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Get Free Photos for Web Design

Liven up your Web project with free photos from fellow designers

by Karie Barrett

Today, Web designers can find an abundance of free resources on the web to liven up content. From free textures to objects to people, this article demonstrates that a Web designer can get photos these days at little or no cost.

Sure, Web designers with large budgets can buy whatever resources they need to bring a Web experience from a concept to the page. All they have to do to get the photos they want is hire professional photographers and models to create the images. But not all Web designers are so lucky, no matter how large or small the organization or client they work for is! Frequently, designers are called upon to create Web sites on a small or nearly nonexistent art budget; this doesn't necessarily come with lower expectations for a fabulous Web experience. In cases like these, you need all the help you can get. Design is one area where people are extremely generous and happy to share their knowledge and efforts with others in the field. One result of this is that you can find plenty of photos that are free. If you know where to start looking, you can fill in many of the holes in your budget-challenged projects. I am going to take this opportunity to introduce you to a variety of the free photo resources that I have found valuable for projects both large and small.

The first place I go when I need photography is stock.xchng, even when my budget includes some money for purchasing images. This site has an enormous collection of stock photos, of which a very large portion comes with no use restrictions. By using their advanced search engine, you can find only those images that have no restrictions if providing any type of link or credits with photo is a problem for your project. The images include a wide variety of quality and resolution levels, so your chances of finding something that will work for your project are high. If you find a particular photographer that you like, you can also look through their full portfolio on the site, which may help you find images for future projects. They are constantly adding new images, so I recommend visiting the site and going through their recently added images section at least once a week!

Remember, you can always use a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint to conduct a little magic on these free photos to get what you need. This is especially handy for changing the colors, enhancing or reducing the clarity of the images, removing backgrounds, cropping, and adding in special effects.

If I can't find just what I'm looking for a stock.xchng, I start browsing through my bookmarked list of favorite free photos sites since each one has a little something different to offer. Especially, since these are "free" resources, it's important to read their license agreement and terms to see if anything has changed since your last visit. The rule of thumb is user beware, but don't let that scare you off from these great resources. I personally have used many of these sites for years very successfully without any issues. I've noted with each resource if they required registration to download their photos and provided you with a brief description of what to expect on each site. Happy photo hunting!

stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu)
Photos
Registration required.
A huge gallery containing over 350,000 quality stock photos by more than 30,000 photographers. The images are free as long as you stick to the rules in the Image license Agreement. Also, in some cases you may need to notify the artists about using the images and sometimes you need to give credit to them. The advanced search allows you to search for unrestricted, partly restricted, or restricted images specifically. You can also see these restrictions under the image previews, right next to the Download button. You can use the images for almost anything. Of course, there are some no-no's and restrictions. You cannot sell or distribute the images in any way. You cannot create printed reproductions, put them on Cafepress-like "print on demand items" or do any other similar activity that does not require any effort from your part. In other words, you are not allowed to use the images for projects where the object of sale would be the images themselves.

PD Photo: Free Public Domain Photo Database (http://www.pdphoto.org)
Travel/Photography/Misc Stuff/Events/Personal
No registration required.
Includes thousands of royalty free pictures. While most of them are public domain, a few aren't. Be sure to read the license under each of the enlarged pictures.

FreeMediaGoo.com (http://freemediagoo.com)
Images/Audio/Textures/Flash
No registration required.
FreeMediaGoo.com was created for developers by developers. They provide a way for developers to gather assets that can be used in print, film, TV, Internet or any other type of media both for commercial and personal use. The content they provide is royalty free. No need for annoying links and no limits to the amount of images you can use.

unprofound.com: Our Photos for Your Ideas (http://www.unprofound.com)
Photos
No registration required.
Unprofound has a global collaboration of photographers. You are not required to credit, display copyright or return a link to use the photos here. If you choose to do so, you can credit either the unprofound.com website or the specific photographer(s) responsible for the photo(s) you use. No signup required to download.

Freerange Stock (http://www.freerangestock.com)
Photos/Textures
Registration required.
Freerange Stock was formed with the goal to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. Just sign up for a free membership, log in, and download high-quality, high- resolution free stock photos and free textures. All images are at least 2400 x 1600, and photos can be used for commercial or personal projects.

Photo Rack: Free Stock Photos (http://www.photorack.net)
Photos/Wallpapers/Backgrounds/Textures
No registration required.
They offer a large variety of photos, backgrounds, textures, and wallpapers at varying resolutions.

imagebase: Free Stock Photography (http://davidniblack.com/imagebase/)
Photos
No registration required.
You can use the images for whatever you want, personal, commercial or non-profit use for free. You are free to distribute and modify these files, commercial or otherwise, as long as you attribute its author (David Niblack). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Photo Rogue (http://www.photorogue.com)
Photos
No registration required.
You can request a picture of anything you want, and volunteer photographers will go out and attempt to actually take the picture you want. It's entirely free, although they don't guarantee that your request will ever be filled. Unless otherwise noted, these images are subject to a Creative Commons License.

Image* After (http://www.imageafter.com)
Images/Photos/Textures
No registration required.
Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial, you can modify their images and textures in any way you see fit, and you can redistribute or sell our images and textures altered or unaltered as part of printed work (e.g. posters, cd-covers, postcards etc.) You cannot redistribute their images and textures as part of an online resource site.

BurningWell (http://www.burningwell.org)
Photos/Textures
No registration required.
BurningWell is a repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy, and use the photos you find here for any purpose.

USA.gov: U.S. Government Photos and Graphics (http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml)
Photos
Registration may be required.
This site links to a variety of government web sites that offer photos. Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license. Be sure to read the disclaimers on each site before use.

In closing

In this article you've learned of a variety of the free photo resources that you may find valuable for web projects both large and small. I encourage everyone to share what you can to the design community, perhaps by contributing your own photos to one of the sites I've included. After all, it is only through the generosity and shared talent of individual designers that these resources are available to you!

For more information, please visit QAT's Web Development & Design Solutions

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