Free Stock Imagery

By Alex Walker | April 13, 2005 | CSS

Robin is Good. Free is good. In fact, it’s all good with Robin Good’s impressive and exhaustive list of free stock photography archives. Not all are available for use in commercial work, but plenty are.

Although I’ve always assumed there would be plenty of free imagery out there if you were prepared to look, I think the most impressive part is the quality. Most of the sites listed are professionally presented and the stock they contain is mostly high quality.

In reality, it won’t replace the large commercial photo stock companies. The availble selection is probably still not wide enough to cover all situations, and the times when you need a very specific photo quickly, the large stock sites like Corbis and Creatas are still going to be your best bet.

Still, when all you’ve got to lose is time, it’s a nice place to start.

Alex Walker

Alex manages design and front end development for SitePoint.com and writes for Design Festival's monthly design newsletter.

More Posts - Twitter - Pinterest - Google Plus

{ 15 comments }

virtuelBlue May 14, 2005 at 5:44 am: Really good info…thanks
magistudios April 28, 2005 at 2:29 am: I have a profile on sxc.hu
http://sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=profile&l=soundgroov
and find that it’s a great resource for stock images. Plus the exposure is good too. I’ve had my images published in a variety of magazines.
As more sites like this emerge, I think it will push out the large stock companies.
Ryan Wray April 18, 2005 at 7:32 pm: Brillant resource, thank you. I have seen of the resources before, but many I had not. There is now more than enough for me to use.
gnawph April 15, 2005 at 9:59 pm: Heh, I do the same thing as CubitGuy.
When sxc.hu loses their #1 ranking I’m going to be in trouble. ;)
Kadence April 15, 2005 at 7:36 pm: Indeed, sxc.hu is a pretty tough to remember domain name.
CubitGuy April 14, 2005 at 7:23 pm: http://www.sxc.hu is my favorite stock image site. Although I can never seem to remember their URL, I always type “Free Stock Images” into FF (which uses google’s “I’m feeling lucky” search) to get to it! Sad, but it works.
At any rate, thanks for the link. Found a few sites there I didn’t know about, that’ll be helpfull I know.
mrsmiley April 14, 2005 at 5:58 pm: I was suprised they didn’t have http://www.sxc.hu I also use it as my first choice and then branch out from there.
Direct from the linked page:
I have never made a secret that what I feel is one of the best resources of grassroots free images online is the Stock Exchange at http://sxc.hu, a truly impressive collection of many high-quality photos taken from non-professional amateur photographers from around the world.
thody April 14, 2005 at 4:13 pm: sxc.hu almost seems too good to be true! Great resource.
Zeldinha April 14, 2005 at 1:16 pm: Really useful, thanks a lot :)
kcomer April 14, 2005 at 10:49 am: I was suprised they didn’t have http://www.sxc.hu I also use it as my first choice and then branch out from there.
MDixon April 14, 2005 at 9:37 am: yes, great ressource. i will bookmaark the site. a good cheap image source is istockphoto.com (i have no connection to the company).
kosta April 14, 2005 at 9:27 am: Thanks :)
I personally find sxc.hu the best resource for free stock photos, although for more professional I use istockphoto.
Dean C April 14, 2005 at 9:05 am: Thanks for the resource :)
nzgfxguru April 14, 2005 at 2:46 am: Wow, thats a great resource. Not only does Robin list the great free stock photo sites, he also reviews them all in detail.
mudkicker April 14, 2005 at 1:51 am: This would help me alot! Cool!