Where to Find Free Images Online

Free photography sites allow you to liven up your blog, website, or newsletter with free high-quality images.

If you are looking to add visual interest to large chunks of text and make a great impression on your readers, then there are a number of online stock photography resources you can choose from – without breaking the bank. Here are three of them:

Stock.XCHNG
A popular stock photography site, Stock.XCHNG provides thousands of free photos (and a smaller number of illustrations) on a wide variety of subjects. Once you complete the free registration you can download any of the site's images.

Since the photos are uploaded by photographers from the site's community, there may be additional rules in place for certain photos or images. For example, a photographer may request that they are notified if you use their photo in a public work. Or else a photographer may request that they are both notified and credited if you use their photo in a public work. Most photos on the site, however, only have standard restrictions, e.g. you can’t use the photos to create pornographic works. So in most cases, you are free to use Stock.XCHNG photos for your personal and commercial projects – both on the web and in print.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net
At FreeDigitalPhotos.net you can download web-quality photos and illustrations for you to use for free so long as you credit the photographer and FreeDigitalPhotos.net with a link to the photographer's portfolio on that site. The photos are available for both personal and commercial use, and if you are only interested in using web-quality photos that credit the photographer, then you are not required to register with the site before downloading the images. However, if you’re interested in using their print-quality images and images not credited to the photographer, that will cost you money.

Flickr's Creative Commons
As long as you abide by the license categories selected for each image, Flickr's Creative Commons can be a rich source of free online photos you can use. However, you should be aware that photos may be marked with more than one license category.

Images marked with an Attribution License require you to credit the photographer if you wish to use it. A Noncommercial License means you can only use the image in a personal or nonprofit project. A No Derivative Works License requires that you not use the image in the creation of new work. Photos are available to download in different sizes and you don't need to be a site member to download them.

Free Photos Online
No matter which of the three photography sites you choose, there are lots of free images available to use in your projects. Whether you're beautifying a blog or a newsletter, it’s easy to find the images you need.