Again More Free Photos

“Free” things should be free.  Those that charge for shipping or handling or logging in just are not free.  So I have found a few things that are not mentioned very often that are actually free.  For my third installment on Actually Free downloads, I submit Big Stock Photo, Public Domain Images, Morgue Files and Image After.  These offer royalty-free professional photos and some vector drawings for the taking.  With these sites you get to choose what photos you wish, instead of being held to whatever they offer free.  This is a great deal if you have a blog site, write articles or print brochures for your company where you need professional images to enhance your text.  It is always best to get royalty-free images from a site like this than to risk stealing an image that may be copyrighted and get hit with a lawsuit later.  It is helpful to always include giving credit to the site and the photographer for those photographs you use.

Big Stock Photo

The same as Graphic Stock, Big Stock offers a 7-day free trial with 5 free downloads of professional quality royalty-free stock photos for the cost of giving them your credit card information.  If you cancel on the 6^th day you are fine.

Sometimes it is important to have a photo of a room for drawing purposes.

Public Domain Images

This is a site with thousands of royalty-free public domain photographs free for the downloading.  They are, however, not all professional quality images.  Many need a little color or exposure adjusting in a photo program like Photoshop.  The site offers a list on the left hand side of categories but you then have to plow through one image at a time in search of specific treasures.  It makes it difficult to find exactly the type of image that you are in need of, but then again, free is free.  I have found many great treasures here.  For citation purposes each image has a reference name and photographer credit.  This is helpful if you want to credit the image to a specific photographer, however since these images are public domain it isn’t necessary.  It is however a good practice to get into the habit of doing.

Image After

This site also carries thousands of royalty-free photographs free for the downloading.  Unlike the site above, most of these images are amateurish and with few exceptions, are useful for a professional site.  Almost all need to be fixed with either exposure or color filters.  The only reason to look here would be for specialty photos of things you just don’t see everyday, old walls, doorknobs, sleds, textures, etc.  I have found a few redeeming photos but I spent hours plowing through really bad photos to find them.  Most of the time, I find this site is not worth my precious time to be worth the price of free.  That’s sad.  Also they do not credit the photographers (small wonder) so there is no possibility of giving credit where credit is due if you do find something worthy. 

MorgueFiles

These are limited photos but are all free and professional looking.  They only ask that you give credit if their photos are used for professional or publishing purposes.