A Free Alternative To iStockphoto
In an old post I made about buying images from iStockphoto I totally forgot to mention the free alternative: stock.xchng.
Over the years, stock.xchng has proven to be an invaluable resource for anyone looking for photos of a wide variety of subjects. It’s especially nice because most of the photos at stock.xchng are royalty free and high resolution.
The only real downside to stock.xchng is that you don’t quite see the quality that you find at iStockphoto. The scene at stock.xchng feels like it’s geared more towards amateur photographers looking to share their work instead of professionals looking to make a dollar. It’s similar to flickr I guess but there’s no question that the photos at stock.xchng aren’t meant to be used elsewhere and not just browsed for your leisure.
Anyway, if you’re a designer or programmer looking for some free photos to use on a project make sure and create an account at stock.xchng and see what they have to offer.
There is a great need for FREE Stock Photos.. I don’t know why there are only a few sites , too bad.
Comment by ChiQ Montes — January 15, 2008 @ 11:45 pm
im definitely gonna check this site out. thanks :)
Comment by ms danielle — January 16, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
I’ve always done an image search on Google to find pictures to use. Is there any way to determine if those images are royalty free?
Comment by Critical Critic — January 17, 2008 @ 6:48 am
I would doubt if ANY of the images you find through Google are royalty free. Google Image Search is just pulling results from individual sites like yours or mine.
Comment by Link — January 17, 2008 @ 8:09 am
Another alternatives:
http://www.morguefile.com/
http://www.openphoto.net/
http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/free_stock_photos/
Hope this helps!
Comment by MGA — March 27, 2008 @ 7:16 am
Wow! Thanks for the tip. This site it is a nice alternative. Especially since I’ve been doing a lot of work for non-profits lately with really tight budgets, this is a great find.
Is anyone else upset with istockphoto’s constant price hikes? I used to buy photos all the time there. I’d see something I likes, I’d buy it without thinking twice. Now that the prices have more than doubled since I started using the site, I rarely buy anymore.
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