The appearance of a website can be greatly enhanced by quality photographs and images. Fortunately, there are a number of resources online that will help you to find quality photos to use on your website, and some are even free.
The following websites provide free stock photography:
Stock.Xchng
FreeImages.co.uk
FreePhotosBank
DreamsTime
YotoPhoto.com is a search engine dedicated to helping users find free photos.
However, free is not always the best option. Sometimes you can drastically increase the quality of the photography by paying as little as a dollar for a picture. The following websites offer very low cost stock photography:
Stock Xpert
I Stock Photo
Fotolia
DreamsTime
Big Stock Photo
If you are a designer that uses a lot of images, you can get a subscription at the following websites and download unlimited photos:
Shutterstock
Comstock.com
Ablestock
Jupiter Images
Photos.com
With the resources listed above you can give your website professional-quality images for very little cost, or even free.
10 comments from readers
1 anthony Jul 16, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I’m surprised you didn’t mention two of my favorite stock imagery sites, istockphoto.com and luckyoliver.com. Istock offers free weekly images as well as some great video, Flash, and vector content for a reasonable price. Lucky Oliver is also an inexpensive option. Although they don’t have as many images, the search interface alone makes it a winner. A free stock site i use is morguefile.com. Again, not quite as robust as some, it’s a great place to start
2 Vandelay Design Jul 16, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Anthony,
Thanks for the feedback. You’re right, istockphoto.com is a good resource as well. I think I’ll add that to the list. I’m not familiar with Lucky Oliver. Thanks again for visiting!
3 Data Dump: Posts I’m Reading at MInTheGap Jul 21, 2007 at 7:03 am
[…] Stock Photography Resources […]
4 21 Factors that Influence the First Impression of Your Website’s Visitors « Rm 45 Nov 28, 2007 at 10:33 am
[…] 13. Quality of Images and Photos – It’s amazing how much impact a high-quality photo or graphic can have on a design. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online for getting high-quality, low-cost photos, and some are even free. Searching for a good free picture may not be worth the time it takes when you can find one faster and pay $1 or $2. For a list of places to find photos online, see Stock Photography Resources. […]
5 21 Factors that influence first impressions of a website « Great Ideas in Teaching Nov 29, 2007 at 5:30 am
[…] 13. Quality of Images and Photos – It’s amazing how much impact a high-quality photo or graphic can have on a design. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online for getting high-quality, low-cost photos, and some are even free. Searching for a good free picture may not be worth the time it takes when you can find one faster and pay $1 or $2. For a list of places to find photos online, see Stock Photography Resources. […]
6 21 Factors that Influence the First Impression of Your Website’s Visitors << Vandelay Website Design Nov 29, 2007 at 3:22 pm
[…] 13. Quality of Images and Photos – It’s amazing how much impact a high-quality photo or graphic can have on a design. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online for getting high-quality, low-cost photos, and some are even free. Searching for a good free picture may not be worth the time it takes when you can find one faster and pay $1 or $2. For a list of places to find photos online, see Stock Photography Resources. […]
7 Kenngyadams Feb 6, 2008 at 11:06 am
Historical Stock Photos.com is a good place to get free pre-sized images for use in blogs, forums, mail, etc.
8 14 Lessons Learned From A Nearly Failed Blog Launch Feb 19, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[…] I need to use more graphics in posts. Free or cheap graphics are harder to find than I had expected. I really spent hours trying to find good graphics that were either free or cheap. At one point I had given up on the prospect of using graphics in posts here at TzuVelli. But, after reading Skellie’s "A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images" I have had much better success using Flickr. For low cost stock photography one of the best resources I have found is, "Stock Photography Resources." […]
9 John Mar 10, 2008 at 5:19 am
I use shutter stock, so far it is pretty good!
10 filtv Mar 18, 2008 at 9:10 am
~ 3000 free pictures at http://freeFOTO.ca/. Creative Commons-licensed photos with keyword search. You can use the images free for websites and blogs with attribution.