Favorite Website for Free Pictures

[Kristie Bradford]

I was working on upcoming posts for my blog tonight and decided that I wanted to add a stock photo or a fun cartoon picture to one of the blogs. It has been a while since I went looking for pictures that are out there to use - free.

I started out at Google Images. After looking at pages of pictures, I noticed that they now have the following stated under the pictures: "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright." Like I said, it has been awhile since I searched for pictures so this may have been on there for awhile but I just saw it. Not wanting to worry about copyright, I kept going thinking that I would find one that did not say this. Of course, I did not.

Deciding on a generic picture I clicked on one and saw that it has istockphoto written across it. I checked out istockphoto.com and noticed that you have to pay for the pictures. While I understand that this is a business for someone, I was looking for a picture that was free.

Continuing on my search for a fun, free picture I then did a Google search for free, royalty-free pictures. Of course it brought up many websites to check out. After looking at many websites and not finding one that I wanted, I decided that this was crazy and why not ask others where they like to go for this type of pictures.

Do you add pictures to your blog posts? If so, where do you go for the pictures you use?

[Kristie Bradford]

Kyle - Thank you! I have not heard of this one before so I will check it out.
Erik - Thanks! I will look at this one as well!
Noah - I did look a little at Photrade.com. I will look more into it!

Thank you everyone for all of your great suggestions!! I really appreciate your help!!

[Noah Coffey]

Photrade.com is a good choice. Also, I second Kyle on http://www.sxc.hu/, I've used them for years (FREE).

[Erik Deckers]

I've never tried them, but what about PhoTrade.com? They were at BlogIndiana 2008 a couple months ago.

[Kyle Lacy]

I'm down with sxc.hu

[Rae Kridel]

You do need to purchase a minimum of 10 credits at a time, which for you, might be worth it. But the quality and originality is far beyond what you can usually find for free.

[Kristie Bradford]

Thank you Rae! I will look more into istockphoto. I did not spend very much time on it during my search but I will go back and and read/search more!

[Rae Kridel]

I'm a big fan of istockphoto and yeah, you have to pay, but they're very inexpensive, as little as 1 credit (about $1.40) depending on the size and resolution. If you want free, you can always search on Microsoft, or try Wikimedia Commons.