Don’t break the law!
If you have photos that you own, feel free to use them.
You will probably violate copyright laws if you simply search for images using Google or another search engine and use what you find!
Creative Commons
For more info on Creative Commons, please watch the short video below—it’s worth it!
You can find images available under various Creative Commons licenses at:
- http://search.creativecommons.org
- http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Directories
- http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
- http://www.stockvault.net
- http://www.everystockphoto.com
Wikimedia Commons
If you’re familiar with Wikipedia, the you’ll like Wikimedia Commons, an open collection of images that anyone can use, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org.
Space
NASA has taken some awesome images of earth and space, and they’re available for free—after all, your tax dollars already paid for them!
- NASA Earth Observatory: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
- NASA Visible Earth: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov
- NASA Images: http://www.nasaimages.org
- GRIN: Great Images in NASA: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov
U.S. government
Again, your tax dollars paid for these photos, so why not use them? Many of them are famous, and almost all of them are interesting.
- World War II Poster Collection from Northwestern University: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/wwii-posters/
- The National Archives: http://www.archives.gov
- Uncle Sam’s Photos: http://www.unclesamsphotos.com
morgueFile
Interesting name, no? The website explains its name as follows: ”A morgue file is a place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.”
Grab the images at http://www.morguefile.com.
stock.xchng
Almost 400,000 images are available at http://www.sxc.hu.
Calisphere
The University of California oversees this excellent resource: ”More than 150,000 digitized items—including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts—reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history.”
Check the images out at http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu.
Public Domain Pictures
All public domain images donated by photographers, and all available for you to utilize at http://www.publicdomainpictures.net.
iStockphoto
iStockphoto isn’t free, but the quality is excellent. In fact, WebSanity uses it all the time. Start searching—and buying—professionally-shot images at http://www.istockphoto.com.
Fotolia
Over 11 million images (and illustrations and videos) for sale at http://us.fotolia.com.