tags: webdesign images photography graphics) […]

  28. By Blogs and Images | Blogging for a Living| Part of the Freelance Writing Jobs Blog Network on January 30, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    […] Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs. […]

  29. By In case you forgot, I love free stuff. « Maundering Me on February 23, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    […] Here is a link to a blog that has collected a long list of free photo sources. There are tons out there… although SXC (Stock.xchng) is my go-to-guy most of the time. […]

  30. By Outils Internet Gratuits Blog on May 20, 2010 at 4:18 am

    […] Free Photos […]

  31. By Des photos gratuites pour illustrer vos articles on February 25, 2011 at 7:56 am

    […] milliers photos à utiliser gratuitement sur nos blog. Je suis tombé sur une liste concoctée par Lorelle on Worpress, regroupant une pléthore des sites à images gratuites. Je vous livre la liste est espère […]

  32. By Blogging Resources and Sources to Help You Blog « Lorelle on WordPress on August 23, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    […] have images that match what I’m writing about. I’ve written up a resource list of Free Photos for Your Blog, but I’ve recently found Finding Images on the Web and Mary Laine’s Finding Images and […]

  33. By Public Domain, Free Photography and Images for Your Blog | Learning from Lorelle on September 22, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    […] published on Lorelle on WordPress and used here with permission. This list is for my classes and workshops needing public domain, […]

  34. By Are you a photographer? Me neither. So, how do we get photos for our sites? | Learning web design ... on March 24, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  35. By Weekly Digest: WordPress Tips, Guest Bloggers Party On, and More WordPress and Blogging Fun « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 8:59 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  36. By Weekly Digest: More Blogging Tips Book Reviews, Lorelle on WordPress in Top 5 Blogs About Blogging, Blog Writing Contests, and More « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  37. By Adding Avatars and Gravatars to Your WordPress and WordPress.com Blog « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  38. By Weekly Digest: Lorelle in San Francisco Talking Blogging and WordPress, Offerring Blog Resources, Beating a Plagiarist, and More « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:10 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  39. By Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers From WordCamp Israel, Sicks, Tackles WordPress.com Marketplace, Content Thieves, and Kicks Blogging Ass « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  40. By Weekly Digest: Problogger Guest Blogging, Speaking at WordCamp, Blogathon, Parties, and Blogging Tips « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  41. By Weekly Digest: Guest Blogging on Problogger, Prejudice, WordPress News and Contests, Blog Design, and Special Invitation to a Party « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  42. By Weekly Digest: Great Reviews on My New Book, WordPress.com Get Verified, and An Introduction to the Web Browser « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  43. By Weekly Digest: Web Browser Guide for Bloggers, Blogger Prejudice, Awesome Review of My Book, and More WordPress News « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  44. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Signatures and Writing Code « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  45. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Blogroll and Sidebar Bling « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  46. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Blockquotes and Quotes « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  47. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Lines and Smilies « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  48. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Decorating Your WordPress.com Blog « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    […] there are a lot of free photographs you can download and use on your blog without restriction (or with credit links), it’s nice […]

  49. By WordPress.com Blog Bling: Fun Font Bling « Lorelle on WordPress on June 10, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  50. By How to Speed Up the Blog Image Hunt « Lorelle on WordPress on June 11, 2013 at 2:11 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  51. By Weekly Digest: Lorelle Back Home Finally, Conspiracy Theories Everywhere, Will You Go Naked, and More « Lorelle on WordPress on June 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  52. By Weekly Digest: End of Year Rush, Lorraine is Bad, Awards, and Kicking Blogging But – As Usual « Lorelle on WordPress on June 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  53. By Weekly Digest: Lorelle in Israel for WordCamp Israel, Blog Struggles Article Series, Blog Disclaimers, and More « Lorelle on WordPress on June 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    […] Free Photos for Your Blog […]

  54. By Social Media Tips…for job hunters and freelancers | Looking for a job when you are over 50 on September 22, 2015 at 10:38 am

    […] https://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/free-photos-for-your-blog/ […]

Post a Comment

Required fields are marked *
*
*