If you are a graphic designer there is a good chance you use a lot of images in your projects. You may have a camera and take your own photographs, but this can be very time consuming and costly. Before forking over your money to the pay stock image sites like Istock and Fotolia, consider visiting some of the available “free image” sites first. You may or may not find what you were looking for but you’re bound to collect some good textures or backgrounds in the progress.

Many of the “free image” sites are full of boring pics with bad lighting and poor composition. There are a few exceptions however, and I’ve listed them below. Don’t expect to find flawless, jaw dropping images; but instead some useful textures, backgrounds, and rare finds.

Some things to keep in mind when downloading from free image sites:

• There is a higher risk of downloading stolen images than with pay stock image sites; who require a more thorough registration process from their submitters.
• Not all “free image” sites allow for the images to be used in commercial projects, so make sure you read any available details on an image. I’m pretty sure the sites I’ve listed below all allow for commercial usage, but I’m not 100%.
• Some sites have category search options. Try searching by “top downloads” , “popular images”, etc as a way to filter out the weak images.

bluevertigo.com: This site is more or less an all in one listing of some of the top pay and free stock image sites on the web. Think of it as a directory.

adigitaldreamer.com: This simple site includes a decent amount of images with categorized search options. Some very nice fire and flame images can be found here.

sxc.hu: Weird name for the largest and most popular free image site online. What I like most is the ability to search by very broken down categories. Another great feature is being able to see the pixel dimensions of an image before you download it. The site includes a “Hall of fame”search option which displays the top rated and downloaded images.  The “Recently added” search option is also very convenient because it allows you to revisit the site and see what’s new.

morguefile.com: The great thing about this site is that there are very many images in their collection, and their search narrowing filter is quite handy. This is definitely a go-to site for free images.

imageafter.com: Not at the top of my list, but still worth checking out. You can find some unique imagery as well as a wide selection of textures here. I recommend sorting the images by “hits down”.

freerangestock.com: You are bound to find a couple of keepers when you do a search by “most popular images”.

flickr.com: You can find some very interesting images here that you won’t find on many of the typical stock image sites. Just make sure you narrow your search down to “creative commons” and double check all images for restrictions before downloading.

dreamstime.com: One of the more popular sites for free images. Sure worth checking out.

cgtextures.com: Loads of awesome textures can be found here. This is my favorite place to go for free textures.

textureking.com: Another great resource for textures. They have a huge collection worth checking out.

Don’t forget to check out my free image downloads as well. And check back frequently because I add new images from time to time.