Finding good stock photos is a little bit like Black Friday shopping, there are too many options and most of them are bad. It’s an art to find the gems that are of great quality at a reasonable price. Dustin Semos was kind enough to compile Stock photos that don’t suck — a list of places to find the best free stock photos.
Below I’m building on his list and present each site with some descriptions and examples.
Little Visuals
Little Visuals publishes 7 high-res images every week and offers an email subscription so you don’t miss out on any new photos.
Unsplash
Unsplash publishes 10 photos every 10 days.
Death to the Stockphoto
This is strictly an email subscription service without an accessible collection at the time of this writing. After signing up you will receive an image pack every month.
http://deathtothestockphoto.com/
New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a great source for vintage photos free of copyright restrictions.
Superfamous (attribution required)
Photos in the Superfamous library are published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
(Photos by Folkert Gorter)
PicJumbo
PicJumbo organizes its library into categories which makes searching and browsing very easy. PicJumbo also offers a paid subscription with access to additional photos.
The Pattern Library
A growing collection of beautiful patterns.
Gratisography
A large collection of photos with new additions on a weekly basis.
GetRefe
GetRefe features photos taken with mobile phones.
IM Free (attribution required)
IM Free features a photo catalog that is categorized and searchable, but also icons and website templates.
(Photos: left: Base by Instant Vantage, top-right: Father and Child by gaggles, bottom-right: Macbook Computer by VFS Digital Design)
Bonus: Public Domain Archive
The daily growing archive of public domain photos broadly categorized into modern and vintage with search functionality.
http://publicdomainarchive.com/
Bonus: The Noun Project (attribution might be required)
A significant collection of vector icons many available for free, some require attribution or a small fee.