Free RF Stock Photos

free stock photo of door to unkown

2012-01-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a great free image available fromwww.istockphoto.com. A really cool simple shot of the door into the unkown! All sorts of creative conceptual possibilities for this one and plenty of copy space too!

2011-12-05T14:04:00.001-08:00

Just tweeted this beautiful bubbles pic. Even if your not sure how you might use it grab as a cool wallpaper for your desktop!

free sexy blonde woman photo

2011-11-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Dreamstime come up trumps again with their excellent collection of free to use images. This beautiful shot of a sexy sensual blonde woman looking at the camera is definitely a cut above the average standard it is usually easy to find for free. The photographer also has several more images of the same model from the same shoot that could be useful and are available cheaply.

This shot is available here at a full resolution size of 1833x2750 pixels (5 MP).Click here to visit Dreamstime's free photos section.

freepictips on twitter

2011-10-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

We're heading over to twitter!Keep an eye on http://twitter.com/#!/Freepictips for free images tips and finds tweeted! Come and follow us!

free stock textures

2011-10-30T08:23:00.001-07:00

If you use textures and backgrounds in design work here are a couple of sites worth bookmarking;http://freestocktextures.com http://www.texturelovers.com

Free Halloween Graphics

2011-10-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Looking for some free Halloween images? Canstockphoto currently have this vector available as free download. Pretty useful as it's almost four images in one!

Get this image for free at Canstockphoto.com.

Free stock images at shutterstock

2011-10-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Over at Shutterstock they've got a bit of a balloon theme going on this week with their free images. Each week Shutterstock offer a free photo and a free vector, so it's worth creating a free account so you can grab a couple of free images every week.

Visit Shutterstock.

2011-10-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular blogger and / or you maintain a large website you'll be familiar with the need for a regular supply of fresh photos and images to illustrate your posts and web content. Depositphotos have a promotion that may well be of interest. If you can write a review of their site they'll reward you with a free subscription you can use for your own image needs.Get a free image subscription at Depositphotos.

2011-10-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Free stock photo of a tractor bailing straw.

It is available as a free high res download now from istockphoto.

2011-10-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

Crestock are great site to keep at the forefront of your mind when you want a regular supply of free stock photos. Every day they make new image available for free download; so it's worth visiting regularly! Click here for the daily free image.If that wasn't enough (it is pretty good isn't it?!) they also run a weekly fun contest offering the opportunity to win 50 Crestock credits to download just the images you need for free. The contest is good fun too; you have to choose an image from their collection to illustrate a stimulus they've provided. Currently they've a Holloween inspired quote

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen the moon laughs and whispers. 'tis near Halloween.

Why not head over and see if you can pick the winning image? There could be 50 free Crestock Credits in it!Win 50 Crestock Credits.

Search for free RF images

2011-10-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Search Free stock images on Dreamstime:

Free Fall Road trip photo

2011-09-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a lovely road shot hinting at the beauty of Autumn colours we're just heading into. Great time for a road trip! It's currently available as a free download from istock.

Coffee beans mug shape photo

2011-07-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool photo of coffee beans arranged to make a picture of a mug of coffee. Great little concept object shot and really useful with it being against a white background so it can easily be dropped into designs.

Get the full size image(2490x1968 pixels) as a free download from Dreamstime.

Delicious cherries free photo

2011-06-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

So it's summer, almost! Well, it pays to think in advance with stock photos. Ok, I know you guys down in the Southern hemisphere will argue the point but you know you can't please all the people all the time.

Anyway, on to the photo. Even if it isn't feeling too summery where you are this gorgeous image is bound to get your taste buds salivating and warm you up. Cherries anyone?

You know the one downside to cherries? They're often so damn expensive! Well not these ones; get the full res image for free at Dreamstime's Free Images.

Free money

2011-06-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

Free money! Now there's an attention grabber? Well it's a free photo of money, hey, what did you expect? You don't really want to find a free bag of money though do you, they always come with catches. Someone is going to come looking for you and that money surely. Remember shallow grave?

This is much safer; it's just a photo!

Grab the full size image from Dreamstime and run for it!

Birthday girl free stock photo

2011-06-24T04:12:00.000-07:00

Love this photo! Cute kid, beautiful colour, instantly communicates birhday! It's currently available as a free download from istock.

Free spa stock photo

2011-06-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

Positive aspirational lifestyle images are always useful and spa photos are a good example. Here's a great shot of a beautiful young woman relaxing in a spa; pampering indulgence!

The photo is currently available for free form istockphoto. Remember istock don't keep their freebies available as free downloads forever so if you'd like this shot for your library go grab it now!

Free business chart success stock photo

2011-06-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

Another useful staple stock photo is the business objects depicting success and progress and charts are often the most effective prop for these. Here's a nice candid snap shot looking image of a business person's desk with papaperwork and drained cup of coffee. A view many a desk worker will find familiar and for that reason a simple but effective photo.

The full resolution image (2010x3036 pixels) is available as a free download from Dreamstime.

Get 50 free stock photos

2011-05-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Over at glowimages they're giving away stock photos and images!

Just for registering you can get fifty free photos.

Check out the offer here; www.glowimages.com/page/422/Free-Images.html

Free photo of water drops on leaves

2011-05-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

Another useful classic of stock photography is the water drops on nice green leaves. It perfectly illustrates concepts of nature, health, cleanliness and green environmental issues.

This is available as free download from Dreamstime.

Click here to browse more free stock photos at Dreamstime.

free baby stock photo

2011-05-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

Another great image from Dreamstime's free images section.

This nice clean shot of a cute baby is simple but a cut above a regular portrait with the child being shown holding a drinking cup.

The full size image is 2048x3072 pixels (6.3 MP) and can be downloaded for free here.

where to find free photos

2011-05-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a useful list of sites worth looking at for free photos a Hubpages writer has compiled.

Where to find free photos.

free gambling playing cards photo

2011-05-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Need to illustrate any concepts like chance, luck, risk or gambling?

This free photo could well do the job for you!

Free rust background texture photo

2011-05-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a useful rusty metal background photo that could also work well as a texture overlay.

Grab the full size image (2900x2175 pixels 6.3 MP) for free from Dreamstime.

paperwork stress free stock photo

2011-04-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

This image of an office worker drowning in paperwork and waving a flag asking for help has a multitude of possible uses to illustrate work stress, work life balance and overworked themes etc. It is currently available for free from istockphoto.

Free photo of woman using laptop isolated on white

2011-04-28T02:44:00.000-07:00

A healthy natural looking attractive young woman using a laptop computer. It's a shot that always seems to be useful and is worth having several versions on file ready for when you need to create a design illustrating any sort of online activity. This one is isolated on white so easy to drop into designs and/or work around. Better still it is available for free from Dreamstime!

Grab the full size file (3788x2500 pixels 9.5 MP) here.

Win an ipad2 at Bigstock

2011-04-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

Feeling lucky?

Bigstock is a hugely improved stock source since the Shutterstock takeover and they currently have a tempting promotion; for every credit used downloading images between now and May 20th you get an entry into the draw to win an ipad2.

Those ipads are certainly great for showcasing images and designs so if you fancy one for free it could be worth making Bigstock your first port of call for stock images over the next few weeks. Good luck!

More free photos from Fotolia on Facebook.

2011-04-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Most of the microstock sites offer free images in addition to their low price photos. The way each site approaches having a free offering does vary quite a bit from the minimal but high quality offerig from istock to the excellent resource of Dreamstime's free collection.

Fotolia maintain a small but regularly updated collection on thier site. However they now also have a facebook page which if you do the facebook thing is worth checking out to access a larger number of free stock photos from Fotolia.

Free photo of Easter Eggs in basket

2011-04-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

With Easter coming up istockphoto currently have this photo of Easter Eggs in a basket available as a free download.

Free stock photo subscription offer

2011-04-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you haven't previously checked out DepositPhotos now is a good time to visit! They are a relatively new site with fresh content and some nice inovative ideas like sms licenses and short term subscriptions. The later can be really handy when you do sometimes need more images than usual for a short period and it makes sense to sign up with a stock library to cover a busy period.

At the moment DepositPhotos are offering 7 day subscriptions for free with an allowance of 5 image downloads a day. So you can get 35 images totally free! That could well be all you need for your next project and certainly sounds like an offer too good to refuse!

Free watermelon stock photo for summer designs

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

With summer fast approaching (yay!) here's a great useful and of course free stock photo from Dreamstime.

The watermelon is a bit of a staple for designers working on summer themes, and why not? It communicates the pleasures of the warmer months easily and quickly. Grab the full high resolution image here.

Bigstock coupon code offer

2011-03-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

There's been big changes at Bigstock recently and if you haven't tried them for a while now could be a good time check out what they offer with an expanded collection of over 6.4 million images and licenses from as low as $1.

BigStock coupon code offer;

Buy 25 Credits, get 5 Free (a $15 value)

USE COUPON CODE: 5FREE

Expires 18th March 2011.

free stock photo of wheel clamp on car

2011-03-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of a car clamped with a wheel clamp. This image is available under creative commons; please link back if you use it online!

Wheel Clamp by freeroyaltyfreephotos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

2010-06-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

If you're after images for your own blogging Flickr can be a great source. I've written previously on how to find the images that are available to use for free.

Now here is a step by step guide to finding photos on Flickr that are free to use. This is complete with screenshots to help guide you through the whole process of finding great free photos!

Free photos and vectors from shutterstock

2010-05-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

Another great source of high quality images is Shutterstock who are one of the main microstock agencies specialising in supplying low budget stock photos,vectors and video footage.

To help promote the site and individual contributors portfolios each week one photo and one vector image are available to download for free. The images will have gone through the usual contributors submission process so are all of a high standard. All you have to do to get these great free images is sign up for a free account at Shutterstock and then check back each week to see what is being offered!

Always three free photos at istockphoto

2010-05-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

Istockphoto have a new free photo and vector each week. These are also archived and the three most recent remain free to download. So by visiting istock's archive pages at any time you can find three free photos and three free vectors.

Free image of young woman outdoors

2010-04-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice shot of an attractive young woman looking at the camera while relaxing outdoors in a natural setting. The full resolution file is 4368x2912 pixels.

Click here to download the full resolution file from Dreamstime.

Free series of lifestyle stock photos

2010-04-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Positive lifestyle images are always in demand and it is often useful to have a series of photos featuring the same subject. These aren't so easy to find however so I'm particularly pleased to showcase this great series featuring a young woman enjoying a beautiful sunny day in a field of yellow flowers. All the images are available for free as high resolution 10mp RF stock photos from Dreamstime. Click the individual images to go to the download pages.

2010-04-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

While it is great to get photos to use for free it is worth keeping in mind why the photographers behind the work might be offering their shots for nothing. Whether it is simply the desire to see their images in use or a marketing tool to promote the image or their work generally there is usually something the end user of a free image can do help and show their appreciation.

Using free photos from Flickr typically requires attribution crediting the photographer and linking back to their image on Flickr. This obviously rewards the photographer with exposure for their work and a link which in internet seo (search engine optimisation) terms has real value. For photographers who do also license their work for fees this exposure and link building can be a valuable return for distributing some images for free use. If you've used an image from a photographer on Flickr be sure to properly link to the image page and if possible to their profile and any personal website they may have. Many photographers will also appreciate an email letting them know where and how you've used their work. It is always great to know someone has appreciated your work and the 'tearsheet' can be valuable to a photographer showing their work to potential clients.

Many photographers who usually license images for a fee will also allow some limited free use of images as a way of marketing their work. This may mean giving away odd images to gain exposure or allowing the free use of web size low resolution images but charging for the full size version. The free images available on most of the microstock websites are a good example of this. They are all the work of contributors who are licensing their work for royalties but have decided to make some images available for free. Generally speaking the motivation for this will be to raise their profile on the site temporarily and promote their portfolio. The Dreamstime free images section is one of the best in the micro stock photography sector and it can be seen each free image is shown alongside images from the rest of the photographers portfolio. Often these will be related or similar images, so a great way to thank a photographer for their free image is to buy one of their other photos!

However you do it, keep in mind the value of what you've been granted in a free photo and, whenever possible, try to give something back to the photographer in return.

Beautiful landscape free stock photo

2010-04-14T03:26:00.000-07:00

This would make a great desktop background or background for a design needing associations with nature, summer and the outdoors. The full resolution file is 3264x2448 pixels. Download it here.

Photo of Spring flower blooming

2010-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

After a long harsh winter the joys of Spring are certainly very welcome in the Northern hemisphere! It is a wonderful season when the sun finally brings some warmth, the light is brighter and the blooming Spring flowers are symolic of everyone's lifting spirits!

This Royalty Free image is available for free use. Download the high resolution 10mp file from Dreamstime.

Woman reading book free stock photo

2010-04-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

Free stock photo of a young woman reading a book outside in warm Spring sunshine.

Get the full resolution file (2312x3472 pixels) good for printing up to A4 size here.

Free photo research tool

2010-03-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

If you're a blogger, photo researcher or designer you're going to love this cool website which offers an excellent way of finding free images for use in your projects. Photoree describes itself as the equivalent of last.fm and stumbleupon, but for images. Essentially it serves up images based on your preferences. On signing up you create some filters to let the search know what you're interested in. Then, by rating what the site serves up you effectively fine tune these filters so the quality and relevance of images it suggests should improve as you use it.

It is a great idea and even without specifying free images only most of the content Photoree is indexing at the moment is creative commons, so it is a very effective way of creating a regular automated lookout for free to use images you might be interested in on Flickr.

Click here to visit Photoree.

Click here for more on finding free photos on Flickr.

High quality fresh images for your blog

2010-03-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Having premium images in your blog posts can really help your blogging by improving the quality of your content and bringing seo benefits.

It hasen't always been easy to find great images and stay within the law though! Fortunately there is now no need to resort to grabbing photos via google images with little regard to copyright; millions of fresh high quality images are now freely available to bloggers via PicApp.

Photos from top sources like Corbis and Getty Images are constantly being added covering all current affairs and events from the world's top press and stock photographers. It is easy to find photos and grab a slice of code to embed into your blog post; all the pics in this post come from PicApp. The deal is that sponsored ads will display over the images when they are moused over; a pretty reasonable price to pay for the use of images you'd otherwise have to steal or pay a high price for.

Both creative and editorial images are available but this is probably most useful for anyone running a current affairs, news or celebrity / gossip type blog where the availabilty of up to date high quality images will be extremely useful. PicApp supports most of the popular blogging platforms and has a plugin for wordpress users with others on the way. So if you need a shot of Paris Hilton's latest shopping trip look no further!

Mother and daughter outside free stock photo

2010-01-27T16:48:00.001-08:00

This nice natural portrait of a young Mum and her daughter enjoying time together in a park is available as a free download from Dreamstime.

Click here for the full resolution (2000x3008 pixels (6 MP)) original file.

Best microstock sites for free photos

2010-01-23T20:34:00.000-08:00

Many of the microstock stock photography sites have some photos that are available for free. The sites offer these images as incentives to attract visitors but there is no requirement to do anything more than sometimes register on the site in order to download free images. The advantage the microstock sites offer over many regular free photo sites is the availability of higher resolution images and a generally higher quality of photos.

Sites that have a searchable collection of free images
These sites maintain seperate collections of photos and illustrations that can be searched and/or browsed. They therefore offer a very useful resource in your hunt for a free image when you're after something specific.

Dreamstime - Dreamstime have a very user friendly searchable free section that offers high resolution downloads.
123rf - 123 Currently offering over 25,000 free images! Images stay in the free collection for 30 days so the content is constantly being refreshed.
FeaturePics - Themed collections of free photos created by FP contributors.

Bigstockphoto don't actually promote any free images on their site but they do make them available to site developers. Scroll down to the bottom of any page on this blog and you'll find links to search and browse the free photos you can get from Bigstockphoto.

Sites that offer regular free images
These sites only have from one to a small selection of images available for free at any given time. They aren't, therefore, great for finding a free photo for a particular use when you need it. Visiting these sites regularly though will enable you to build up your own collection of free photos for potential future uses.

iStockphoto - iStock have a free image of the week and these are archived so at any time there are several available for download. Arguably some of the highest quality free images available.
Shutterstock - Offer a free photo and free vector each week.
Crestock -A fresh free photo is served up every day, and there is an RSS feed if you'd like to subscribe.
Fotolia - Have a large database of free images from which a different selection are available each day. Update; Fotolia now encourage you to connect with them on their facebook page to access their free images.

So there is a wealth of good quality imagery available for free from the microstocks, and if you can't find quite what you need their prices for regular images are of course micro cheap!

Free Money!

2010-01-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well not quite, but this money photo is available as a free download and the perspective used makes it useful for illustrating money making and success concepts.

Download the full size (2560x1920 pixels) image here.

How to find free photos on Flickr

2010-01-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already done so you might like to read the previous post on Creative Commons licenses. CC licenses are the things that make it possible to find photos and images to use for free on Flickr, but there are usually still terms and restrictions, so it is important to understand what is being offered. Usually attribution is required; so you need to credit the photographer as author of the work.

The whole of Flickr is not a source of free photos! While Flickr is the Internets biggest photo sharing site the term 'showing' would really be more accurate. Photo sharing on Flickr does not mean any image can be downloaded and used for free. It depends on the license a Flickr user has chosen to publish an image with and if they have gone with traditional copyright "all rights reserved" then the image may not be used without first seeking permission to do so.

However Flickr is a great source for free photos and images if you know where to look! To find photos for free we need to filter Flickr's collection to show us only images available under Creative Commons licenses. Before starting a specific search you should be clear about what you need the photo for in order to look for the applicable CC license that will allow this.

To search for CC photos
Go to the advanced search page on Flickr. This page gives you various options for fine tuning a search on Flickr. The last of these at the bottom of the page is an option to show only content with a creative commons license. This is what you want to find images, and videos, available to use for free. If you want photos etc to use commercially or to adapt yuo can further filter the results to allow for this.

To browse for CC photos
Or to use Flickr terminology, Explore! Go to the Creative Commons page on Flickr. Here you'll find brief definitions of the different license options and links to explore content available under each diferent set of options.

Flickr can be a gold mine for creative photos and a lot of great content is available to use for free. Just remember to credit authors and abide by any other CC terms and if you find an image that is just what you need but isn't Creative Commons licensed then be sure to contact the photographer to seek permission to use their work.

What is a creative commons license?

2010-01-20T15:28:00.000-08:00

Creative Commons (cc) is a non-profit organisation founded by Lawrence Lessig with the aim of facilitating the easy sharing and use of creative works. The premise being that traditional copyright laws are too restrictive in this regard by preventing creatives who would like to make their work more freely available from easily doing so.

It should be noted that an image, photo or an other creative work made available under a creative commons license may be free in that payment for its use isn't required but it is not usually entirely free from restrictions and conditions on the use of the work. The nature of these depends on the particluar CC license the creator of the work chooses to use; there is no single creative commons license but many versions depending on the combination of permissions and restrictions set. The copyright of CC works does still remain with the original creator.

Photos and images offered under Creative Commons Licenses will usually come with the attribution condition. This means the author is happy for the image to be used as long as credit is given, so for instance if the image is used on a blog a credit line and link back to the photographer's own site or Flickr stream for example is required. Often sources offering CC images will provide the details of what is required and any necessary code.

Other common terms used in CC licenses concern the further sharing and distribution of works, the use of works in derivative work and the use of works for commercial purposes. An image made available under a CC license may, therefore, still have rights retained by its author that prevent some uses. It is important to understand the particular license that is being offered in order to avoid infringing an author's copyright; remember CC images are still the copyright of the author and are only free to use within the terms of the CC license they are offering!

Here's a nice video presentation that explains the ideas and benefits of using CC licensing.

So, with that understanding of creative commons licensing, where do you find photos and images to use for free under a CC license?

Free Valentines Day stock photo

2010-01-20T03:46:00.000-08:00

Valentines day is one of those dates that demands coverage so if you need some good free stock photos for your blog or website now is the time to start searching!

This shot is actually a crop from a wider view of a pinboard with other pieces of paper that make great space to add your own copy. The shot could also illustrate office romance topics around Valentines day.

The original file is 2912x4368 pixels (12.7 MP) and can be downloaded for free here.

Or click on any of the images below which are all also available as free stock photos.

Happy Valentines Day!

Free photo of beautiful happy woman

2010-01-20T02:21:00.000-08:00

This image of a beautiful young woman enjoying the outdoors in Autumn / Fall is available as a free stock photo at a full resolution of 2336x3504 pixels (8.2 MP).

Click here to download this free stock photo.

Free green leaf texture stock photo

2010-01-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

This photo is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

If you require a larger high resolution file size or want to use the image for commercial purposes click here.

Free Stock Photos

2010-01-19T03:09:00.001-08:00

This blog is a source and showcase for stock photos and images that are available for use without payment. This is distinct from Royalty Free Photos which actually aren't usually free but are just confusingly named! Go here for an explanation of stock photo licensing terms.

Images made available on this blog will usually be licensed under these creative commons terms meaning they may be freely used for non-commercial purposes in return for attribution such as a link back to this blog, the image author's website or other agreed site.

For commercial use and/or higher resolution images where applicable please follow any relevant links to download the images with a standard royalty free licence.