
Colorful brain scan of a mouse.
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.
Flickr 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.
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 – The Japanese Footbridge
- Aarin Free Photo
- Getty Images – Royalty Free Images
- Cromavista
- Image Base
- Free Stock Photos
- PDPhoto
- Creative Commons Image Search
- DeviantArt
- Stock Exchange
- tOfz
- AboutPixel
- A Digital Dreamer
- Bajstock
- Barry’s Free Photos
- Big Foto
- Cepolina
- Design Packs Photos
- Flickr
- Fontplay Free Photos
- Fotodatebank
- Fotolia
- Free Digital Photos Net
- Free Foto
- Free Images UK
- Free Images
- Free Photographs Net
- FreePhotos.com
- Freewebpics
- Image After
- ImageTemple
- iStockphoto
Hurricane Katrina 2005 – USGS satellite view.
- Lightmatter
- LogoDesignweb
- Mayang
- Morgue File
- NWYH Stock Images
- Open Photo
- Our Media
- PhotoCase
- Picture Station
- Pixel Perfect Digital
- Pixelquelle
- PD Photo
- Picdrome Public Domain Copyright-Free Pictures
- Stock Vault
- Stock.Xchng
- Triparalbum
- Unprofound
- WorldImages
- Woophy
Government, Political, Historical, etc. Images

Mount St. Helens after volcanic explosion 1980
- U.S. Government Photos and Images | USA.gov
- NASA Images
- Gimp-Savvy – Images from NASA, NOAA, and US FWS
- US Fish and Wildlife Photos: FWS2 and/or FWS1
- US National Park Service Royalty Free Photographs
- Earth from Space
- NOAA Photographs and Images
Nature and Science Photographs
Patterns, Texture, and Art Design Photographs

The Rings of Saturn – NASA
More information on Finding Free Images and Photographs on the Web
- Master New Media – Where to find free images
- Google Answers – Finding Free Images on the Web
- Graphics and Graphic Design – Free Stock Photos List
- Finding and using public domain photographs
Site Search Tags: free, free photos, free photograph, free graphics, free images, royalty free images, royalty free, open source, free pictures, pictures, photographs, photos, fotos, images, graphics, online, web, copyright, non-commercial use images, stock photography, stock photos
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
31 Comments
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.
Great List. Thank you!
Excellent list of resources. Thank you very much!
Great list, but you forgot one of my favorite resources: Wikipedia! Images there are categorized by topic, and mostly vetted for copyright restrictions.
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.
The new adress to Piotr.Pix is http://www.piotrpix.com/
Don’t forget to mention openclipart.org.
Always looking for good stock photos. Free ones are the best 🙂
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.
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.
cool website links and superb articles
thanks
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!
Great post – here is another list of free stock photography.
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.
Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs
Lorelle VanFossen has an amazing list of places to find free images for your blogs
Great list, thanks…
Take a note of upcomming photo resources for public at
http://www.photoforpublic.com
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..
Some new textures on FreeStockImages.org which can be downloaded.
Thanks for the resources. You may also find free images at http://www.sunipix.com
You can find more free media resources (including photos) here:
http://vagueterrain.net/content/2010/02/free-media-what-and-where
Hi, nice list! A lot of free images can be also found at http://www.StockPhotos.it
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
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
pixabay.com. They say that their images are public domain and that attribution is not required.
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 🙂
Honestly, while it’s nice to find pictures, what you say will always win out over using other people’s pictures. 😀 Good luck.
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.
Thank You it made my search for great photos so much easier
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.
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.
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